Editing Jean-Bédel Bokassa (section)

===Fall of the empire===
By 12:30 p.m. on 21 September, the pro-French Dacko proclaimed the fall of the Central African Empire and the restoration of the Central African Republic under his presidency. David Dacko remained president until he was overthrown on 1 September 1981 by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Kolingba André Kolingba]. Bokassa, who was visiting Libya on a state visit at the time, fled to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%B4te_d%27Ivoire Côte d'Ivoire] (Ivory Coast) where he spent four years living in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abidjan Abidjan]. He then moved to France where he was allowed to settle in his Chateau d'[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardricourt Hardricourt] in the suburb of Paris. France gave him political asylum because of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Foreign_Legion French Foreign Legion] obligations.

During Bokassa's seven-year of exile, he wrote his memoirs after complaining that his French military pension was insufficient. But the French courts ordered that all 8,000 copies of the book be confiscated and destroyed after his publisher claimed that Bokassa said that he shared women with President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who has been a frequent guest in the Central African Republic. Bokassa also claimed to have given Giscard a gift of diamonds worth around a quarter of a million dollars in 1973 while the French president was serving as finance minister. Giscard's next presidential reelection campaign failed in the wake of the scandal. Bokassa's presence in France proved embarrassing to many government ministers who supported him during his entire rule.