CAR: " You pack your world within a suitcase, hot tears melt this icy palace,"

International Organization for Migration reports

IOM begins airlift of stranded migrants from Central African Republic

An IOM medical team provides medical screening and treatment for migrants fleeing the violence in CAR.

Central African Republic - IOM will tomorrow (11/1/2014) start an airlift to evacuate stranded foreign nationals from the Central African Republic (CAR), following appeals from neighbouring African countries.

The first three IOM charter flights this weekend will repatriate some 800 Chadians from the war torn CAR capital of Bangui to the Chadian capital N’Djamena.

This is essential. They will be killed if they are not evacuated. The Muslim rebels of Seleka have by their brutality brought about the collapse of their rebellion, they have murdered robbed and raped thousands of Christians and it would seem left the ground for the the AU / MISCA (Support Mission to the Central African Republic ) and French peacekeepers. The problem is there are no where near enough of them.

The 800 are part of a group of some 2,500 Chadians sheltering in a transit camp adjacent to Bangui airport, living in terrible conditions at the over-crowded and insanitary site.

Revenge is never rational but the 2500 Chadians have now lost everything except at this stage their lives, if they are not repatriated the Christian community will kill them. This situation could still develop into a religious genocide. Whilst the Seleka rebels were in charge the Muslim population enjoyed immunity that has finished. From the BBC: 

" "The Muslims knocked on our door and asked us, 'do you have any guns?," she told me. "We said no, but they took my son out and they shot him. They shot all of our sons, one by one."

The conflict in the country has displaced some 935,000 people, including some 513,000 – about half of the population – in Bangui alone. Thousands of homes have been damaged or looted. Many displaced families are thought to be seeking shelter in churches and schools, as well as in the airport camp.

IOM has received requests for assistance from Chad, Niger, Mali, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to evacuate thousands of their most vulnerable, stranded nationals. The organization is also working with Senegal, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Cameroon to provide post arrival re-integration assistance to migrants evacuated by their governments.

It makes a lot of sense to get the all foreign nationals out many of them will be Christians but the CAR is facing a food crisis. The UN reports: 

" 31 December 2013 – United Nations agencies today warned of possible famine and severe malnutrition in the Central African Republic (CAR), calling on donors to provide urgent funding to mitigate the crisis in the impoverished country where a year of conflict has already killed thousands of people and driven 750,000 others from their homes."

“Several concerned governments including Mali, Senegal, Niger and Chad have already organized evacuation flights, but need additional resources to cope with all the migrants wanting to leave the CAR and those arriving home, who are often destitute. IOM is helping in a variety of ways, including providing onward transport for returnees,” says IOM West Africa Director Carmela Godeau.

A total of over 60,000 migrants from neighbouring countries have already asked for assistance from their embassies in the CAR. Nearly 27,000 have already been evacuated by their governments, leaving at least 33,000 in urgent need of help.

Again the problem is personnel there aren't enough troops to protect them or people to organise evacuation. 

“The evacuation of these migrants must be done quickly and in an orderly manner to avoid people trying to leave on their own overland and taking terrible risks, in desperation,” says Godeau.

The country will be infested with armed groups including retreating Seleka I have yet to see any reports from outside the capital but I am expecting some very unpleasant reading.

Many Chadian migrants trying to return home on their own are increasingly finding themselves stranded in dangerous border areas. As of Tuesday, 7,600 Chadians, most of them women and children, had arrived destitute in the border areas of Gore and Sido in southern Chad. Many others may attempt the same route, unless they can be evacuated in an orderly operation with international assistance.

IOM has deployed 15 operations and medical staff in Bangui to organize airlifts of the kind used to repatriate tens of thousands of migrants following the 2011 Libyan crisis.

It doesn't sound like anywhere near enough.

The first three evacuation flights between Bangui and N’Djamena will be funded by IOM’s revolving Migration Emergency Funding Mechanism (MEFM).

But IOM today launched an appeal of USD 17.5 million to evacuate up to 10,000 African migrants from the CAR and to help 50,000 to resettle after they return home. IOM will receive returnees at return ports of entry, assist with onward transportation to final destinations, provide support packages on arrival and help people to cope with reintegration challenges.

The legacy of Seleka, CAR President Djotodia and PM Tiangaye. Djotodia I think should for the sake all concerned now go into exile. 

“Most of these migrants are going back to poor countries where it will be difficult for them to start a new life and earn a living. They will need help once they arrive home. Reintegration assistance is a key part of every evacuation operation,” says Godeau.

