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The
current situation in the Central African Republic (CAR)
continues to be a source of concern, United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a new report, warning that the
presence of an armed rebellion in the northern part of the country,
together with the insecurity and depravations suffered by the local
populations, are all destabilising factors that raise tensions and
hamper efforts to restore peace.
In his latest report to the Security Council on the UN
Peace-building Support Office in the CAR (BONUCA), Annan highlights
a number of threats to the stability of the country and the
subregion, and notes the overall security and military situation in
the north has "deteriorated" along with the country's political
relations with neighbouring Chad.
According to the report, the gradual easing of tensions that had
recently emerged was compromised following an attack on the
capital, Bangui, by members of the Bozize opposition group last
October. The incident prompted subsequent claims by authorities in
the CAR that Chadian nationals who supported that faction were
involved in the uprising.
The Secretary-General also says that the uncertain prospects of an
economic arrangement with the Bretton Woods institutions serve to
undermine the already tenuous social situation - aggravated in
recent weeks by labour stoppages - in the CAR even further. "It is
in fact because the State has received no budgetary assistance for
nearly two years and because it lacks the resources to meet its
payroll that the country's workers had gone on strike after having
courageously and responsibly observing a social truce for 18
months," he observes.
In order to prevent the current social tensions from "spinning out
of control," Annan urgently calls on the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to respond positively to the requests
of the Central African authorities, and encourages the institutions
to reconsider their suspension of activities in Bangui.
At UN Headquarters in New York, the Secretary-General's
Representative for the CAR, Gen. Lamine Ciss
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