© AFP
AAt the foot of a statue depicting Russian fighters protecting a woman and her children, a hundred people took part in an army tribute ceremony in Bangui to say “thank you” to the Russian paramilitaries who are fighting the rebels in their sides of having “saved” the Central African Republic.
The “Russian monument”, as the people of Bangui call it, sits on a clay square in the heart of the capital, near the university, where a hundred people of all ages came on Wednesday to wave Russian and Central African flags in front of soldiers from an elite unit standing at attention and figures close to power.
Faced with a threatening rebellion more than a year ago, President Faustin Archange Touadéra had called on Moscow to the rescue of his impoverished and poorly trained army and hundreds of Russian paramilitaries had joined many others who had been present for three years. In a few months, they had repelled the armed groups which then occupied two thirds of the country and recovered the vast majority of the territory.
But at the cost of numerous human rights violations by “mercenaries” of the Russian private security company Wagner according to theHIM-HER-IT“massacres” and “execution” of civilians accused the France and the United States mardi.
Inaugurated with great fanfare in December by President Touadera as a “tribute to the Russian armed forces and fighters”, the statue bears no inscription. Moscow admits having dispatched to the Central African Republic for four years only “unarmed instructors” to train its soldiers.
People were waving banners and placards proclaiming in particular: “Central Africans with the Russia“, or even “Russia will save the Donbass from the war”, in reference to this pro-Russian separatist territory in the east of theUkrainewhose self-proclaimed independence on Monday was immediately recognized by Moscow and whose protection was invoked by President Vladimir Putin to launch an attack on Kiev on Thursday.
“Massacres”
“The Russians came and did a remarkable job to liberate the Central African people”, enthuses Blaise-Didacien Kossimatchi, member of the National Galaxy Platform, one of the associations which organized the tribute and which regularly vilifies the France, the former colonial power, and the UN.
“The Russians have always been there, on our side”, adds Yefi Kezza, member of National Galaxy but also of the United Hearts Movement (MCU), the ruling party of Mr. Touadéra.
Several demonstrators sported t-shirts stamped “I am Wagner”.
The men of the 6th Territorial Infantry Battalion, an elite unit of the Central African Armed Forces (FACA) that fought the rebels alongside the Russian paramilitaries, then lined up at the guard at the start of the Central African national anthem. Their commander laid a wreath at the foot of the statue in honor of the “Defenders of the Fatherland.”
None of the Russian diplomats or paramilitary cadres who usually attend these ceremonies were visible.
“The peace that the FACA and the Russians have brought us is truly the peace of God,” said a man at the microphone, cheered by the crowd.
“What interests us is to have real peace, the Russians must still lend a hand to the Central African Republic”, also pleads Nelson Ezekiel Yangelema, student in the first year of the Faculty of Science.
On Tuesday, France and the United States accused for the first time in the UN Security Council the “mercenaries of Wagner” of having “massacred” and “executed” dozens of civilians in January. What a Russian diplomat immediately denied, accusing Paris and Washington of trying to “discredit” the Russian “specialists” present in the Central African Republic.
In 2021, a group of UN experts had already denounced abuses committed once morest civilians by the FACA and their Russian allies, citing “human rights violations”.
24/02/2022 09:24:09 – Bangui (AFP) – © 2022 AFP
