I det lovløse, kaotiske land nord for DR Congo søger både kristne og muslimske ledere at hælde vand på det ulmende bål på skillelinjen mellem Afrikas to store religioner, mens hundredtusinder er fordrevet og landsbyer bevæbner sig i selvforsvars-grupper.
BOSSANGOA, 27 November 2013 (IRIN) – Shocked by an escalation of killings, rapes and other abuses (overgreb) committed by Muslims against Christians, and vice versa, in the Central African Republic (CAR), leading clerics (gejstlige) from both faiths recently travelled together to preach peace and listen to tales of horror.
The level of violence, lawless and impunity (straffrihed) that prevails in CAR – where a “human catastrophe of epic proportions is unfolding”, according to Amnesty International – is so great that Archbishop Dieudonne Nzapalainga and Oumar-Kobine Layama, the country’s leading imam, had to travel under an armed escort.
Wave of lawlessness
The latest chapter in CAR’s history of violence began in December 2012.
At that time a coalition of predominantly Muslim rebel forces – known as Seleka – bolstered by mercenaries from neighbouring Chad and Sudan and convicts (indsatte) sprung from prison, advanced southwards, eventually toppling president Francois Bozizé in March.
In response to the rebellion and the wave of lawlessness that followed the official disbanding of Seleka in September, and in the absence of police or other state security forces, the largely Christian population in villages across the north formed self-defence units called anti-balaka (“anti-machete” in the Sango language.)
Recent Timeline
* 24 March: Seleka fighters seize the capital Bangui toppling Francois Bozizé’s regime
* 19 July: African Union Peace and Security Council authorizes the deployment of the African-led International Support Mission for the Central African Republic (MISCA)
* 18 August: Michel Djotodia formally sworn in as president. The following month he announces Seleka’s disbanding
* 10 October: UN Security Council adopts a resolution to consider establishing a peacekeeping force, asks the Secretary-General to submit a report within 30 days to outline how to support the AU’s 3,600-strong MISCA force, which is in the process of being fully deployed
* 08 November: the UN’s top Human Rights official, Navi Pillay, warns that the violence could “spin out of control”
* 21 November: French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says CAR is “on the verge of genocide”
* 25 November: France says it will triple the number of soldiers in CAR to 1,200 if the Security Council authorizes a peacekeeping mission
“We have reached the worst of the worst”
“Now we need to ask ourselves: Do we want to push this country towards inter-confessional (religiøs) war, or should people work together and build this country? This is what leaders need to consider,” said Nzapalainga in Bossangoa – 300 km north of the capital, Bangui.
Here some 36.000 people are seeking refuge in the grounds of the Catholic mission as well as in a school.
In all, some 400.000 people are displaced (fordrevet) in CAR, most of them living in the bush with little access to clean water or humanitarian relief.
The country had “reached the worst of the worst” in every sense, he said.
“We have never seen people fleeing to a Catholic mission for safety, kids abandoning their schools in their masses, hospitals without medicines, or the Christian and Muslim populations turning against one another,” Arcbishop Nzapalainga further noted.
Fears of genocide (folkemord)
The town’s bishop, Nestor Aziagba, and Imam Layama both spoke of their fears of a genocide, a prospect also recently evoked by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, senior UN officials as well as human rights activists.
“The rebels fight the non-Muslim local population, and then the [anti-balaka] militias fight back the rebels and the Muslim community. We are at this divide, this sharp divide, between the Christian and the Muslim community,” said Aziagba.
“What I want to prevent is a war against brother and sisters who have been living side by side for many years,” he said, admitting this was impossible without greater commitment from the new government led by Michel Djotodia, the country’s first Muslim head of state.
For his part, Djotodia has conceded (indrømmet) he has little or no control of the former rebels.
“But unfortunately this government is not assuming its responsibilities,” Aziagba said.
The leading Imam, Loyama, appeared shocked by the level of destruction he had seen on the way to Bossangoa.
“What we have seen surpassed our understanding, as what we saw along the road is that there are really no towns anymore,” he said.
“We, the religious leaders, are trying to do our part, but we ask the government to also do their part. It is not all the Christians that are anti-balaka, like we are hearing here, or that all the Muslims are Seleka, which is the perception (opfattelsen),” he added.
Mayhem (lemlæstelse)
Læs videre på
http://www.irinnews.org/report/99216/religious-violence-and-the-seeds-of-hate-in-car
