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In Continued CAR Alarm, Mia Farrow Rebukes Bozize Troops, and Chad Border As Poorest

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, February 27 -- In northwest Central African Republic, villages have been burned by the Presidential Guard, their residents recently emerging from the bush to speak with foreign visitors including the actress Mia Farrow, a goodwill ambassador for the UN Children's Fund.

            Tuesday at the UN, Ms. Farrow called for a peacekeeping force to patrol the border between Chad and CAR, "for a time, to allow people the security to return home and rebuild," and to prevent "another collapsed state." Ms. Farrow's proposal differs from that being considered by the UN Security Council, which would only send peacekeepers to the northeast part of CAR, bordering Darfur.

            In light of her candor that many of the abuses in CAR are due to President Bozize's troops, Inner City Press asked Ms. Farrow for her views on how UNICEF and the wider UN can help without propping up governments that are the source of abuses. (Click here for previous coverage of UNICEF's operations in Zimbabwe and Turkmenistan.) Ms. Farrow answered that "it is possible to draw that line, if you are clear about... the mandate, to protect civilians and humanitarians, that and only that." She warned that hundreds of thousands more people in the region could die, "after the rainy season."

            Ms. Farrow said that at present, there is virtually no United Nations presence in CAR. She said she saw no such presence, only French troops -- who are there in support of President Bozize, as they are in Chad for President Deby -- and an outpost of Doctors Without Borders. One wonders where is the presence of the UN mission, headed by ex-General Lamine Cisse, known as BONUCA.

            Ms. Farrow noted that CAR has abundant natural resources, that only three percent of its arable land is being farmed. Of CAR's uranium and diamonds, she expressed "suspicion if ever the people would benefit." Inner City Press has been told that the smuggling of diamonds may reach quite close to BONUCA. Tuesday one was tempted to ask Mia Farrow about this nitty-gritty, but then, no. While too many of the UN's so-called goodwill ambassadors are in it for themselves, Ms. Farrow for example traveled to the region on her own last November, with no UNICEF support.

            Later on Tuesday, Inner City Press asked Sudan's UN Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem what he thought of Ms. Farrow and her presentation. "She is able to dramatize things," he answered, "she says what the people who sent her want her to say." Last September in the same UN briefing room, Sudanese president Omar al Bashir made similar comments on the motives of those campaigning for Darfur. More recently al Bashir has alleged that the call for UN peacekeepers is a pretext to turn all of Sudan into a UN trusteeship. Ms. Farrow was asked on Monday if the belated military action and administration of the former Yugoslavia, in particular Kosovo, is a model for Sudan. Ms. Farrow did not answer, which in this case seems wise.

            Less and less understandable, however, is the UN's Lamine Cisse's downplaying earlier this year of the abuses in northwest CAR. On January 15, Mr. Cisse told the UN press corps that his office is successfully shepherding a process of dialogue and reconciliation in the CAR. When asked by Inner City Press about the retaking of Paoua by rebels the previous weekend, Mr. Cisse said "we are trying to find out if this involved highway gunmen or criminals, we should know in a few hours." Video here, from Minute 6:02. But reports said the attackers were followers of Lt. Ndjadder Mounoumbaye of the "Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy and the Republic." Inner City Press asked if all rebel groups are part of the political dialogue to which Mr. Cisse had referred. "Some parties have demanded that," he answered. "So the Groupe des Sages asks the rebels what they want." Video here, from Minute 7:55. Inner City Press endeavored to ask if, specifically, Lt. Mounoumbaye's "Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy and the Republic" are part of the political dialogue. But Mr. Cisse walked about from the microphone.

   At a microphone she didn't walk away from, Ms. Farrow in a radio appearance on Monday said that "the UN has utterly failed the people of Darfur," and named SinoPac, Petro China and Fidelity Investments as companies complicit in the abuse of human rights. She referred people to her website, which does not in fact name the corporate names, but which includes photos she took while on mission in the region, click here to view. In a February 15 dispatch on her Web site (as last visited on Feb. 27), Ms. Farrow wrote that "an international peacekeeping force must come not only to safeguard C.A.R borders with Sudan but also the completely poorest border with Chad." Poorest or porous, either way, protection is needed...

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CAR Alarm: As Villages Are Torched by Central African Republic Troops, World's Focus Is Turned Elsewhere

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, January 18 -- As the UN Security Council prepares to send a mission to the northeast of the Central African Republic, bordering Darfur, in the northwest CAR villages are being burned and their residents shot at and chased into the bush.

   According to Ibrahima D. Fall of the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, these abuses have been committed by the Central African army, specifically the Republican Guard units. They "decided these villages had to pay," said Mr. Fall. Now villagers flee at the sight of government troops.

