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gli orfani dell'Arc en Ciel
les orphelins du Centre Arc en Ciel |
A little worrisome
...
Many of you are already aware ... It has been a pretty hectic week. Saturday, April
27th I returned to the river, because I wanted to see the situation in the
Ouham, and the Chinese companies that extract gold from it.
Saturday morning,
27 of April, I wanted to look at the situation about the Ouham river, and the
Chinese mining companies present to extract gold.
I take some
photos and some video of the works that have practically continued.
When I start my way back to the mission, a soldier comes toward me and
orders me to stop. He is armed, and I do not really trust him, so I tell him I
just want to continue on my way. He then calls by radio other soldiers, who
arrive immediately.
They ask me why I
had come to take photos… and I tell them that it is not forbidden, even less so
because I was not even at the work area but on the other side of what was the
Ouham river. They are very upset, and they threaten me, they yell and pull away
my camera and my phone, then pat me down and search my pockets.
They walk with me
to the place where I left my car, and there they tell me I am arrested! One of
them asks me whether I am not ashamed, as a man of God, to be doing “that kind
of thing”. I reply that I am rather ashamed of him, who is supposed to protect
the country, and not to sell it to foreigners…
Since I insist
that I was not on the works area, they want me to show them where I was when I
took the photos. We start walking again, under the sun at full force, and we do
for the third time the 1.5 km. Afterwards we go back to my car, of which they
had already taken the keys, they make me climb in the back seat and depart at
high speed toward the “Brigade Minière” (donation of the Chinese!!!). But we
have to go across the city of Bozoum and the people looking on understand
immediately that there is a problem.
When we arrive to
the Brigade Minière, a large group of young people, women and other people
arrive, yelling and demanding that I am liberated. The situation is almost
comical: the soldiers do not know what to do, and there I am waiting… After a
few minutes, they decide to let me go, but I demand to have my camera and my
phone back.
Finally, I come
out of the Brigade Minière. The large group celebrates loudly and I leave by
motorcycle (the car keys had not yet arrived back). The entire population of
the city are in the streets, happy that I have been freed, but also very angry
toward the authorities, and above all against the Chinese mining company.
I go back home,
but in the meantime the city is really in upheaval: the people set up road
blocks, and a car of the Chinese company is set on fire.
The crowd intends
to go toward the mining works, to chase the Chinese away. Then I return to the
city with the Prefect and the Public Prosecutor, and we try to calm down the
people. But exactly at the same time a vehicle of the FACA (armed forces of
Central Africa), arrives at high speed with about ten soldiers. They are armed,
but the crowd (already between 3000 and 4000 people) moves toward them and
forces them to back away. When they are close to the vehicle, the soldiers
start shooting toward the people at point-blank range: we all throw ourselves
to the ground, and thanks to the Lord there are no casualties!
Finally, they
leave. I bring back the crowd to the center of the city, I climb on one of the
road blocks and thank them, but I tell them to please go back to their homes,
and do not commit more violent acts. I also say that the problem of the salvage
exploitation of the river has to be solved according to the law.
And they leave!
Merci na Nzapa.
Thanks be to God!
The following
days have been very intense. The Bangui authorities accused me of being a gold
dealer!
Finally, for
once, they let me publish some of the photos of the occurrences happening
here. With the help of God (and of many
people): here are the images, my gold!
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| LYcée St Augustin, 2007 |
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Aiuti ai profughi, 2008
Aides aux déplacés, 2008 |
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Febbraio 2019
Février 2019 |
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Lo studio dentistico
le cabinet dentaire |
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| Aggiungi didascalia |
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Fiera di Bozoum
Foire de Bozoum |
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Gli orti di Bozoum
Les jardins potagers de Bozoum |
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2013: aiuti a Bata, vittima di un attacco della Seleka
2013: aides à Bata, victime d'une attaque de la Séleka |
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Il Centro di Formazione Femminile di Bozoum
Le Centre de formation féminine de Bozoum |
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La Cassa di Risparmio e Credito di Bozoum
La Caisse d'épargne et crédit de Bozoum |
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La cappella di Tatale
La chapelle de Tatale |
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La Chiesa di Bozoum
l'église de Bozoum |
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Formazione delle cooperative agricole
Formation des groupements agricoles |
