12/26/2012 19:58 GMT
by Christian Panika
BANGUI, Central African Republic, Dec 26, 2012 (AFP) - Rebels in the Central African Republic called on government troops Wednesday to lay down their arms, but said they had no plans to move on the capital where protests against former colonial power France turned violent.
With the government now largely restricted to the capital Bangui, Chadian troops sent last week to help the increasingly fragile regime are the only real obstacle to rebel forces now sitting about 300 kilometres (200 miles) away.
"We call on all the sons and daughters of Central Africa, on all members of defence and security forces still loyal to (President) Francois Bozize's regime... to lay down their arms immediately," said a statement from the Seleka rebel coalition after capturing its fourth major town in a month.
"For reasons of security and protection of civilians, we no longer consider it necessary to wage the battle for Bangui and to send our troops there as General Francois Bozize... has already lost control of the country," it said.
The statement came as hundreds of demonstrators close to the embattled president turned on the French embassy in Bangui. They were protesting France's failure to help push back the rebels sweeping across the resource-rich but poverty-stricken nation.
The rally had begun at the US embassy where demonstrators chanted calls for peace but at the French embassy the mood turned violent and protestors broke windows and tore down France's flag.
"This situation is completely unacceptable," said French ambassador Serge Mucetti, calling on the authorities to respect the appropriate diplomatic agreements.
"Those who acted in such a manner are enemies of the Central African Republic," he said.
Around 30 French soldiers subsequently arrived to provide extra security at the embassy, an AFP correspondent reported.
In Paris, French President Francois Hollande called on Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian to ensure the safety of the 1,200 or so French citizens in the country.
A student demonstrator at the scene accused France of "not respecting defence agreements" linking the two countries.
Protesters also attacked the offices of Air France, an AFP reporter witnessed. In response, the company said its weekly flight to Bangui had turned back to Paris.
Since the end of colonisation in the 1960s, French troops in western Africa have often come to the help of former colonies whose regimes were on the verge of being toppled.
France has around 250 soldiers based at Bangui airport providing technical support to a peacekeeping mission run by the central African bloc ECCAS, according to the defence ministry.
Nassour Ouaidou, the head of the Economic Community of Central African States, told AFP in Libreville the body was trying to broker a truce.
"The ECCAS is in the middle of sending a team on the ground to try and get a ceasefire from one side and the other," he said.
Neighbouring Chad sent troops into the country after a request from Bozize to try to stem the rebel advance. Chadian troops have previously helped Bozize during rebellions in the north in 2010.
The Central African army is ill-equipped, under-paid and poorly organised and has offered scant resistance to the rebels.
The Seleka coalition is made up of rebels who say the government has not honoured peace accords signed between 2007 and 2011 that offered financial support and other help for insurgents who laid down their arms.
Aid groups said that while there were as yet few serious consequences from the rebel offensive, civilians who had fled the fighting were hesitant to return home.
"Residents have scattered from certain cities either on rumours of the advancing rebels or once the city changed hands," said Arnaud de Baecque of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Bangui.
Officials in neighbouring DR Congo said between 2,000 and 2,500 civilians had crossed the border from Central Africa.
The Central African Republic is a mineral-rich landlocked country with fewer than five million inhabitants. It ranks 179 out of 187 countries on the UN's latest development index and has seen frequent coups and mutinies.
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