THE FORMER self styled emperor of the Central African Republic, Jean Bedel Bokassa, has died, aged 75.
The flamboyant former leader, who had been ill with kidney, suspected cerebral and other problems, died of a heart attack in the capital, Bangui.
"Bokassa played a very important role for his country," Mr Abel Goumba, leader of the opposition Patriotic Front for Progress, said adding that his "monarchical and dictatorial regime" had also caused a lot of harm.
Bokassa seized power in 1966. Modelling himself on his hero Napoleon Bonaparte, he crowned himself emperor in a ceremony in 1977. His crown alone was worth $5 million and the ceremony reputedly swallowed a quarter of the country's annual foreign exchange earnings.
Deposed in a French backed coup in 1979 while in Libya, he lived in exile in the Ivory Coast and France, the former colonial power, for many years.
A fervent Roman Catholic who fathered at least 55 children, he once flirted with the idea of becoming a priest. Instead he became a soldier in France's colonial army. Bokassa had been receiving medical care at home since returning to the Central African Republic in mid October, after about two weeks of intensive care in a clinic in the Ivory Coast.