By
Leah H. Mwainyekule
The United Nations Humanitarian Affairs
office has warned that there are “seeds” of genocide being planted in the
Central African Republic (CAR). The Director,
John Ging, made the remark while being interviewed by CNN during the Amanpour program, and he expressed his
concern on what was currently going on in the country.
Ging’s concerns are due to the fact
that the ongoing clashes in the heart of Africa are sectarian, creating more
tension between the Christian and the Muslim societies. Quite a big number of people have already
been killed and thousands others are fleeing their homes, fearing for their
lives.
The UN Official has one specific plea:
The UN Security Council should allow a special peace force to intervene, taking
into consideration the reality that the CAR is incapable of offering security,
neither is its military nor the police force.
The issue will be addressed to the Security Council very soon, and Ging
hopes that the resolution will be passed, so that the world does not experience
yet again what happened in Rwanda, Balkans and Darfur.
There is a possibility that some might
not take Mr. Ging’s plea seriously, especially since the world is busy
concentrating more on the Arab Spring, specifically with the war within Syria
where it is no secret that some big nations are still in a heated argument on
whether or not to use military force on al-Assad’s government.
However, what is going on in the CAR is also huge, and if preventive
measures are not taken now, we might regret in the future.
Let us look a bit at the Central
African Republic. As it is with nearly
all African countries colonised by Europeans, the CAR is also rich in natural
resources, and it has a history of being governed by dictators. It gained its independence from the French in
1958, and it has already experienced four coups since 1960. In short, this is country whose 4.6 million people
are used to violent politics.
One of the former rulers, Jean- Bédel Bokassa
who took over the country in 1966 claimed that he was a Caesar with the likes
of Napoleon. Rumours had it that Bokassa
used to eat human flesh, and human limbs were normally stored in his freezers.
Despite the political history, the CAR
is also surrounded by countries who are involved in conflicts as well. It is boarded by Congo to the south, a
country that has been in war since 1998; while it shares its northern boarder
with Sudan, a country that has also been in civil war since 2004.
The current violence in the CAR involves
the Séléka rebels, a group that involves five rebel groups, including UFDR and
CPJP that are accused of having elements of jihad. All those groups opposed the government for
many years, and in March this year they took over the capital city of Bangui
with an estimated 5,000 fighters, and overthrew President Francois Bozizé.
The leader of the Séléka group, Michel
Djotodia declared himself president after the coup, but right now he has lost
power over the Séléka rebels and what is going on right now is the groups stirring
religious conflicts between Christians and Muslims. It should be remembered that Djotodia is a
Muslim leading a country where 80 percent of its people are Christian. The worst case scenario is that there is
evidence that the rebels have been involved in war crimes, including murder.
People are running away from their
homes because the killings are focused on ordinary citizens. This has caused many of them to find refuge
in the bushes and elsewhere, since instead of the clashes being between the
government and the rebels – as it is for countries like Syria – they are
actually between Islam and Christianity.
In the village of Bossangoa, for
example, about 35,000 people are reported to have fled their homes and sought
refuge at the Catholic Mission. Most of
them are Christians who are scared of being killed by the Islamic groups. At the same time, Muslims are also afraid of
being killed by Christian groups seeking revenge, and they have also ran away
from their villages and taken refuge at the Liberty school. What is going on is the ghost villages being
burnt down by fighters of both sides.
There are currently 1,100 troops from
the African Union peace keeping force, and the organisation is expected to add
more troops that will reach 3,600; but that is not until 2014. This means that despite reports of rebel
fighters using guns and machetes to kill people, citizens of the CAR will have
to depend on the security of the 200 policemen available in that country.
What is more surprising is that
prominent leaders, such as US President Barack Obama do not seem to be
concerned about what is happening in the CAR, despite different organisations
explaining the situation and how they are offering relief efforts to the
refugees.
This is why a number of organisations,
including the United Nations, are begging the Security Council to permit UN
troops to intervene so as to prevent what might happen, and so as to prevent
having another genocide as it was for the case of Rwanda.
But then why is the case of Rwanda
being associated to what is happening in the CAR? I do not want to go into detail about the
colonial history of the treatment of Hutus and Tutsis that are said to be the
major reason for what happened, but I would like to talk a bit about the events
that happened leading to the 1994 genocide.
The film ‘Ghosts of Rwanda’ which shows interviews of different people who
were in Rwanda prior, during and after the 1994 genocide, shows very clearly
how the international community did not take seriously what was going on in
that country. Even the Rwandan media was
used to propagate the killings of Tutsis against Hutus, reaching a point of
naming those who were supposed to be killed, and where they were. This was no secret, and the UN official who
was in Rwanda at the time was informed, but his pleas to the headquarters to
permit an intervention were unsuccessful.
The United States, on the other hand also did not want to get involved
in another country’s affairs, and said it respected “freedom of speech”
practised by the media.
What happened after that was a series
of killings of more than 800,000 people in 100 days, and only stopped when the
RPF rebels, led by General Paul Kagame decided to intervene and defeated the
Interahamwe militia who were administering the slaughters. After that Rwanda received so many message of
“sympathy” from different world leaders, including the United Nations and the
former US President Bill Clinton who visited the country to express their
condolences.
The pleas from different people and
different organisations should not be taken lightly. What is happening in the Central African
Republic is more serious than others might think, since the religious
incitement going on is planting a bad seed – one that will soon sprout and instigate
more harm as was in the case of Rwanda in 1994.
Condemning and denouncing does not help to restore peace, unless we want
to wait until the point when things get out of hand. We should act fast, and we should act
now. I hereby forward my motion.
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