AFRICA: Papa in the Dock

Unrest, protest, massacre

The Butcher of Bangui," as the African newspaper has dubbed His Imperial Majesty Emperor Bokassa I of the Central African Empire, is a ruler whose future may be on the block. Last week the U.S. suddenly recalled Ambassador Goodwin Cooke, following reports by Amnesty International, the London-based human rights organization, that in April about 100 schoolchildren had been murdered by Bokassa's imperial guard in the capital of Bangui. A week earlier, French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing pointedly avoided shaking hands with the Emperor at a Franco-African conference in Rwanda....

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