The Seleka criminals should be hunted down and brought in front of the ICC if that isn't possible just hunted down will do.

CAR: " To write the rites to right my wrongs "

Radio France International reports

CAR president Djotodia and PM Tiangaye resign

The Central African Republic's interim president, Michel Djotodia, has resigned along with prime minister Nicolas Tiangaye. The announcement came at the end of a summit of regional leaders in neighbouring Chad.

                            President Djotodia and PM Tiangaye

After a meeting with the CAR's entire provisional parliament until 4.00am, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) announced the resignations at the end of its meeting on Friday.

The summit on Thursday suspended its debate on the crisis-hit country in order to fly all 135 members of the National Transitional Council from Bangui to N'Djamena.

With Chadian President Idriss Déby, the current ECCAS head, leading the charge, they told them that the two, whose mutual relationship is notoriously bad, had to go.

There is no doubt they had to go but the problem is who will replace them ? 

The CAR's "own sons" had plunged the pay into a "war that dangerously compromises its future", Déby told the summit, putting the blame on "the political class in its entirety".

That ignores of course that many of the Seleka combatants are his countrymen, Human Rights Watch reports.  

" Djotodia on September 13 officially disbanded the Seleka, some of whose members are believed to be Chadian and Sudanese. Former Seleka rebels have nominally integrated into a new “national army,” but command and control remain questionable. The group, now referred to as ex-Seleka, continues to commit abuses in the Central African Republic."

In Bangui thousands of people demonstrated near the airport on Friday to oppose Djotodia's return.

The reaction in Bangui is incredible with singing and dancing in the airport refugee camp and on the streets, watching it on Al Jazeera who have a report here. 

" As news from the summit reached Bangui, thousands of residents took to the streets, dancing, singing and honking horns in celebration.

Cheers erupted at a camp for 100,000 displaced Christian civilians at the city's French-controlled airport.

There were no signs of the pro-Djotodia fighters who once dominated Bangui, Reuters news agency reported."

After weeks of sectarian violence, Bangui has been relatively calm this week, however.

Again from Al Jazeera.

" Al Jazeera's Barnaby Phillips, reporting from Bangui on Friday, said the gunfire broke out shortly after the resignation announcement.

"It is not possible to work out who is firing at who at this stage," he said.

"The international community is going to have to react very quickly as there is no one regionally who can unite CAR."

It isn't being reported as yet by all media but the Al Jazeera  TV coverage showed Muslim civilians being evacuated on trucks to the applause of watching Christians. It would have been nice to know who was driving the trucks.

"The situation is improving - slowly, but it is improving," the commander of the French troops in the CAR, General Francisco Soriano, said on Thursday.

It is improving insomuch as we have taken a step forward, the two steps backwards have yet to come. Unless the international community can get its shit together very fast then those backwards steps are days if not hours away.

CAR: " Who orders desecration, mutilation, verbal masturbation in the guarded bureaucratic wombs "

