LIBREVILLE: "Ethnic cleansing" is being carried
out against Muslim civilians in the Central African Republic, with international peacekeepers unable to
prevent it, Amnesty International said on Wednesday. France's defence minister earlier called on international
forces deployed in the Christian-majority country to put an end to attacks by
the militias "by force if
needed". Amnesty said it had documented at least 200 killings of Muslim
civilians by Christian militia groups known as the anti-balaka, set up in the
wake of the March 2013 coup by the mainly-Muslim Seleka rebellion. (Inset: Burning/looting of Muslim
property and a mosque in PK 26 area, north of the capital Bangui in late
January.© Amnesty International)
"Ethnic cleansing' of Muslims has been carried out in
the western part of the Central African Republic, the most populous part of the
country, since early January 2014," Amnesty International said in a report. "Entire Muslim communities have been forced to flee, and
hundreds of Muslim civilians who have not managed to escape have been killed by
the loosely organised militias known as anti-balaka."
The group said
attacks against Muslims had been committed "with the stated intent to
forcibly displace these communities from the country," with many
anti-balaka fighters viewing Muslims as "'foreigners' who should leave the
country or be killed". "They appear to be achieving their aims, with Muslims
being forced out of the country in increasingly large numbers," it said.
The impoverished country descended into chaos last March
after the rebellion overthrew the government, sparking deadly violence that has
uprooted a million people out of a population of 4.6 million. Atrocities, the
fear of attacks and a lack of food have displaced a quarter of the country's
population, while the United Nations and relief agencies estimate that at least
two million people need humanitarian assistance. The landlocked country has been prone to coups, rebellions
and mutinies for decades, but the explosion in interreligious violence is
unprecedented.
Amnesty urged international peacekeeping forces in the
country to "take rapid steps to
break anti-balaka control over the country's road network, and to station
sufficient troops in towns where Muslims are threatened". It called for international troops to be granted the
necessary resources to achieve this, warning of a "tragedy of historic
proportions" that could set a precedent for other countries in the region
struggling with sectarian or ethnic conflict.
Amnesty International
criticized the international community’s tepid response to the crisis, noting
that international peacekeeping troops have been reluctant to challenge
anti-balaka militias, and slow to protect the threatened Muslim minority. “International peacekeeping
troops have failed to stop the violence,” said Donatella
Rovera, senior crisis response adviser at Amnesty International.“They have acquiesced to
violence in some cases by allowing abusive anti-balaka militias to fill the
power vacuum created by the Seleka’s departure.”
“The result is a Muslim
exodus of historic proportions.” To escape the anti-balaka’s
deadly attacks, the entire Muslim populace has fled from numerous towns and
villages while in others, the few who remain have taken refuge in and around
churches and mosques.
International concern over
the sectarian nature of the violence in the CAR led the UN Security Council in
December 2013 to authorize the deployment of peacekeeping forces to the
country. Those forces—comprised of about 5,500 African Union troops, known as
MISCA, and 1,600 French troops, known as “Sangaris”—have been deployed within
Bangui and to several towns north and southwest of the capital.
Even in the PK 5
neighbourhood at the centre of Bangui's Muslim community, thousands of
frightened people are packing up and leaving home.
Congolese President Denis Sassou
Nguesso, who is
a mediator in the conflict, said for his part: "It is the duty of the international community to act with more
firmness and diligence to end the reign of barbarism." In New York, UN chief Ban
Ki-Moon told reporters: "The sectarian brutality is changing
the country's demography. The de facto partition of the C.A.R. is a distinct
risk."
He added: "The
international response does not yet match the gravity of the situation."We must do
more to prevent more atrocities, protect civilians, restore law and order,
provide humanitarian assistance and hold the country together."
For the Amnesty Report in Full, click here