generalspeaking

Compassion: None

"The very fabric of society, woven over generations, is being ripped apart.
"We must live up to the promises made around this table to act swiftly and robustly in the face of such bloodshed.
"We cannot claim to care about mass atrocity crimes and then shrink from what it means to actually prevent them."
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Just a few days ago a news journalist in Bangui reported that he witnessed a crowd of Christians identifying a Muslim in the crowd that had been addressed by the Central African Republic's new Christian president. As soon as she left, after complimenting members of the country's military for their actions in restoring calm, the crowd set upon the man and tore him limb from limb. The Western journalist, looking on aghast, could do nothing to stop them.

And nor can Ban Ki-moon's urging to the Security Council do much to stop the mindless bloody rage that has overtaken the Christian population of the CAR. For a relatively brief period of time the Christian majority had been under rule by a Muslim minority president when Muslim militias had removed the democratically elected Christian government. The majority Christians claim to have been oppressed by the Muslim militants, protected under the brief Muslim administration.

This is a country where traditionally Muslims and Christians have lived peacefully together. Now, suddenly, to be a Muslim in the Central African Republic is to be a wanted man, woman or child; wanted for the vengeance that the Christians are prepared to vent in bloody slaughter upon them all. And Muslims are terrorized, anxious to escape with their families from the threat that encompasses them, destroying their past and threatening their future.

Thousands of Muslims were loaded onto trucks in a convoy over a 100-strong convoy of trucks of all descriptions, trying to escape the country to save their lives. One man who fell off his precarious perch on one of the trucks was immediately surrounded and to the dread horror of those remaining on the truck, was torn apart, those watching, immobilized in fear, taunted by the crowd to come within their reach.

The convoy was turned back. Christians had gathered along the road, mocking the terrorized Muslims, many of whom had barely managed to escape murderous throngs out to kill them only days earlier. African peacekeepers instructed everyone to return to a local mosque on the orders of a Burundian captain. The peacekeepers were concerned that as the procession passed through neighbourhoods where fresh fighting had erupted, the refugees would be vulnerable to further attack.

Muslims have been attacked and killed every day in the riotous atmosphere of vengeance, despite the very presence of the African peacekeepers. The presence of French military personnel is fragmented and insufficient in numbers, and France has advised it plans to send an additional 400 military in hopes of ameliorating the situation.

All of the desperate Muslims, those managing to escape the killing mobs, stand accused of supporting the Muslin Seleka government that the Christian militias forced from power last month. The Seleka Muslim rebels were deeply despised, their fighters accused of human rights abuses against the country's Christian majority in the ten months of Muslim rule.

Now, it seems, the Christians, with their upper hand, are determined to show no mercy to the people who were formerly their neighbours, intent on visiting upon them the vengeance of inhumanity.

Labels: Africa, Atrocities, Conflict, Social Dysfunction

posted by Pieface @ Monday, February 17, 2014