Al Jazeera reports

CAR parliament summoned for talks in Chad

All members of CAR legislature travel to Chad to discuss fate of President Michel Djotodia and future of peace talks.                             Djotodia became CAR's first Muslim president after Seleka rebels staged a coup last March Central African Republic's entire parliament has flown to Chad after being summoned by African leaders holding a special summit aimed at restoring peace in the restive country. All 135 members gathered on Thursday in the Chadian capital N'Djamena, where they are expected to discuss the fate of rebel-turned-president Michel Djotodia, who is under fire for failing to prevent sectarian violence in the CAR. The composure of the council / parliament was mandated by the Economic Community of Central African States ( ECCAS ) and it was designed to avoid the situation that unfortunately that the CAR has descended into. ECCAS leaders have recognized the inherent weakness of and potential longer-term problems linked with a contested National Transitional Council. They requested from the Central African Republic a revised composition for the National Transitional Council, with its membership increased to 135 members in order to better reflect the variety of national stakeholders, including the underrepresented segments of the population. African leaders meeting on the crisis suspended the talks earlier on Thursday as they awaited the arrival of the politicians, whose vote is crucial for any change in the institutions of CAR's transitional government. As discussions resumed, regional leaders met the politicians while Djotodia left the room to hold talks with allies from his former Seleka rebel alliance, which seized power in March last year, plunging his country into crisis. As I have already said there is no way that I can see Djotodia surviving this it is interesting to note that although he is the transitional president he was never intended to be the preeminent political leader in the country. Again from the August report to the UN Security Council. " In the mean time, the Prime Minister is recognized by the international community as the legitimate political figure in the Central African Republic. He was appointed as part of the Government of National Unity, established under the Libreville Agreements, as a representative of civil society and opposition parties. However, as the security situation continues to deteriorate and he seems powerless to stop it from spiraling out of control, Prime Minister Tiangaye is increasingly being criticized by the constituents that he was meant to represent." Prime Minister Tiangaye is tipped as the most likely person to take over from President Djotodia. It is hard to see much in the way of a justification for the ECCAS leadership in his ability to turn things around. Interestingly this appeared on Radio France International earlier today.   " The military chief of Bozizé's MRPRC, Joachim Kokaté, was also invited to N'Djamena and told RFI he intended to call for Bozizé to go. Sources have told RFI that Bozizé met European, African and American diplomats on Sunday and told them he wanted to resign but CAR officials denied that either he or Tiangaye intended to go." Former CAR President Francois Bozize is not in attendance and I would have thought he would be the last person that anyone would want there. Clearly there has been some sort of translation problem in the the Radio France International report. Allami Ahmat, the secretary-general of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) earlier said talks had been dominated by discussions over the fate of CAR's interim authorities. The African leaders' principal concern is the Bangui government's failure to stem the widespread bloodshed that has broken out between mainly Muslim former rebels and self-defence militias formed by the Christian majority. It is hard to be critical of the Christian community given the  abuse that has been inflicted on them again from the August Security Council report. " Since the launch of the Séléka attacks in December 2012, the country has been facing a serious security crisis, with widespread and grave violations of human rights, including arbitrary arrests and detention, sexual violence against women and children, torture, rape, targeted killings, recruitment of child soldiers and other abuses, reportedly committed by uncontrolled Séléka elements and unidentified armed groups across the country (see section D below). Some United Nations offices and residences of national and international staff members have been looted. The country is plunging into a state of general anarchy marked by a complete breakdown of law and order." "The solution must come from the Central Africans themselves," Ahmat said. "Neither ECCAS nor the international community have come to change the regime. "It is up to those responsible [in CAR] to decide the fate of their country." The problem is that the consultations seem to be happening with regard to the fate of the CAR with the clowns who managed to bring about this situation. Power broker Chad's President Idriss Deby, a powerful influence over events in the CAR, opened the meeting with a call for "concrete and decisive action" to halt the sectarian violence that has killed more than 1,000 people in the past month. Deby, who chairs the 10-nation ECCAS, said the regional grouping had a duty "to show solidarity and determination to pull Central Africa back from the abyss". I am not at all sure that this situation is something Chad are unhappy about, shades of Rwanda and the DR Congo. France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said African leaders would be taking "decisions" on the future of Djotodia, a foe of toppled president Francois Bozize, whose overthrow in a coup last March sparked the current unrest. "There are certainly decisions to be made, with regard to the political transition and the fact the state is paralysed," Fabius said. "We shall see what our African friends decide." Again in line with the new French policy for the region. " Paris will no longer prop up dictators or back rebellions and will seek U.N. mandates and consult African leaders before intervening." He said it is not France's place to dictate decisions about the future of CAR. Last month, France had deployed 1,600 troops alongside an African force in its former colony. The European Union is also reportedly considering sending more troops   to reinforce the French deployment. They are desperately needed until the UN can get on top of things.

CAR: " I've seen a different doorway shut a million times before "