            In an interview Thursday about the Central African Republic, Mr. Fall told Inner City Press that "we need more alarm-sounding." Mr. Fall was part of a weeklong humanitarian mission in November 2006, and will return again in April.  In northwest CAR, considered rebel-held territory, the UN mission traveled without military escort. Mr. Fall recounted "villages burned, houses burned, fields burned... everything." Displaced people living rough named to the UN team particular Republic Guard officers who oversaw the destruction.

            While the  UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was for some reason not represented in the November mission, since then the Office has in a December 18 letter committed to sending a team to the CAR. The majority of the UN's and world's slim focus on the CAR, however, is limited to the northeastern region that borders on Darfur.  Mr. Fall was asked, why is more not done for the northwest CAR?

            "There is the perception that not enough people have died," Mr. Fall replied. "There is the perception that the emergency is not humanitarian, but rather about development that never happened."

            Mr. Fall described a country the size of Texas where "there's no state presence" in most regions in the north. "Governors receive you in their house," he said, because at their ostensibly governmental offices they have "no chairs, no desks, nothing."  The country has diamond and timber resources, and more recently found uranium. But the government has no control. Even so, each of CAR's last leaders has been opposed by armed rebels. In this case, fighters who helped shoot current president Bozize into power are not opposing him, since he hasn't paid them what he promised.

Displaced from Paoua, CAR

            The town of Paoua, on which Inner City Press has previously reported, was taken by rebels in early 2006. The army's response involved interrogating villagers throughout the region, then punishing them for allegedly hiding family members who are part of rebel forces. Among the villages torched was Kadjama in Ouham Prefecture. A UN mission passed through the area in June 2006, followed by Mr. Fall's team's visit in November. A humanitarian appeal was launched, for $50 million for the entire Central African Republic. So far only $184,000 had been raised, UN Humanitarian Coordinator Toby Lanzer told Inner City Press on Tuesday.

            Mr. Lanzer was in New York this week to brief the Security Council, along with Ban Ki-moon's main envoy to the CAR, ex-General Lamine Cisse. Barely consistent with Mr. Lanzer's descriptions of displaced people sleeping naked where no vehicles can reach them, and at odds with Mr. Fall's account of army abuses, Mr. Cisse on Monday told the UN press corps that his office is successfully shepherding a process of dialogue and reconciliation in the CAR. When asked by Inner City Press about the retaking of Paoua by rebels just this past weekend, Mr. Cisse said "we are trying to find out if this involved highway gunmen or criminals, we should know in a few hours." Video here, from Minute 6:02. But the reports say the attackers were followers of Lt. Ndjadder Mounoumbaye of the "Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy and the Republic."

            Inner City Press asked if all rebel groups are part of the political dialogue to which Mr. Cisse had referred. "Some parties have demanded that," he answered. "So the Groupe des Sages asks the rebels what they want." Video here, from Minute 7:55. Inner City Press endeavored to ask if, specifically, Lt. Mounoumbaye's "Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy and the Republic" are part of the political dialogue. But Mr. Cisse walked about from the microphone. Toby Lanzer accepted the question in writing, while acknowledging that "because it fizzled," a previous Inner City Press question (from September 29, 2006) about the CAR and its request for International Criminal Court prosecution of Jean-Pierre Bemba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo had never been answered. As of Thursday night, this current CAR question hasn't been answered either.

            Reporters were left wondering why the political arm of the UN would be painting a rosy picture while the humanitarian and child-protection agencies describe the torching of villages and the government's scorched earth campaign. Could it be because the UN's political envoys are all up for review by new Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and they think that descriptions of success in far-away places will be accepted as face value?

            "It is time to sound the alarm," UNICEF's Ibrahima D. Fall told Inner City Press on Thursday. But faced not only with disinterest and disproportionately focus on other humanitarian crises, but also with diversionary happy-talk about other UN units, will Mr. Fall and his CAR alarm have a chance to be heard?

Other Inner City Press reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on www.InnerCityPress.com --

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UN Reform: Transparency Later, Not Now -- At Least Not for AXA - WFP Insurance Contract

In the Sudanese Crisis, Oil Revenue Goes Missing, UN Says

Empty Words on Money Laundering and Narcotics, from the UN and Georgia

What is the Sound of Eleven Uzbeks Disappearing? A Lack of Seats in Tashkent, a Turf War at UN

Kosovo: Of Collective Punishment and Electricity; Lights Out on Privatization of Ferronikeli Mines

Abkhazia: Cleansing and (Money) Laundering, Says Georgia

Post-Tsunami Human Rights Abuses, including by UNDP in the Maldives

Citigroup Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference

Other Inner City Press reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on www.InnerCityPress.com --

            Copyright 2006 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com - phone: (718) 716-3540