République Centrafricaine

Unité-Dignité-Travail

UNION NATIONALE POUR LA

DEMOCRATIE ET LE PROGRES

Unir, bâtir, de l’Est à l’Ouest, du Nord au Sud,

Nous sommes tous Frères et Sœurs

Memorandum to the Secretary General of the United Nations

visiting RCA this 24th of October 2017

from the National Union for Democracy and Progress

in the Central African Republic (UNDP-RCA)

Mr. Secretary General,

Honorable Mr Antonio Guterres,

It is an honour for the UNDP-RCA in general and for me in particular, the founding president of this first political party on the parliamentary chessboard of our country, to present to you this memorandum aimed at briefing you on the security situation in the Central African Republic according to our perception, and on our vision to end the crisis. We remain convinced that the Central African Republic can and must become a "normal" country, where women, men and children move from one corner of the country to another in safety without fear of assaults or killings or plunder, and proudly attend to their daily business.

Your visit to our bloody country is a strong sign of your willingness to contribute, at the highest level, to normalize the country, to put an end to the armed groups and militias that are destroying and killing ruthless and hopeless people. Your visit is therefore seen by us not only as a gesture of solidarity to a bruised people, but even more, and above all, as a high mission, from which decisions of great importance and priority will be made to end disorder in the management of crises orchestrated by a policy of unsolicited navigation for peace that our country has experienced so far.

If our country is today seen as a "dangerous environment", to borrow this expression from you, it is mainly because of this lack of vision of a positive development that benefits to all, in a country like the Central African Republic, as rich and blessed from God. Your visit to your organization's peacekeeping force, which is your first since you took office at the head of this great UN institution, is a sign of your good will to our people which puts a lot of hope in your actions in favour of peace. This is also the mark of your sympathy to our country that you know well as well as a sign that you care about its future and take to heart the suffering of his sons and daughters who are killed every day and who are forced to live their hell on earth in a free country as ours. These sons and daughters have been so often forgotten in their cries of distress. Your visit is therefore the expected answer, the "yes, you are not alone", that a nation fallen so low was expecting to receive as a light that springs from the depths of its darkness.

Mr. Secretary General, the dispatch of a peacekeeping force to our country has unfortunately not produced the expected fruits. Its "interpositional" mission was not enough to bring the desired peace. The atrocities of the armed groups continue, the killings multiply in the corners of the country, insecurity is more than growing despite this presence. Displacement continues within the national territory and to neighbouring countries. Villages continue to be set on fire by armed groups that nobody seems to control. This situation continues to widen the poverty gap of populations who do not seem to know which saint to devote themselves to. The sadness of the men and women of our nation has reached its climax and the fear of triggering a genocidal war is not so far, something that must be stopped before it takes place under our watchful eyes. Should the history of Africa continue to be written around the killings and genocides of its people? Should the Central African Republic become the new theatre of bloodshed when our capacity to stop the evil is proven?

These questions, Mr. Secretary General, which come to from the bottom of our hearts, challenge the meaning of your mission in our country at the highest level and require a new definition of the mission of the UN peacekeeping forces in the Central African Republic. If you have chosen to make your first visit to us on this day called "United Nations Day", it is, to our understanding, to write in golden letters the word "enough!” in the charter of mission of your forces in our country, which from now on, will have to act to put an end to the armed groups and the insecurity within our populations holed up in fear.

We believe that your forces can do more, and must do more to end the mess in our country. We are convinced that at your disposal, you have men and women of strong ethics capable of giving their all to end the militia and armed groups in our country. We remain convinced that it is not the number that counts but the quality of the people you send to our country. We need strategists who support us in overcoming these groups, in recovering weapons from the hands of rebels and idle youths who easily enjoy them because they are not engaged in any decent work. We are finally convinced that it is the poverty of our populations and the high rate of unemployment of our youth which pushes to the killings which then take on the appearance of tribal and religious wars and then become arguments of weakness to justify the unjustifiable.

In this case, the solution seems simple: put the country on the road to its development and give work to our youth throughout the country and stop looking only to the capital. The hinterland is neglected and forgotten. The potential is enormous and agriculture will remain our salvation. People need means to produce and live from their products. The saying that "where the road passes, development follows" is a truth which, implemented in our country, will be the salvation of our people. The energy question is not the rest. There will ultimately be no peacekeeping success without concrete measures of accompaniment, which will be visible signs that hope can be reborn and that peace can be a reality in our country.

It is true that no development work can be done in a context of insecurity. We are aware of it. Hence, in our view, the development of inclusion strategies which, while being uncompromising towards war criminals, open avenues for integrating people of all sides into the development process by putting them to productive work for their personal development and the welfare of their families. According to our survey, many of the rebels would not ask for more than that.

Mr. Secretary General, an international conference on the return of peace in our country is becoming a necessity that we urge you to convene in a short time, involving all the layers and trends of our nation, an opportunity we want seize to draw clear lines of our exit from the crisis and to put us resolutely at work for the development of our nation. It is not about these kinds of conferences at the summit that make mountains only give birth to a mouse, but a Central African meeting with Central Africans and friends of the Central African Republic who reflect and put in place mandatory peace strategies in a country that needs them and, if not, risks falling into a genocide that lurks.

While wishing you a pleasant stay in our land, we plead with you, Mr Secretary General and dear Brother Antonio Guterres, to receive our deep gratitude and our friendship for the success of your missions and heavy responsibilities at the head of the United Nations.

For the UNDP-RCA,

The National President

Amine Michel