A fan of opposition leader Martin Ziguele rides a bicycle in the streets of Bangui in 2005. The Central African Republic’s government accused main opposition leader and former prime minister Ziguele of heading a rebel movement, in a statement broadcast Friday.
The Central African Republic’s government accused main opposition leader and former prime minister Martin Ziguele of heading a rebel movement, in a statement broadcast Friday.
Ziguele, who heads the Liberation Movement of Centrafrican People (MLPC) and is a likely candidate in presidential elections next year, is “the new de facto president of the CPJP, now the armed wing of the MLPC,” charged government spokesman Fidele Ngouandjika.
The CPJP is the Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace, which has not signed peace accords with the government, unlike most rebel groups over the past three years. Its former leader, Charles Massi, is believed dead by his family, which suspects he was tortured last January.
“The government, via my voice, holds national and international opinion to witness (…) the terrorist and tribal-ethnic downward spiral of Mr Martin Ziguele and his armed band,” Ngouandjika said.
Questioned by AFP, Ziguele dismissed the statement as “grotesque, ridiculous and unbefitting from a member of the government.”
“If a member of the government claims to have proof of the offence that I have committed, let him bring the case to justice,” he added.
Prime minister between 2001 and 2003, Ziguele was invested in June 2009 as the MLPC’s presidential candidate for elections that were initially due in April 2010, but which have been postponed twice.
The first round of presidential and parliamentary elections has now been set down for January 23, 2011, with a probable second round on March 20. Candidates in the presidential poll are due to submit their dossiers between October 10 and November 8, 2010.
Ziguele was a candidate in the presidential election of 2005, when he was beaten in the second round by the incumbent, Francois Bozize, who initially came to power in a military coup in 2003.
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