C.A.R. Muslims victims of ‘ethnic cleansing’
United Nations decries growing violence as tens of thousands flee country
DAKAR — The exodus of tens of thousands of Muslims from Central African Republic amounts to “ethnic cleansing,” a top United Nations official and Amnesty International said Wednesday.
The rights group warned that the sectarian bloodshed underway despite the presence of thousands of peacekeepers is a “tragedy of historic proportions.”
In a visit to Bangui, the country’s lawless capital, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said “ethnic-religious cleansing” threatens to tear apart the country, and he called for the international community to help the country’s interim government restore order.
His trip comes a day after the UN chief used his strongest language yet to describe the unfolding humanitarian crisis. “We cannot just continue to say ‘never again.’ This, we have said so many times,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said late Tuesday. “We must act concertedly and now to avoid continued atrocities on a massive scale.”
More than 1,000 Christians and Muslims have been killed since sectarian fighting erupted in early December and nearly one million people in this country of 4.6 million have fled their homes.
The country’s Muslim minority, about 15 per cent of the population, has come under growing attack from not only Christian militiamen but also from civilian mobs that have carried out almostdaily public killings in recent weeks. In most cases, the bodies of Muslim victims were mutilated and sometimes dragged through the streets or set on fire.
For months, UN and French officials have warned that a genocide could be looming in Central African Republic.
Amnesty International said that while it is a big step to use the term “ethnic cleansing,” it is justified “given the level of violent and purposeful forced displacement we’ve been seeing,” said Joanne Mariner, senior crisis adviser for the organization in the country’s capital.
“The exodus of Muslims from the Central African Republic is a tragedy of historic proportions,” the report said.
“Not only does the current pattern of ethnic cleansing do tremendous damage to the Central African Republic itself, it sets a terrible precedent for other countries in the region, many of which are already struggling with their own sectarian and inter-ethnic conflicts.”
The wave of violence against Muslim civilians is being committed by Christian militiamen known as the anti-Balaka, or anti-machete, who stepped up their attacks as a Muslim rebel government crumbled in January. At the time, rights groups warned that the Muslim minority — accused by many Christians of supporting the brutal Muslim regime of Seleka rebels who seized power last March — would be especially vulnerable to retaliatory attacks.
In recent days, thousands of Muslims have climbed aboard trucks going to neighbouring Chad, a predominantly Muslim country whose soldiers have provided armed protection to the refugee convoys.
“The mass killing of civilians, destructions of homes, businesses and mosques and other means used by the antiBalaka to ‘ethnically cleanse’ the Central African Republic of its Muslim population constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes,” Amnesty said.
The concerns were echoed Wednesday by Human Rights Watch, which has also been documenting the violence and has helped get Muslims to safety. The group said Yaloke, a major gold-trading centre, had previously been home to 30,000 Muslims and had eight mosques before fighting erupted. As of early this month, just one mosque remained and fewer than 500 Muslims were still in town — under the protection of 1,600 French peacekeepers.