Al Jazeera reports

CAR leader preparing to step down: reports

President Michel Djotodia due to meet regional leaders in Chad against backdrop of religious unrest sweeping the nation. A man is ejected from an aid distribution point after he entered without the ticket that gives access to food and supplies at Mpoko Airport in Bangui, Jan. 7, 2014. Picture VOA  The president of the Central African Republic, where more than a thousand people have died in recent violence, is preparing to step down. According to a Voice of America report he isn't.  The Economic Community of Central African States is convening the meeting in neighboring Chad. CAR information minister Adrien Poussou says President Michel Djotodia requested the meeting to discuss transforming the African intervention force in CAR into a United Nations peacekeeping mission. He says the interim leader will also update the regional bloc on security in the capital, Bangui, and that reports by the French foreign ministry that indicate participants will discuss whether Djotodia should remain in power are false. My feeling is that Djotodia is toast. I blogged in late December: Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, Burundi, Cameroon and the DR Congo are largely Christian nations and they appear acceptable to the Christian majority but they spell the end of the interim regime of President Djotodia.  He has lost the little support he had, the Seleka rebels have alienated murdered, robbed and raped the Christian community and they make up 85% of the population. The Muslim African Union peace keepers from Chad have been redeployed to the mainly Muslim north of the country and the Christian anti-Balaka militias that have sprung up to resist the Seleka rebels are made up of soldiers of the previous regime. The balance of power has shifted with the departure to the north of the Chadian peacekeepers and that adds up to Djotodia's departure. Michel Djotodia, who deposed Francois Bozize in a coup last March, is due to meet regional leaders in Chad on Thursday to resolve the turmoil sweeping the country. It wasn't a coup. It was a rebel takeover.  " Paris first refused to agree to appeals by former President Francois Bozize for his "cousins" to help him fight Seleka rebels ousting him earlier this year. And then, as soon as Bozize was ousted in March, Paris declined an African request to send more troops and drew down its troop numbers, saying it was up to Africans to do the job." Reporting from Bangui, CAR's capital, on Wedneday, Al Jazeera's Barnaby Phillips said: "We know the president has left the country and is on his way to the summit. There is a consensus that President Djotodia is not part of the solution to the country's terrible problems. "His short spell in power has been nothing short of disastrous. The French want him out; they are very important players and always have been. The French have made their stance fairly clear, again from Reuters:   " The message was clear. The old ways of doing business - a mix of post-colonial graft and patronage called "Francafrique" and which suited dictators and France alike - were over. Paris will no longer prop up dictators or back rebellions and will seek U.N. mandates and consult African leaders before intervening." That leaves Djotodia very little wriggle room at all. In April regional leaders made their feelings fairly clear. " N'DJAMENA - African heads of state on Wednesday refused to recognise rebel leader Michel Djotodia's self-appointment as president of Central African Republic, calling instead for the creation of a new transitional body to guide the country to elections." Djotodia eventually received recognition as transitional President in April there was little the regional leaders could do at the time I blogged.  " Isolates him from who ? He owns the capital and unless someone wants to dispute that is the the Status Quo. He has guns soldiers and the loyalty of the armed forces and police. I blogged a week ago. " Given that former president Bozize has fled and that the security apparatus including the army and police have pledged loyalty to the rebel regime. there is no substantive response available." That has changed, for that Djotodia can thank his Seleka rebels who atrocious behaviour has lost him any support, the soldiers and police that had declared loyalty to him have deserted in such huge numbers they are now an armed opposition but with the support of about 85% of the population. "There is a lot of disillusionment across the region and not much patience out there." In an interview with Al Jazeera, J. Peter Pham, Africa Center director of the Atlantic Council, said Djotodia had lost "whatever minimal base" he had in the country. The problem is that he was never able to divest himself of the Seleka rebels and broaden his constituency. The rebels are seen as Somali and Chadian invaders and that is exactly how they behaved. "Now, he has no constituency," Pham said. "He is actually an obstacle to any progress toward a new transition to a possibility of reconciliation in the country." Despite the denials of his Information Minister Adrien Poussou in the VOA report above it is inevitable that the meeting of regional leaders will consider his position and this time, unlike in April last year they are in a position to do something about it. I doubt he can last much more than another week so a deal will be done in Chad. CAR has been plunged into chaos as the country's Christian majority seeks revenge against Muslim rebels, with the fighting between religious groups intensifying in December. The peacekeepers will soon have the job of protecting the Muslim population from annihilation, the Seleka rebels will decamp to the north with the inevitable collapse of the Djotodia regime. This from the BBC:  "The Muslims knocked on our door and asked us, 'do you have any guns?," she told me. "We said no, but they took my son out and they shot him. They shot all of our sons, one by one." " However, aid workers with long experience here believe that power is seeping away from the Seleka, partly because some are from neighbouring Chad and are returning home. One aid worker spoke of a growing Christian backlash against the Muslim population (a minority here) threatening truly awful bloodshed on a scale not yet seen." UN officials have told the Security Council that the country is on the brink of a catastrophe, with half the population made homeless since ethnic warfare broke out. Jeffrey Feltman, UN political affairs chief, told the world body on Monday that about 2.2 million people - about half the total population - throughout the country need assistance. Interestingly we have this from Reuters on the distribution of food by aid workers at Bangui Airport:                                  Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bangui Monsignor Dieudonne Nzapalainga photo BBC "The airport site is very complex. It isn't easy to manage more than 100,000 people. We tried it twice before and each time it was a failure," Catholic Archbishop Dieudonné Nzapalainga told Reuters. This time "we dared to say to people to organize themselves to respond to the appeal of aid workers and help them to do their work," said Nzapalainga, who attended the distribution." About half the people in Bangui -  a total of about 513,000 - have been driven from their homes, he said. An estimated 100,000 people have sought shelter at a makeshift camp at the airport near the city. The airport has 100,000 Christian refugees. They are at the airport because it is protected by peacekeepers but there isn't enough food. There will be no harvest in the CAR this year. A report in late December by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, reported 600 deaths in Bangui in those attacks, and Feltman put the current total at "750 casualties". "The death toll outside Bangui is likely to be substantial," he said. "Killings in Bangui and the rest of the country continue every day, and the population remains divided along religious affiliation." It is fairly clear where this is heading. Djotodia might well decide to remain in Chad after the meeting in Chad. Religious genocide might well be on the agenda in Bangui.

