C. Africa MPs Flown to Chad Capital amid Regional Crisis Summit
All deputies in the Central African Republic's transitional parliament are to be flown to Chad, where African leaders are holding a special regional summit aiming to restore peace to the restive country, an official said Thursday.
A Chadian plane taking all 135 lawmakers from the Central African capital of Bangui was expected to arrive in the Chadian capital N'Djamena late Thursday, the official said.
African leaders in the region have gathered in Chad in a bid to stop the sectarian violence raging in the CAR and pile pressure on its embattled president.
But the talks have been suspended until the members of the CAR's National Transition Council arrive in Chad.
"The solution must come from the Central Africans themselves," Allami Ahmat, the secretary-general of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) told journalists.
"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 meeting with all the CAR lawmakers is needed before there can be any change in the transitional government's institutions.
Rebel-turned-president Michel Djotodia was summoned to N'Djamena for the special summit to confront his failure to stem unprecedented sectarian attacks that are tearing apart his resource-rich, poverty-stricken nation.
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 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."
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-defense militias formed by the Christian majority.
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 ouster 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 paralyzed. We shall see what our African friends decide," Fabius told France 2 television on Thursday.
"It is not France's place to dictate decisions. We are here to offer support," added Fabius, whose country last month deployed 1,600 troops alongside an African peacekeeping force in its former colony.
In Bangui, the Central African communications minister slapped down any talk of Djotodia's departure, saying it would only worsen the crisis. But the former rebel has himself said he does "not want to stay in power".
The talks, which also include the CAR Prime Minister Nicolas Tiengaye are expected to take place through the night to Friday, Chadian sources said.
The CAR sank into chaos after rebels of the Seleka coalition ended Bozize's 10-year rule in March last year and installed Djotodia as the first Muslim president in the overwhelmingly Christian country.
Djotodia has since officially disbanded the rebels, but has proven unable to stop them going rogue.
His former fighters went on killing, raping and pillaging, prompting Christians to form vigilante groups in response and sparking a deadly cycle of revenge attacks.
There are fears the unrest is spreading through the region with the United Nations warning that both Seleka rebels and former CAR soldiers have crossed into the volatile Democratic Republic of Congo, where they are sending people fleeing.
Many former CAR soldiers fled their home country when the Seleka rebels launched their coup. The rebels in turn were pushed out when French and African peacekeepers arrived in the CAR in December.
Although mass slaughters have mostly ceased amid frequent patrols by the peacekeepers, sporadic killings carry on almost every night.
A humanitarian disaster is also looming with 100,000 people who fled their homes crammed into a tent city near Bangui airport, close to the peacekeepers' bases.
While the international military operation in the CAR has somewhat halted the slide into deeper conflict, there is no sustainable political solution in sight.
Under international pressure, Djotodia has pledged not to stand for presidential elections expected by the end of 2014 or early 2015.
Current political agreements ban those in power during the transition from standing in future elections, and that in turn has stalled bids for a national unity transitional government as all the leaders of political parties have refused to participate.
Amid the deadlock, EU nations are considering whether to join in the French and African operations in the CAR, with a meeting on the issue scheduled for Friday.
Aid agencies are also battling to contain a humanitarian crisis in the landlocked country. UNICEF has warned of a potential disaster in overcrowded camps in the capital, where there have been several cases of measles.
Source: Agence France Presse
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