Genesis of the crisis in the Central African Republic Babette Zoumara and Abdul-Rauf Ibrahim 2014-01-30, Issue 663 http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/90348 cc VOA Last week’s appointment of Catherine Samba Panza as CAR’s transitional president, the third female head of state in Africa, raises a glimmer of hope that this troubled nation at the heart of the continent could finally end its long history of coups, political violence, ethnic-based exclusion and grinding poverty ABSTRACT The cycle of political-military uprisings since independence has destabilized and further impoverished the Central African Republic (CAR). Currently, the overall situation in the country remains catastrophic, marked by tensions among Christians, Muslims and animists as a result of immediate former president Michel Djotodia’s inability to curb atrocities committed by his Seleka rebels leading to a precarious socio-economic situation because of deterioration of humanitarian conditions as well as insecurity. Meantime, and for the first time, a woman became the leader of the nation. Perhaps, where men have failed a woman may just succeed in bringing real and sustained unity and peace to the country for accelerated development. WHERE AND WHEN DID IT ALL BEGIN? The military has played an important but equally harmful role in the history and development of CAR. The first military coup happened on January 1, 1966 and saw Colonel Jean-Bedel Bokassa (who had a military career in the French army) assume power as president of the first republic (Melly, 2002:2-3; O’ Toole, 1989). During his reign, the 1959 constitution was abolished, the National Assembly was dissolved, and all legislative and executive powers were placed in the hands of the president. In December 1976, the republic became a monarchy (the Central African Empire) and the president became Emperor Bokassa I. The republic was restored by David Dacko in 1979, when he seized power (perhaps, with support of the French). In 1981, Dacko was also overthrown in a coup by General Andre Dieudonne Kolingba (who also had a military career in the French Army from 1954 to 1960). Kolingba then became the fourth president of the CAR from September 1983 to October 1993. Ange-Felix Patasse was the only CAR President who was democratically elected. Unfortunately, labour unrest, salary arrears and unequal treatment of military officers from the different ethnic groups were among the claims that caused mutinies (in 1996 – 1997) against his government. Additionally, economic difficulties caused by the looting and destruction during the mutinies, energy crises and government mismanagement continued to trouble his government through to the year 2000 (Melly, 2002). Eventually, in March, 2003, General François Bozize (a former army chief-of-staff to President Patasse from 1997 – 2001) overthrew Patasse. It was during this time that the bush war of the CAR began; the war began with rebellion by the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR) led by Michel Djotodia (Hancock, 2007) and quickly escalated into major fighting during 2004 (BBC, 2004). The UFDR rebel forces consisted of several allies, the Groupe d'action patriotique pour la liberation de Centrafrique (GAPLC), the Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP), the People's Army for the Restoration of Democracy (APRD), the Movement of Central African Liberators for Justice (MLCJ), and the Front Démocratique du Peuple Centrafricain (FDPC) (Spittaels and Hilgert, 2009:7,10). Although he promised to step down at the end of the transition, Bozize contested the 2005 presidential elections. In fact, all the leading opposition candidates were allowed to participate except overthrown president Patasse. Ultimately, Bozize won on a run-off by defeating Martin Ziguélé, who represented the overthrown ruling party, Movement for the Liberation of the Central African People (MLPC). Later that year (June, 2005), the African Union (AU) lifted sanctions that were imposed on CAR after the 2003 coup. Consequently, and despite the rebel activities in the northern part of CAR, Bozize's government during this time (2005-2006) appeared stable. In April 2007 a peace agreement between the government and the UFDR (led by Djotodia) was signed in Birao, providing amnesty for the UFDR, recognizing it as a political party, and integrating its fighters into the army (USAToday, 2007). This strengthened Bozize’s government resulting to national reconciliation (in 2008), a unity government, local elections in 2009 and presidential elections in 2011 (AFP, 2009a) following the implementation of the recommendations of the Inclusive Political Dialogue (IPD) in 2008. ETHNICITY DESTROYED THE MILITARY OF CAR Indeed during the IPD, the Seleka sought for financial compensation for the rebels, the release of political prisoners, and open investigations into past crimes especially the disappearance of the former CPJP leader (Charles Massi). When General Kolingba became president in 1981, he was accused of implementing ethnocentric recruitment policies. Kolingba was from the Yakoma tribe from the south, which constituted approximately 5 percent of the total population. It is believed that during his rule, members of the Yakoma tribe were granted key positions in the administration and became majority in the military (UNHCR, 2008:19-20). This had fatal consequences later on when Kolingba was replaced by Ange-Felix Patasse, a member of a northern tribe (Melly, 2002:3). In fact, the two prominent northern presidents (Patasse and Bozize) considered the FACA, the CAR army, to be Page 1 of 4 Genesis of the crisis in the Central African Republic 6/15/2014 http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/90348/print