The Central African
Republic government and a leading rebel group are scheduled to resume peace talks Monday in the Gabonese capital, Libreville. The talks collapsed last
month after the rebel Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy (APRD)
withdrew after rejecting a draft amnesty legislation that was being discussed
in the Central African Republic parliament and concerns for possible war crimes
charges by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Francois Lonseny Fall is the
UN Special Representative to the Central African Republic. He told VOA Monday's talks will review all issues.
"Since the signing of the comprehensive peace
agreement on the 21st of June between the Central African government
and all the rebel groups, we have established a follow up committee, and
normally this follow up committee should have met every month. But
unfortunately, this is the first time that the committee will meet. I can say
that since the signing of the agreement on the 21st of June, we
didn't have ceasefire, we didn't have cantonment. And tomorrow's meeting, we
want to see what is the problem with this agreement? Why we didn't succeed to
have ceasefire," he said.
The talks collapsed last month after the rebel
Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy (APRD) withdrew after rejecting a
draft amnesty legislation that was being discussed in the Central African
Republic parliament and concern about possible war crimes charges by the
International Criminal Court (ICC).
Lonseny Fall said the concerns over amnesty are
unique to the Central African Republic. But he said there cannot be true peace
without justice.
"The concern is not only for the Central African
Republic. The problem today is the problem of justice and peace. Yes, everybody
wants in the world, but also peace cannot be done without justice. In Central
African Republic, they agreed to grant amnesty to all the stakeholders, but we
as the UN we insisted that if they want to give amnesty to they people, that
should not interfere with the work of the ICC because a crime like genocide or
crimes against humanity is not possible, according to Statute of Rome and the
Statue of the ICC Court to give any amnesty for those types of crimes," Lonseny
Fall said.
Using the example of Uganda's Lord's Resistance
Army rebels that in order for them to sign a final peace deal to end Uganda's
protracted civil war, Lonseny Fall again said it was not the place of the UN to
wave possible ICC indictments.
"This is a dilemma today. Everybody is saying
that in some parts Africa that everybody is willing to have peace. But at the
same time we want justice. I think the best way to have peace is to have normal
justice in the country. It's the same problem in Uganda and the same problem in
the Central African Republic," he said.
Lonseny Fall described the humanitarian situation
in the Central African Republic as very bad. He said the UN has appealed to the
various rebel groups, especially the APRD controlling the northwestern party of
the country to allow humanitarian agencies to have access to the populations
there.
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