Friday, December 29, 2006 at 12:12am

President teaches Baptists tough lesson

The president of the Central African Republic ordered the homes of two Baptist ministers to be set on fire as punishment for burning a rival pastor's house.

President Francois Bozize announced Thursday that he ordered the army to set the homes of the two dissident Baptist preachers on fire to teach them a lesson after they did the same to a rival pastor's house.

The president wanted "to make them experience the suffering they had inflicted on others," according to a statement broadcast on the private radio station Ndeke Luka, IOL.com reported Friday.

On Monday, members of a dissident branch of the Baptist church in Bangui, who were prevented the day before from holding a Christmas service in the chapel, set fire to the home of pastor Thomas Touangaye.