On
CAR, France
Says "Only
Seleka in Bangui,"
UNaware of
Arrest, Rwanda
Echo?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 9 --
Amid reports
from Central
African
Republic of
France making
arrests,
including of
former
interior
minister
Nourdine Adam,
and of the
targeting of
Muslims after
France disarmed
the
predominantly
Muslim Seleka
forces, Inner
City Press put
both questions
to French Ambassador
Gerard Araud
on Monday.
When Inner
City Press
asked about
the
"sequencing"
of
disarmament,
Araud replied
that in Bangui
there are only
the Seleka,
the
(predominantly
Christian)
anti-balaka
pulled ten or
15 kilometers
out of the
city.
Then perhaps
the reprisals
are from mobs
not
technically
part of the
informal anti-balaka.
Because media
ranging from
Associated
Press to UK
Channel 4 are
reporting
these attacks.
On the arrest
of the former
interior
minister,
Araud said he
wasn't aware
of it, and
said that France
does not have
a mandate to
make arrests.
He said that
French troops
make a request
that a person
disarm; if
they do, they
are free to
go. If not,
France turns
them over to
the African
forces, he
said. Is this
what happened
to Nourdine
Adam, referred
to by Al
Jazeera as a
top Seleka commander
as well?
At Monday's UN
noon briefing
Inner City
Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
about France's
authority to
make arrests.
He said, ask
the French
authorities,
and look at
the resolution.
(Even France
says they do
not have a
mandate to make
arrests.)
Again,
when
French troops
are as
reported
disarming the
predominantly
Muslim
Seleka forces
which
overthrew
France's man
Bozize, but
not the
Christian
anti-balaka
militias (who
then target
the disarmed
or
unarmed
Muslims), how
and who is
this helping?
To
some it has
some echo of
Rwanda. There,
it was not
that France
"abandoned"
the country --
rather it was
that the Security
Council
let France run
the response,
and France
took sides (to
put it
mildly).
This
was
foreseeable,
then, in
Central
African
Republic,
given France's
history. But
to even raise
the question
last week gave
rise to
denials.
Groups like
Human Rights
Watch
downplayed
France's
colonial
role, as Inner
City Press pointed
out, and
simply called
for Western
intervention.
And now?
A
separate
question
arises: if
there have
been US forces
/ trainers
inside the
Central
African
Republic for
all this time,
in the
Haut-Mbomou
prefecture,
what have they
been doing?
Why have they
(and
the US at the
UN) not asked
for an
expansion of
their mandate
or
geographic
scope?
France
taking sides,
and the US
inactive or on
the sidelines
-- what really
has been
learned since
1994? Watch
this site.
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