Opinion
New African genocide, 20 years after Rwanda
Tarek Fatah
Today at 7:00 PM
As sectarian violence continues, internally displaced people wait for
food distribution by a foreign non-governmental organization in the
town of Boda, Central African Republic, on April 15. Goran
Tomasevic/REUTERS
"This has become a country where people are not just killed, they are
tortured, mutilated, burned and dismembered ... Children have been
decapitated, and we know of at least four cases where the killers have
eaten the flesh of their victims."
Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, was describing
conditions in the Central African Republic (CAR), where the country's
entire minority Muslim population faces either death or expulsion at
the hands of the Christian majority.
According to Amnesty International, the troubles in CAR began when the
Muslim "Seleka" militia started a murderous rampage in the northeast
of the country.
It then seized the capital of Bangui in March, 2013, ousting president
Francois Bozize, a Christian, and replacing him with a Muslim, Michel
Djotodia.
Amnesty reports that over the next 10 months, the mainly Muslim
militia killed countless Christian civilians, burned numerous villages
and looted thousands of homes.
To fight the Seleka troops, the Christian population organized their
own militias and started carrying out reprisal raids on Muslim
neighbourhoods.
By November, 2013, violence reached such levels, the UN warned CAR was
at risk of spiraling into genocide.
Unable to hold on to power, on January 10 of this year, Djotodia
resigned and fled the country.
With him gone, the tide turned against the Muslim militia, resulting
in an unprecedented orgy of reprisal revenge attacks on Muslims across
the country that have not stopped.
The Associated Press reported thousands of Muslims who tried to flee
the sectarian violence in Bangui were turned back by peacekeepers as
crowds of angry Christians shouted, "we're going to kill you all." As
Muslims tried to flee to neighbouring Chad and Cameroon, Reuters
reported Christian militias were blocking the main roads used by
Muslim civilians and attacking the refugees.
According to Amnesty, the stated goal of the Christian militias is now
to rid the country of Muslims forever.
And as the world looks on, the killing continues. At this rate, CAR
will be Muslim-free in a matter of months.
The killings come at a time when the world is observing the twentieth
anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide.
Canadian Sen. Romeo Dallaire, who witnessed the 1994 genocide in
Rwanda as a UN peacekeeper, says, "Let's not divorce what's happening
in the Central African Republic with what happened 20 years ago in
Rwanda." In an interview with the Guardian, he said, "We've actually
established a damn pecking order and the sub-Saharan black African --
yes we're interested but it just doesn't count enough to spill our
blood, to get embroiled in something complex that will need
longer-term stability and influence."
For Muslims around the world, witnessing yet another Muslim community
suffering mass murder, and so soon after the killings in Myanmar, it's
traumatic.
It's easy to start believing in conspiracy theories and to become
addicted to victimhood.
However, as a Muslim I believe this latest tragedy sends us a message
we must not ignore, whether we are in Africa, Asia or here in North
America.
The problems we Muslims face are the making of our poor political and
religious leadership.
If we wish to join the rest of humanity, we need to get rid of those
who now hold our reins.
We need to free ourselves from bondage.
If we don't, the Central African Republic will not be the last tragedy
we will face.
http://m.torontosun.com/2014/04/15/new-african-genocide-20-years-after-rwanda
--
SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
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