CAR: " We sit and chew on daffodils and struggle to answer "Why? "

The UN reports

Famine and malnutrition stalk strife-torn Central African Republic, UN agencies warn

WFP has provided food assistance to more than 500,000 displaced people across the Central African Republic (CAR). Photo: WFP/Djaounsede Pardon Madjiangar

31 December 2013 – United Nations agencies today warned of possible famine and severe malnutrition in the Central African Republic (CAR), calling on donors to provide urgent funding to mitigate the crisis in the impoverished country where a year of conflict has already killed thousands of people and driven 750,000 others from their homes.

The regime of Michel Djotodia is responsible for this situation and must now acknowledge its failure and leave office. When Djotodia seized office in March this year he had one overriding responsibility, to bring about stability. His attempts to blame the previous regime for the current situation do not stack up in anyway. His Seleka coalition government capabilities are limited to robbery rape and murder.

“We urgently need support from donors so we won’t start running out of food in January,” the UN World Food Programme (WFP) Regional Director for West Africa, Denise Brown, said in Bangui, the capital of CAR. “We are providing food for hungry people wherever we can in CAR. But insecurity is the biggest challenge.”

The donors needed are us. The world and particularly our governments, the West watched on as the government of François Bozizé collapsed, we have continued watch the situation deteriorate and done nothing. Lesley Anne Warner at Lesley on Africa posits some reasons as to why that might have happened, but the real reason as we all know, is that it is Africa and African lives count for little. It would seem that the people of central Africa's lives count for even less.

With the coming harvest threatened since farmers have fled their lands or lack seeds due to looting and because people have had to eat them instead of saving them for planting, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and WFP have launched a 100-day response plan to boost nutrition and restore agricultural production through seed distribution and storage facilities.

But so far FAO has only been able to raise $4.3 million of the $61 million needed to help 1.8 million people, out of a total population of 4.6 million.

Unfortunately we don't have a hundred days. Al Jazeera reports:

                                                        Makeshift camp at Bangui airport

" More than 100,000 people displaced by inter-religious violence in Central African Republic are sheltering at a makeshift camp at Bangui airport, a medical charity has said, calling for urgent aid.
....MSF said the airport camp, which stretches for kilometres beside the runway, lacked proper sanitation as well as supplies of food and water as UN agencies have failed to keep pace with the scale of the problem.
"If nothing is done in the next two weeks there is a risk of an epidemic breaking out," said Lindis Hurum, MSF coordinator at the airport camp."

It would be nice to think that we could recover this situation, distribute seed get the planting done and harvest in time to prevent famine. We can't the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has no role to play in the CAR at the moment its objectives are: 

" Achieving food security for all is at the heart of FAO's efforts – to make sure people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. Our mandate is to improve nutrition, increase agricultural productivity, raise the standard of living in rural populations and contribute to global economic growth."

“The success of the next planting season crucially hinges on the return of farming families to the fields,” FAO said in a news release. “Families who are unable to plant in March will have to wait one whole year before they can hope to harvest again. Failure to help these families will have dramatic consequences on the food security for a quarter of the Central African population.

The FAO can't achieve anything this season, the UN will struggle to put together a peacekeeping mission by March and until it does the security of the population is in the hands of MISCA (Support Mission to the Central African Republic ) and the 1600 troops the French have on the ground. It isn't anywhere near enough to provide much more than some safe zones.

“The low production perceived from the last harvest coupled with a prevailing situation of chronic country-wide malnutrition is setting the stage for a full-scale food and nutrition security crisis should the next planting season fail.”

It has failed. That is now a given and it is time to stop wringing our hands and do something concrete. It is called food aid and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has the responsibility to get this situation under control.

