Central African Republic's capital tense as ex-leader heads into exile

(Reuters) - Gunfire rang out, mosques were attacked and Muslim-owned shops and houses were looted overnight in Central African Republic's capital, and the former president left for exile in Benin after stepping down as part of a drive to restore order.

There were hopes that the change of leadership might provide a fresh start to peace efforts, and violence had eased by daybreak on Saturday.

But the United Nations stepped up flights out for foreigners. Governments of other African countries have evacuated nearly 30,000 of their citizens caught up in the violence.

President Michel Djotodia and Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye quit on Friday under intense international pressure after they failed to halt months of inter-religious violence that has driven a million people, a quarter of the country's population, from their homes.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Bangui, the country's crumbling riverside capital, to celebrate the departure of Djotodia, who was swept to power by mainly Muslim rebels, known as Seleka, last March.

Abuses by Seleka forces had led to the creation of Christian self-defense militia and killings that evoked memories of Rwanda's genocide 20 years ago.

I read that article to see if the African country of Namibia is affected by this - yet.

In the early 1990s, there were two armies in Namibia who were killing each other. A “peace” was negotiated and one of the armies was to stand down and disburse. The first “free” election was to be held. My son was part of a British film crew who went to Namibia to record that historic event.

Well, the army who was now not an army was still an army and they were going to raise hell and not disband. So, the British film crew arrives to make a fine film of this freedom of the country. Instead, the army that was not an army, kidnapped them and discussed whether to kill them then or wait awhile. News of this got out, was on BBC TV and in the London Times paper, and no one knew what happened to this film crew.

The UN asked for a volunteer to man a helicopter so a UN man could try to get them out. The man who volunteered was the pilot of the helicopter used in the Sylvester Stallone film that used plenty of helicopter action in a mountain area that was hazardous for a helicopter. He said he would go get Wayne and crew. The helicopter hovered at a certain place down a road outside this stronghold and no guards were at that place in the road at that time.

UN man with his nice blue helmet got to talk to our film crew and told them to take off running to that spot and the helicopter would grab them up. Then UN blue helmet guy talks to the head army guy to keep him occupied. The film crew took off, made it to the spot and pilot guy got them up in the air and out.

NOW, I DIDN'T KNOW MY KID WAS KIDNAPPED! His wife didn't want to upset me so she didn't let me know it until he was safe! I had a cat fit. Let me know if he is in trouble so I won't get a call out of the blue that he is dead. The whole of England knew it - it was on TV and in the paper.

I am lucky my kid is still alive through that event and others as he has traveled and made films in some of the worst places in this world - the Taliban in Pakistan and traveling/filming Muammar Gaddafi in Libya after Gaddafi held him prisoner in a hotel there.

Uh-oh. Bad news for CAR and South Sudan. They are fighting against Muslims. So in essence they are fighting against this administration and it's bosom buddies and allies in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and anywhere else the OIC and Muslim Brotherhood have been allowed to fester.
The regime is considering sanctions against South Sudan which really means arming the Muslims killing the Christians, the same way they armed Morsi to kill Coptic Christians. God willing, there will less martyrs to grieve over but with Hussein doing his spiritual and physical masters’ bidding, more will be added to the number.

“Do you know what became of the blue helmet guy? Sounds like a courageous fellow.”

Evidently, the UN was involved in the peace negotiations/free election so they in general were familiar with these people. He would have to have been or he would have been killed on the spot I would think. I did have a feeling of “thank you” for the UN at that time. Usually, the UN is the pits, but this time they saved my kid’s life. There is no way the film crew would have survived if that had not happened.

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