Ange-Félix Patassé
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Ange-Félix Patassé (January 25, 1937 – April 5, 2011) was a Central African politician who was President of the Central African Republic from 1993 until 2003, when he was deposed by the rebel leader François Bozizé. Patassé was the first president in the CAR's history (since 1960) to be chosen in what was generally regarded as a fairly democratic election (1993) in that it was brought about by donor pressure on the André Kolingba and assisted by the United Nations Electoral Assistance Unit.
He was chosen a second time in a fair election (1999) as well. However, during his first term in office (1993–1999), three military mutinies in 1996–1997 led to increasing conflict between so-called "northerners" (like Patassé) and "southerners" (like his predecessor President André Kolingba). Expatriate mediators and peacekeeping troops were brought in to negotiate peace accords between Patassé and the mutineers and to maintain law and order. During his second term as president, Patassé increasingly lost the support of many of his long-time allies as well as the French, who had intervened to support him during his first term in office. Patassé was ousted in March 2003 and went into exile in Togo.
Biography edit
Ange-Félix Patassé was born on January 25, 1937 in Paoua, in the former Oubangui-Chari, then French Equatorial Africa (now Central Africa). He studied agronomy in France, then joined the civil service of the new independent Central African Republic in 1960. After Jean-Bédel Bokassa's coup d'état in 1965 against President David Dacko , Patassé obtained various ministerial portfolios before being appointed Prime Minister in 1976, during the imperial period Bokassa I st.
He resigned in 1978 and went into exile in France, where he formed a political party opposed to the latter. He returned to the Central African Republic the following year when David Dacko, supported by the French army, returned to power and reestablished the republic. In 1981, Patassé lost the presidential election to Dacko; he had to leave the country again when President Dacko was overthrown the same year by General André Kolingba .
In 1993, Patassé, who returned from exile the previous year, won the ballot against Kolingba and Dacko, and became President of the Central African Republic. But the order was quickly threatened by mutinies that took place in 1996, in a context of economic slump and social tensions.
Ange-Félix Patassé was re-elected in 1999 in a climate of violence and widespread corruption. Despite some political and economic reforms, he set up an authoritarian and fanciful regime. He is accused of corruption, embezzlement and enslavement to international peacekeeping forces (United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic). After a first failed coup attempt in 2001, he was finally ousted from power in March 2003 by his former chief of staff, General François Bozizé. Ange-Félix Patassé died on April 5, 2011 in Douala, Cameroon.