CAR has been thrown into turmoil since mainly Muslim Séléka rebels launched attacks a year ago and forced President François Bozizé to flee in March. A transitional government has since been entrusted with restoring peace and paving the way for democratic elections, but armed clashes have erupted again and the mainly Christian anti-Balaka movement has taken up arms.

The Transitional Government has failed, given its constituent parts it was always going to. It is now an impediment and should be dismissed as irrelevant. This administration came to power at the barrel of a gun and it should be dismissed, if necessary by the barrels of MISCA  AU troops and the French troops.

Earlier this month Christians and Muslims launched reprisal attacks against each other in and around Bangui, where some 210,000 people were driven from their homes.

"The combination of food shortages and poor sanitary conditions in the camps and deep in the bush, as well as extreme poverty, risk triggering serious malnutrition,” FAO Country Representative Alexis Bontesaid following a visit to Bossangoa, 160 miles north of Bangui, on Sunday.

The combination of western indifference and a willingness to allow a group of criminals to assume power of course was the actual trigger. The Seleka thugs pulled that trigger and the results are plain for all to see. It would in retrospect have been far preferable to tolerate for now the corruption of the Bozize regime and kept him in power.

WFP, which has appealed for $107 million through August 2014 to assist 1.25 million people, has called on all parties to ensure the safe and unhindered access of humanitarian personnel and the timely delivery of aid to people in need wherever they are. “WFP is neutral and delivers assistance solely on the basis of need,” Ms. Brown said.

$107 million is a trivial amount. This is the price of the US Government shutdown.  
" .....the price tag for the first government shutdown in 17 years: about $1.6 billion a week, $300 million a day, or $12.5 million an hour."

I doubt that the WFP will be able to raise that amount via donor nations. As I said above there is only one conclusion possible African lives count for little.   

Despite the volatile security situation, WFP and its partners have assisted more than 237,000 people since 5 December, and from January to April will increase food distributions, provide supplementary feeding to combat malnutrition among children under five, and aid vulnerable groups. From May to August, it will also reach more people in need during the lean season when the last harvest runs out.

The new emergency operation specifies that because of security risks, food distributions will be undertaken by teams moving swiftly from site to site and able to adjust plans. To avoid putting people in need of assistance at risk, a protection analysis will be conducted in each place. In some locations, cooked meals may be provided to help protect women and children.

Earlier this month WFP launched a special operation to deploy more staff, set up local offices, obtain vital security and telecommunications equipment and support establishing cross-border humanitarian flights into CAR at a cost of $5.3 million through June.

It won't be enough but it is a good start.

Uganda: "The problem always seems to be, we're picking up the pieces on the ricochet."

New Vision ( Uganda ) reports

                                                         Thomas Kwoyelo when he was still with the LRA (Monitor)
Kwoyelo pleads for clemency
FORMER Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel commander, Thomas Kwoyelo, has appealed to President Yoweri Museveni for pardon over atrocities he committed against the people of northern Uganda.

My gut feeling is no way, this guy needs to pay and pay big time. Human Rights Watch reported at his capture and arrest.

" In August 2010, Kwoyelo was charged with violations of Uganda's 1964 Geneva Conventions Act, including the grave breaches of willful killing, taking hostages, and extensive destruction of property in the Amuru and Gulu districts of northern Uganda."

Lets remember that these are only crimes committed in Uganda.  Kwoyelo was apprehended in the DR Congo and has committed crimes there as well. But then we have this from of all places The New Yorker. 

".... Thomas Kwoyelo is intimately acquainted with him. Kony once tied Kwoyelo to a tree, and, in a near-incoherent rant, accused him of betrayal and threatened to kill him. That was in 2007. The L.R.A. had murdered Kwoyelo’s father, kidnapped him as a young boy, and then indoctrinated him into the ranks of the rebel group by forcing him to kill friends and relatives." 

That is about as good as it gets with regard to mitigation.

Kwoyelo, currently remanded at Luzira Maximum Security Prison, was charged with 53 counts of crimes against humanity in connection with the over two-decade bloody war that claimed thousands of lives as well as loss of property in the region.

I don't think Kwoyelo is eligible to be considered for amnesty, again from Human Rights Watch. 

" Amnesties for crimes such as war crimes and crimes against humanity run counter to international law and practice, which rejects impunity for the gravest crimes. International and hybrid international-national war crimes courts outside Uganda have rejected amnesties for serious crimes."

But and it is a big " but ".

