UN Says West of CAR Cleansed of Muslims
Widespread violence in the former French colony has claimed thousands of lives in recent months. Attacks intensified in December when "anti-Balaka" militias drawn from the majority Christian population stepped up reprisals on Muslims.
"Since early December we have effectively witnessed a 'cleansing' of the majority of the Muslim population in western CAR," Guterres said at a meeting of the UN Security Council on the crisis in the impoverished and landlocked country.
"Tens of thousands of them [Muslims] have left the country, the second refugee outflow of the current crisis, and most of those remaining are under permanent threat," he said.
The council is considering a UN proposal for a nearly 12 000-strong peacekeeping force to stop the country from sliding toward what a top UN rights official called "ethnic-religious cleansing." If approved, the UN force would likely not be operational before late summer.
"Just last week, there were about 15 000 people trapped in 18 locations in western CAR, surrounded by anti-Balaka elements and at very high risk of attack," Guterres said.
"International forces are present in some of these sites, but if more security is not made available immediately, many of these civilians risk being killed right before our eyes."
Guterres said that until last year CAR "was largely a stranger to religious conflict". But the worsening bloodshed has enabled armed groups to use religion as a pretext for violence.
"The demon of religious cleansing must be stopped - now," he said.
The UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told the 15-nation council about the urgent need for the UN peacekeepers.
"The state has virtually no capacity to manage the massive array of threats it is facing," he said. "There is no national army and the remnants of the police and gendarmerie lack the basic equipment and means to exercise their duties, while state administration is largely absent throughout the country."
Source: Reuters
