text: Ex-minister, son killed in Central Africa unrest. Raphael Kopessoua 
   BANGUI 1996-12-06 
   A former cabinet minister in Central African Republic and his son were abducted from their home and murdered in growing ethnic violence in the capital Bangui, a government minister said on Friday. With violence spiralling out of control, France voiced backing for the elected Bangui government but said its troops based in the former colony under defence pacts would not help it combat army mutineers. " France cannot be involved in the domestic political debate, " President Jacques Chirac told a news conference at the end of a Franco-African summit in Burkina Faso. " French troops may only take part in maintaining order to avoid major abuses and protect foreign communities, " he said. Public Service Minister David Dofara, who is the head of the national Red Cross, told Reuters he had seen the bodies of former interior minister Christophe Grelombe and his son, who was not named. Witnesses said they had been seized by troops loyal to President Ange-Felix Patasse at dawn on Thursday when they clashed with soldiers staging a mutiny since November 16. Grelombe is from the Yakoma tribe to which most of the rebel soldiers belong. The uprising began over pay demands but has turned into a campaign to topple Patasse, sparking ethnic violence and dividing the capital. The former minister and his son had been taken from their home close to the presidential palace, which is guarded by loyalist soldiers backed by French troops based in Bangui. The bodies were found on Thursday in an open field about two km (one mile) further away, said Dofora and other witnesses. The men were seized as loyalist forces and French troops fought gunbattles with mutineers who fired rockets into the city centre. A French-owned hotel was slightly damaged. Yakomas are hounded in stronghold districts of Patasse's Baya people while other tribes have fled areas in rebel hands. Roadblocks have been erected in city districts while central Bangui, which is patrolled by French troops with tanks, is deserted. Shops and businesses have remained shut this week. The Franco-African summit decided to send a mission Bangui to seek ways of containing the mutiny and a threat of civil war. Chirac said Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore would visit Bangui " in the coming hours " with the heads of state of Gabon, Mali and Chad to try and establish dialogue between authorities and rebels. The mutiny forced Patasse to miss the summit. His spokesman had predicted the meeting to send an assessment mission. Patasse, who won Central Africa's first multi-party elections, refuses to resign. Church-led meadiation attempts hit deadlock over rebel demands for his departure. Soldiers staged mutinies in April and May, with French troops stepping in with tanks and helicopters to quell the more serious second uprising. Patasse offered concessions and amnesty to rebels before the May rebellion ended after rebels looted the city centre. Rebels accuse Patasse of tribalism and of arming his civilian supporters and hired guns from Sudan and Chad. Mutineers have vowed to disarm all civilians and to chase out the foreign forces knwon as Codos. Hospital sources and witnesses said about 10 people were known to have been killed in the more than two weeks of fighting, including two rebels killed in Thursday's clashes. An undetermined number of people are reported to have been abducted and killed outside the town by tribal vigilante groups. In Thursday's fighting, French troops fired back as mutineers trying to break out of their strongholds rained mortar shells on the city centre.
competitors: Central Africa Raphael Kopessoua BANGUI Central African Republic Bangui France Bangui France Jacques Chirac Franco-African Burkina Faso French David Dofara Red Cross Reuters Christophe Grelombe Ange-Felix Patasse Grelombe Yakoma Patasse French Bangui Dofora French French-owned Yakomas Patasse Baya Bangui French Franco-African Bangui Chirac Burkina Faso Blaise Compaore Bangui Gabon Mali Chad Patasse Patasse Central Africa French Patasse Patasse Sudan Chad Codos French