A group of soldiers in the Central
African Republic lynched a man they suspected was a rebel minutes after
hearing the new president's promise to restore security at a ceremony to reinstate the divided country's armed forces.
About
20 uniformed soldiers accused a member of the crowd of having belonged
to Seleka - the mostly Muslim rebel group that seized power in a coup
last March, before stabbing him repeatedly until he was dead.
A
soldier stamped on the lifeless body, which was then dragged nearly
naked through the streets as residents looked on and took photographs.
Ten minutes earlier the new interim
president, Catherine Samba-Panza, stood just 20m away where she
addressed a crowd of at least 1,000 soldiers.
The Army effectively disappeared during nine months of Seleka rule.
She told the gathering at a training
ground in the capital Bangui: 'Within a month, I would like to fully
secure the greater part of the country and I aim to stick to my word.'
Seleka
disbanded after Samba-Panza's inauguration last month and is deeply
resented by the Christian majority after months of lootings and
killings.
The violence spawned the creation of
Christian 'anti-balaka' militias, meaning 'anti-machete' in the local
Sango language, and more sectarian blood-letting.About one million people, a quarter of the former French colony's population, have fled their homes.
The
presence of 1,600 French soldiers and 5,000 African troops has so far
failed to stop the tit-for-tat violence which the United Nations says
has already killed more than 2,000 people.
Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director
at Human Rights Watch in Bangui, tweeted that the corpse of the lynched
man had been burned.
He
posted a photograph showing a man holding up a severed limb next to a
bonfire, as an armed French soldier gestured in the background.
Samba-Panza,
appointed by parliament two weeks ago after coup leader Michel Djotodia
stepped down under intense international pressure for failing to stop
the violence, made clear it would take time to restore order
'At a certain point, everyone will be
held responsible for their acts, I am warning troublemakers who
continue to sow disorder in the country.'She also urged former soldiers to report for duty, saying those who did not would be considered deserters.
Central
African Republic, one of Africa's poorest countries despite mineral
riches, has a history of instability, and has seen five coups and
several rebellions since winning independence from France in 1960.
According
to a timetable established as part of a regionally brokered peace deal
agreed last year, elections are supposed to be held by February 2015.
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