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 France has deployed 1,600 troops to its former colony to prevent
worsening violence between Christian militias and largely Muslim
Seleka rebels who ousted ex-President Francois Bozize.
Hundreds of people were killed in a week of bloodshed which began on
December 5 in Bangui when fighters of both sides went door-to-door
murdering civilians. Some victims were lynched or stoned to death,
residents said.
At a European Union foreign ministers meeting on Monday, France
requested more help from allies to bolster its peacekeeping mission
beyond logistical and financial aid.
"We will soon have troops on the ground from our European
colleagues," Fabius told parliament in response to a question on a
lack of European support in Central African Republic.
Life in Bangui appeared to be returning to normal on Tuesday with
children playing soccer and taxis passing less than half an hour
before curfew, a Reuters reporter said.
But the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said that attacks have continued
in the town of Bossangoa, several hundred km north of the capital,
where 40,000 are seeking protection in a church.
"We continue to hear of attacks against Christians by former Seleka,
with looting, killing and houses being set on fire," a UNHCR
spokesman said on Tuesday.
Some 210,000 people have been displaced by violence in Bangui over
the last two weeks, it said, and hundreds have risked their lives by
fleeing the country by boat across a branch of the Congo river.
Rights group Amnesty International warned that more troops were
urgently needed to protect residents in the capital where it said
war crimes had been committed.
"The continuing violence, the extensive destruction of property, and
the forced displacement of the population in Bangui are feeding
enormous anger, hostility and mistrust," Amnesty's Christian Mukosa
said on Tuesday.
The U.N. World Food Programme has warned that up to a quarter of the
mineral-rich nation's 5.2 million population risks going hungry.
"PRACTICAL STEPS"
While European nations including Poland, Britain, Germany, Spain and
Belgium have provided various forms of assistance, French troops are
intervening alone for the second time this year after ousting
Islamist rebels in Mali, another former French colony.
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Diplomats said the ground troops involved could come from Belgium
and Poland and may be used to relieve French forces who are securing
the airport in Bangui.
The French foreign ministry said talks were going on and that Paris
hoped the countries concerned would make decisions soon.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Polish Foreign Minister Donald
Tusk stopped short of announcing ground troops.
"In CAR's case we will be ready for limited logistical support in
terms of aviation," he said. "A transport aircraft and a group of
soldiers, who would take care of it, is something that is within our
possibilities," he said.
Belgium's defense ministry said on Friday it was sending tactical
aircraft for two months for logistical support that would need 35
soldiers as support. A defense ministry official said Belgium had
taken no decision to send any soldiers beyond that, denying a report
it would provide 150 soldiers.
European heads of state meet in Brussels on Thursday to specifically
discuss defense integration.
"During this meeting we want clear practical steps taken
operationally, capacity-wise and in industrial aspects," French
Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told lawmakers.
Support at home for the French intervention has fallen since two
French soldiers were killed in a firefight during a patrol in Bangui
last week, a poll showed.
(Reporting by John Irish and Bate Felix;
additional reporting by
Adrian Croft and Marcin Goclowski; writing by Emma Farge; editing by Pravin Char and Sonya Hepinstall)
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