African Union Says Waits For CAR Gov't Reply To Opposition Calls For Nationwide Conference

The union is waiting for a response from the government of the Central African Republic (CAR) to the opposition's demands in order to call a nationwide reconciliation conference to lay down principles for the future governance of the country

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th September, 2018) The union is waiting for a response from the government of the Central African Republic (CAR) to the opposition's demands in order to call a nationwide reconciliation conference to lay down principles for the future governance of the country, having no plan B for this peace initiative, Smail Chergui, the commissioner for Peace and Security of the African told Sputnik in an interview.

"[CAR opposition] had 70 main demands ... Some are security interests, others are about poverty. Also, they want to have a share in the political scene. You need to open up the government, maybe to have a national unity government. The government now has been officially given those documents, and it is now supposed to respond to them," Chergui said on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA).

"That response would prepare for a kind of a conference where everybody will meet. The idea is then to really draft the legal document, which can be a draft agreement between the government and the movements ... Definitely it will not be something easy, but we do not have plan B. This time, we really have to push for it and make sure that everybody comes in, so that the country has a new start," Chergui stressed.

The commissioner expressed hope that the government would come up with an adequate response to the proposals, made by some 14 armed groups and accumulated by a AU panel, in due course.

"I think the government has really started this work, because now the office of the president has two of these people, former Seleca, who are ministers," he pointed out.

Chergui also stressed that car needed an economic reform and transparency in dealing with contracts, which would "convince their own people that it is now a new approach to the whole distribution of wealth, inclusion."

Since 2012, the country has been destabilized by the conflict between the Muslim armed group Seleka, Christian Anti-balaka militias and the government. In late August, Seleka and Anti-balaka signed a declaration of understanding after a Russia-brokered peace meeting in Khartoum.

The talks in Khartoum ran parallel to talks in the CAR town of Bouar, under the aegis of the African Union with 14 armed groups taking part, as a result of which the armed groups released a document containing 104 demands for the government.