" Some critics of the International Crimes Division have claimed that the fact that Kwoyelo has not been granted amnesty and is to be prosecuted is politically motivated, given that so many other LRA commanders have benefited from the domestic amnesty. For example, the former LRA high-ranking commanders Brigadier Kenneth Banya and Brigadier Sam Kolo Otto, as well as Lt Col. Opio Makasi, who served as the LRA director of operations, have all received amnesty under the act over the last several years. Several other LRA members who applied for amnesty were not prosecuted and instead joined the Ugandan army to fight the LRA."

There is also another big " but " hanging over Kwoyelo. Again from The New Yorker.

" As they had with thousands of other seized L.R.A. fighters and defectors, the Ugandan army offered Kwoyelo a seemingly fair bargain: give them information on the L.R.A.’s whereabouts and strategy, and receive amnesty in return. But Kwoyelo, who was in a shell-shocked stupor, refused to coöperate, and only applied for amnesty six months later, after being persuaded by his family. By then it was too late."

It is an exercise in swings and roundabouts, but at some point I think the concept Natural Justice must become a factor. The celebrated English jurist Lord Denning put it thus; 

"Justice must be rooted in confidence and confidence is destroyed when right-minded people go away thinking: 'The judge was biased'." 

I admit I may be extending the Natural Justice concept to breaking point but expecting people to make rational decisions when they are in Kwoyelo's situation is unrealistic. Shell shock is a condition that was recognised first in WWI.

" Shell shock is the reaction of some soldiers in World War I to the trauma of battle. It is a reaction to the intensity of the bombardment and fighting that produced a helplessness appearing variously as panic and being scared, or flight, an inability to reason, sleep, walk or talk. "Simply put, after even the most obedient soldier had enough shells rain down on him, without any means of fighting back, he often lost all self control."

Right-minded people might well reasonably conclude there is not a lot of fairness happening in this case.

In a recent interview with New Vision, Kwoyelo said: “Having undergone various rehabilitation programmes, I have realised my past mistakes like any other Ugandan who erred. I pray that the President gives me a second chance in life.”

Sometimes, not very often, I really feel for Museveni and this is one of those times. That Kwoyelo is not facing a hangman's noose might well be considered as getting a second chance. According to Human Rights Watch the penalties he faces are:

" The maximum penalty under Uganda's Geneva Conventions Act for the grave breaches of willful killing is life imprisonment. The maximum penalty for the other crimes is 14 years in prison. The trial will be the first for war crimes under the Geneva Conventions Act since it was passed in 1964." 

Kwoyelo, who is currently on a peace making and reconciliation programme, said he has benefited from the course and pledged to practice what he has learnt because it calls for reconciliation with God and the society he wronged.

“I am willing to work with the Government at all cost. Once considered for clemency, I swear never to go back to rebel activities,” he said.

Kwoyelo has been to hell and back and this report indicates he has acknowledged the wrong he has done, that must be a factor in his favour. Then we have the bigger picture. What is Uganda trying as a nation to achieve with its amnesty laws. Matthew Kane in The Jurist argues:

" Kwoyelo has been accused of horrific crimes, yet many similarly situated were granted amnesty based on a policy that is favorably viewed by a majority of Ugandan citizens and which has helped bring the conflict in northern Uganda to an end. While Coomaraswamy argues that prosecution would "send a strong message to the LRA leadership that they will be held accountable for their actions," such a message could clearly lead to the continuation and extension of hostilities. Similar concerns arise regarding the ICC's potential intervention, with some Ugandans suggesting that the ICC is the reason that a complete resolution has not come to fruition. Indeed, Kwoyelo's year-long incommunicado detention and continued indefinite confinement, now approaching the four-year mark, would seemingly discourage rebels from surrendering to authorities. "

Kwoyelo is not Kony. He is a victim of Kony. Given that Uganda has fools such as  Lango Paramount Chief, Yosam Odur who seems to think Kony is worthy of rehabilitation not to mention neighbours such as Central African Republic president Michel Djotodia who seem to be prepared to feed him Kwoyelo would seem to be fairly hard done by.

On January 25, 2011, Kwoyelo appeared before the High Court in Kampala, which ordered the Amnesty Commission and the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) to grant him a certificate of amnesty and release him.

The state, however, argued that the DPP could not recommend the issuance of a certificate of amnesty because Kwoyelo had other grave crimes such as rape and murder.

The court said the alleged crimes forwarded by the DPP could have been committed when Kwoyelo was a rebel and, therefore, he could not be denied amnesty basing on such crimes.

It is a mess. I would grant him amnesty. 

