Violence against Muslims Escalates in CAR
In Bangui, the capital, bloodshed and looting reign despite the presence of thousands of French and African peacekeepers.
"We are in a moment where immediate action is needed to stop the killings," Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch told The Associated Press, calling for a full-fledged U.N. peacekeeping mission.
"Otherwise the future of the Muslim community of this country will be gone."
No one knows the true death toll from two months of the worst inter-communal violence in this country's history: It is often too dangerous for crews to recover the corpses. Children have also been targets of beheadings and mutilation.
More than 1,000 were killed during several days of fighting in early December, when a Christian militia attempted to overthrow the Muslim rebel government then in power.
Muslims make up about 15 percent of Central African Republic's 4.6 million people. More than 800,000 people have fled their homes — about half of those from the capital, according to the United Nations.
"There are some who don't want Muslims in this country," Prime Minister Andre Nzapayeke said on local radio Saturday.
"But when the Muslims have left the country, what happens next? The Protestants will throw out the Catholics, and then the Baptists against the Evangelists, and finally the animists? It is time we regain control and stop ourselves from plunging into an abyss."
Thousands of Muslims left Bangui in a massive convoy Friday that was jeered by crowds of Christians.
One Muslim who fell off a truck was quickly killed by the mob. Muslim women who could not get on the trucks tried to hand their children to strangers aboard the vehicles.
Whole neighborhoods are abandoned and Muslims who cannot leave are hiding inside mosques that have not already been set ablaze or destroyed by angry crowds.
Entire Muslim communities also have left towns in the rural northwest, sometimes only to come under attack from Christian militiamen and die while trying to get out of the anarchic country.
Across a wide stretch of northwest Central African Republic, Christian militiamen known as the anti-Balaka (or anti-machete) have driven tens of thousands of Muslims out of the area.
Many are seeking refuge in Chad or Cameroon, as there are few corners of Central African Republic where Muslims make up an outright majority.
Source: AP
