BOKASSA, BRUTAL EX-DICTATOR OF AFRICAN NATION.

Byline: Associated Press 

He was one of Africa's most ruthless dictators, accused of killing and eating those who dared criticize his regime. But Central Africans still mourned Jean-Bedel Bokassa, who the government said Monday would be honored with a state funeral.

Bokassa died Sunday evening of a heart attack at a clinic in Bangui. He was 75, and had been in poor health since suffering a brain hemorrhage in October 1995.

When national radio made no mention of the death, word spread quickly and several thousand mourners gathered Monday outside the main hospital where Bokassa's body lay in a morgue.

Some wept, and others sent messages of condolence despite a tyrannical rule from 1966-79 that included the massacre of 100 children after they complained about school uniforms they were required to buy from his factory.

The army lieutenant colonel seized power on Jan. 1, 1966, six years after the country won independence from France. He was ousted in a French-backed coup in 1979 after a bizarre rule that included proclaiming himself Emperor Bokassa I three years earlier.

Bokassa made a fortune during his years in power by exploiting the country's mineral resources, particularly its diamond mines, while the living standard of his 3.4 million subjects plummeted.

Bokassa embarrassed French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing by declaring he had given him diamonds. Giscard said he sold the diamonds and gave the proceeds to charity, but the affair tainted the French leader's image at home.

Long backed by France, which had key interests in the country's uranium trade, Bokassa found himself increasingly alienated by human rights abuses.

These included the 1979 slaughter of the schoolchildren in Bangui's Ngaragba prison. Reports of the massacre led to international condemnation and a cutoff of U.S. aid.

Later that year, while Bokassa was in Libya, he was ousted in a bloodless coup by French troops. They reinstated the country's first president, David Dacko, who had himself been tossed out by Bokassa.