Helen Mayelle who works with many L.R.A. returnees stated The New Yorker “The real war will be recovering from this whole war,” . Kwoyelo has suffered enough it is time to focus on the real bastard behind all this Joseph Kony and for him there can be no forgiveness.  In September I blogged

" I am sure that the Ugandan army will stop looking for Kony on the day they kill him and that day can't come soon enough."

CAR: " A blind man looks for a four leaf clover "

Radio France International reports

Chadian troops to be pulled out of Bangui

                                                                     A Chadian soldier in Bangui earlier this month

Chadian troops are to be pulled out of the Central African Republic's capital, Bangui, after clashes with demonstrators and Burundian soldiers. The Chadians, who are the largest contingent of the African peacekeeping force, Misca, will be redeployed to the north.

Chad is widely believed to be have been behind the Seleka rebellion and having troops from there is not all that smart. The feeling in the Christian community is that the peace keepers from Chad are actually protecting Muslim and particularly Seleka interests.

"The whole Chadian contingent will be sent to secure the north in the next few days," Misca spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Ndong Toutoune told the AFP news agency.

I am not at all sure that is a good idea. I blogged a few days ago about an ABC report that contained this account from the streets of Bangui.

" Other signs had a hand drawn map of this nation located at the heart of Africa, but showed it split into two, with a Muslim homeland penciled in in the country's north."

It doesn't take a geopolitical genius to draw a line on map and I suspect that that is something that isn't too far from the front of President  Idriss Déby Itno's mind. Now the Chadian African Union peacekeeping troops are going to be stationed in the north. The plan being to secure the north which is a largely muslim part of the CAR. The UN in January 2012 reported

" BANGUI, 11 January 2012 (IRIN) - Among the most pressing security threats in the Central African Republic (CAR) is a Chadian armed group active in the north of the country, which allegedly continues to recruit and acquire weapons, despite having undertaken to return to Chad."

It would seem that they had a change of mind about returning Chad and instead came south with the Seleka rebels robbing, raping, killing and terrorising the largely christian population of the southern CAR.

The announcement came after exchanges of gunfire were reported in Bangui, which remains tense despite the presence of Misca and French troops.

Sustained gunfire erupted near the airport, where hundreds of people have taken refuge, and on Wednesday morning Burundian troops were patrolling the PK12 neighbourhood after overnight shooting and explosions.

Misca has launched an inquiry into incidents involving Chadian troops this week.

Misca (Support Mission to the Central African Republic ) at this point includes soldiers from Gabon, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Burundi and Cameroon with DR Congo sending a further battalion of 850 troops, which seems almost too much of a coincidence not to be commented on.

Chadian soldiers opened fire on stone-throwing Christian demonstrators on Monday, killing one and wounding 40.

And the head of the Burundian contingent said that on the same day Chadian soldiers threw a grenade and opened fire on some of his men.

Some Burundians returned fire, wounding three Chadians, he said.

It is interesting that just about everyone seems to be avoiding the obvious, this is now a full on sectarian conflict and the battle lines have been fairly much drawn up by Seleka " foreign mercenaries " read Chadian and Somali criminals. Sending the Chad soldiers to the north is an acknowledgement of that but for the territorial integrity of the CAR it would have been better to have sent them home. 

Chad has contributed 850 troops to the 3,700 Misca force but many Central Africans accuse it of meddling in their country's affairs with Christians accusing the Chadians of favouring the Muslim Séléka militias.

Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, Burundi,   Cameroon and the DR Congo are largely Christian nations and they appear acceptable to the Christian majority but they spell the end of the interim regime of President Djotodia. 

Muslims demonstrated against the French on Tuesday, accusing them of failing to disarm Christian anti-balaka armed groups.

I suspect that the French might be the only foreign military power that will show any interest in defending the rights of the Muslim community in the not too distant future. Pissing them off is not a smart move.

At a Christmas Eve press conference interim President Michel Djotodia appealed for peace.

"Love each other," he begged his compatriots. "You can find that in the Bible and the Koran."

With the departure of the the Chadian troops "begging " is about all he can do. The anti-balaka groups are made up of former soldiers of the previous regime I blogged a few days ago .

" The anti-balaka are reputed to be former member of the CAR military that were displaced when Michel Djotodia the new interim President and his Seleka coalition forces displaced the previous regime in March."

Djotodia announced a ban on "all illegal marches" and accused deposed president François Bozizé of stirring up sectarian violence.

Rather than the Seleka rebels he no longer commands.