Foreign Ministers of the United Nations: Authorize and Deploy a UN Peacekeeping Mission for Central African Republic
" Images
flowing out of the country paint a scene of unprecedented carnage. The
above photograph, used with the permission of National Geographic
photojournalist Marcus Bleasdale, offers a glimpse of the rampant
destruction being done to the people and the land. Here:
"A
member of the Christian population around PK13 on the outskirts of
Bangui runs through looted and burning homes of the Muslims who have
fled after the Seleka President Michel Djotodia resigned and left the
country in disarray. The country was ruled by a minority Muslim
government after the coup in March 2013. After months of oppression by
the Muslim Seleka Government the local population [is taking] out their
anger and frustrations on the largely innocent Muslim population." -
Marcus Bleasdale
(http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140207-central-african-republic-violence-marcus-bleasdale/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20140208news-marcphotce&utm_campaign=Content)
French
and African Union peacekeepers, deployed to CAR to protect civilians,
are unable to stop widespread brutal sectarian violence. Assaults on
Muslims and their property in whole neighborhoods in Bangui, as pictured
in PK13, and in towns liberated from Seleka (Muslim) militias are
forcing Muslims to leave their homes. They flee because peacekeepers
currently lack the manpower necessary to protect them from marauding
bands of anti-Balaka (Christian) militia intent on killing all Muslims,
brutalizing their broken bodies and destroying their property;
attempting, it seems, to erase their existence from the pages of Central
African Republic's history.
Sunday morning, in the remaining densely populated Muslim neighborhood in Bangui, Bleasdale reports:
“This morning at least ten people were hacked to death or shot and bodies were burning in the street in Kilo 5, Bangui.” -- Marcus Bleasdale (https://twitter.com/marcusbleasdale)
Within
the last few days, thousands of Muslims have fled Bangui for Chad and
Cameroon under the armed escort of African Union troops. Many thousands
more wait to flee because exodus means, even if they lose their
livelihood and property, they may still keep their lives. The anger of
Christian militias is so great that on Friday, a Muslim who fell off a
convoy truck was hacked to death by an anti-Balaka mob and left dead:
missing a foot and a hand, and genitally mutilated in the street. The
unthinkable act of his murder is terrifyingly familiar to civilians
trapped in CAR. It has become a daily bloodletting.
Anti-Balaka
violence is not isolated to Bangui, and is rapidly spreading throughout
CAR. Last week in Yaloke, Muslims were given twenty-four hours to leave
or be murdered. Property belonging to those who fled was ransacked and
looted, leaving the town utterly devastated; resembling the aftermath of
a hurricane.
The Emergency Director at Human Rights
Watch, Peter Bouckaert, explains the impact of sectarian violence on
Yaloke’s Muslim community:
“Yaloke used 2 have 30K Muslims and 8 Mosques, now has 300 Muslims and 1 Mosque, protected by #Sangaris [French peacekeepers]. Same story everywhere in #CARcrisis” – Peter Bouckaert (https://twitter.com/bouckap)
In
the Northeast, Seleka militias are regrouping. Christians caught in
their path do, and will likely continue to, suffer the same fate as
Muslims caught by anti-Balaka militias: lynching and desecration.
In
the Northwest, an armed movement named Justice et Redressement is
reported to be operating in and around Paoua and Boguila. The purpose of
this militia is not currently known. However, there is a real risk that
as the country continues to disintegrate third-party armed groups will
form to pursue their own agendas and/or foreign Jihadis will be
attracted to the fight in defense of Islam.
Addressing
the crisis in CAR now is critical. The world cannot sit by as whole
towns and cities are depopulated by grotesque bloodletting and ensuing
fear, hoping that the vastly outnumbered peacekeepers in-country will
somehow be able to turn back the violence. The world cannot pin the hope
of peace on the interim president and transitional council. The public
lynching Wednesday, February 5, 2014, of a suspected Seleka supporter by
a crowd of regrouping CAR (FACA) soldiers just moments after a
presidential address, which encouraged reconciliation, should indicate
what little influence the interim government has to end the violence. As
if this point begged more proof, it is also reported that Jean-Emmanuel
Ndjaroua, a member of the National Transitional Council, was shot to
death at home Sunday, Februrary 9, 2014, presumably as a response to his
call for an end to violence.
One million people have been
displaced by horrific sectarian strife, and every day in CAR begins and
ends with greater loss. The people of CAR, all people of CAR, need a
mandated peace protected by a strong, impartial force. The people of CAR
need the United Nations' assistance.
I write to you today to ask
the United Nations to immediately mandate a UN-led peacekeeping force
for the Central African Republic, and to deploy adequate forces as soon
as possible to prevent greater loss of life and further damage to the
prospects of securing peace.
I am aware that the United Nations
recently authorized an additional five hundred to one thousand EU
peacekeepers for CAR. However, those forces have not deployed and, once
in theater, will be insufficient to create safe havens by clearing and
holding areas wracked by violence, to impose curfews, and to disarm
militias. Without a larger contingent of peacekeepers violence in CAR
will continue.
CAR
requires the world’s long-term commitment to end the bloodshed, secure
peace and facilitate inclusive dialogue, and to recover its landscape
from what can only be described as catastrophic destruction.
Sincerely,"
[ Please sign the petition at link] Foreign Ministers of the United Nations: Authorize and Deploy a UN Peacekeeping Mission for Central African Republic https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Foreign_Ministers_of_the_United_Nations_Authorize_and_Deploy_a_UN_Peacekeeping_Mission_for_Central_African_Republic/?copy
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