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Central Africa Rebel Groups Call Off Cease-Fire Before Election

Agence France-Presse

   BANGUI, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC - A rebel coalition that has been
   fighting the government in the Central African Republic said Friday
   that it was calling off a three-day cease-fire ahead of a tense general
   election on the weekend.

   The rebel groups launched an offensive a week ago threatening to march
   on the capital, Bangui, in what the government described as an
   attempted coup, but their progress was halted with international help.

   The Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) then announced a brief truce
   before presidential and legislative elections Sunday, which are seen as
   a crucial test for the troubled country.

   But the CPC said in a statement Friday it had "decided to break the
   72-hour truce it had imposed on itself and resume its unrelenting march
   towards its final objective" -- taking the capital.

   In the statement, the CPC said that it made the decision faced with
   "the irresponsible stubbornness of the government."

   The cease-fire's signatories had "invited the authorities to observe
   the cease-fire" and called on President Faustin Archange Touadera to
   suspend the election.

   But government spokesman Ange-Maxime Kazagui dismissed the cease-fire
   on Thursday, saying it was "a non-event" and that "we haven't seen
   these people stop what they're doing."

   The CPC said the government had "cavalierly rejected" this "chance for
   peace."

   "Several attacks followed on positions occupied" by CPC forces, its
   statement said.

   The authenticity of the statement was confirmed to AFP by two of the
   main armed groups in the coalition -- the 3R and the Popular Front for
   the Rebirth of Central Africa (FPRC).

   'We march on Bangui'

   General Bobo, the leader of 3R, told AFP that "now either the
   government disperses us, or we march on Bangui, which is our final
   objective."

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