“More than 1,000 people have been killed in violent attacks in Bangui, Central African Republic (CAR)”, said human rights group Amnesty International.
Violence broke out two weeks ago (Dec 5) in Bangui, the republic’s capital city, with an early morning attack by the Christian militia. During the days that followed the initial eruption, acts of terror have “continued at a staggering pace”, said the organization in a preliminary report released today.
- The dead in Bangui — Amnesty International photo
“Kill the Muslims” graffiti on mosque walls
Amnesty has documented that the crimes committed in CAR include “extrajudicial executions, mutilation of bodies, intentional destruction of religious buildings such as mosques, and the forced displacement of massive numbers of people”.
In what Amnesty describes as “a shocking escalation of anti-Muslim rhetoric within the Christian community,” the walls of mosques were daubed with the threat “Tuer les musulmans” (Kill the Muslims). CAR is a Christian-majority country that was formerly a French colony.
“They came to kill”
Another international NGO, the Human Rights Watch (HRW), released its separate report today as well.
The HRW report titled ‘They came to kill’ can be read in pdf (here)
Author of the report, Peter Bouckaert who is HRW emergencies director, said: “The brutal killings in the Central African Republic are creating a cycle of murder and reprisal that threatens to spin out of control.”
“Mutual fear of Christians and Muslims”
The United Nations has also issued its own earlier report which warned that “the current carnage, the physical separation and mutual fear of Christians and Muslims, provide a fertile recruiting ground for extremists”.
Murderous confrontations between Christians and Muslims have already “devastated northern Nigeria and is percolating in neighboring Cameroon”, said the CNN in its article ‘Religious violence in CAR plagues “most abandoned people on earth”.’ (12 Dec 2013)
According to CNN, the UN report expressed the fear that the dynamic of religious violence between Muslims and Christians may spill beyond the landlocked country’s borders and destabilize the region.
Within CAR itself, the UN News Centre last week reported that aside from Bangui, the situation is also “tense in several towns, including Bouca, Bossangoa and Bozoum, where a vicious cycle of attacks and reprisals continues”.
“Nation on the verge of genocide”
Both sides of the religious divide in CAR are responsible for the killings. The ‘Seleka’ Muslim militia have “killed Christians in their homes and attacked hospitals and churches”, according to the CNN article cited above.
The international news organization quoted anthropologist Louisa Lombard, who has made a study of the dividing lines in CAR’s painfully fractured society, as saying there is “a complete lack of trust among communities”.
“Greed is a factor”
A CNN special report headlined ‘Fears of genocide: 10 things to know about the Central African Republic‘ provides an FAQ backgrounder.
<excerpts>
Q: So why all the chaos?
“It started as anti-government resentment.”
Q: What happened after the [deposed] President left [the country to go into exile]?
“The nation plunged into chaos.”
Why’s the fighting ongoing?
“Some say greed is a factor.”
Greedy people who exploit religion to fool gullible people so that their own pockets can be filled should be most feared by the sane.
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Helen Ang 
Lesson is not about whose fault it is, lesson is we need to learn to live with each other… once we go that path.. there is no turning back.
Agree but both sides are pointing each other and want the other to die. There is no middle ground. As long as Malaysian politic is based on race, there is no hope we can live with each other. The UMNO will always blame the non Malay and invite the same reaction from the other side and all ignore the bigger problem of mismanagement of the country by UMNO.
Kenapa awak selalu kata umno. Isnt dap race based.
Mismanagement of country by umno – i dont think malaysia would be where we are now. Think how much the chinese have made bcos country managed by umno. Hope you can count
Dap also race based that’s the answer for UMNO race based politics. When UMNO start blaming everything on non Malay and non Muslim, who do you think the non Malay will turn to? MIC/MCA? Of course you push them to DAP. Early UMNO is good but the UMNO since later part of Dr M is hopeless.
Pandai la engkau, malaysian. As far as I can remember, its the other way round…..blame everything (even DAP’s mishandling of CEC’s election and reelection) on UMNO. Nons may be blameless for migrating almost 100% of their votes to the opposition….blame DAP la for promising these gullible voters Putrajaya even when they know its a long shot. “Ini kalilah” my foot!
Who said we can’t live with each other despite the race-based politic. We have done so for how long already….more than half a century wih only one fiery incident. Only now some fools from both sides trying their damnedest to trigger another one.
First we have to be honest with ourselves and try to find the middle path, and not make cheap shots at the other side. These all started with cheap shots and the overwhelming desire to win no matter what.
Malaysian is a typical Chinese DAP supporter mentality. Everything blames on UMNO. Anu dia kontot pun blame on UMNO.
“Only now some fools from both sides trying their damnedest to trigger another one. ” I totally agree with you. DAP is that “fool” at one side but that’s because the opportunity given by the other “fool” at the other side.
At one time the non Malay gave the UMNO 90% support but what they get is continuous role of bogeyman for the UMNO to get their political support. DAP took this opportunity and hit the jackpot.
Re. At one time the non Malay gave the UMNO 90% support but what they get is continuous role of bogeyman for the UMNO to get their political support
Pandai pun mengungkit. Not long ago our Sultan gave you Jus Soli but what do we get in return… A bunch of ingrate
Sultan gave you Jus Soli, we thank them but that’s doesn’t come with condition that must support UMNO.
Re. but that’s doesn’t come with condition that must support UMNO.
Orang berbudi kita berbahasa, masaalahnya dahlah tak support Biadap dan suka buat fitnah pulak tu…
Haha! Ini lagi satu “fitnah”. Let’s just wait and see whether it will be true or not?
http://www.innovategaming.com/malaysia-second-casino http://www.kinibiz.com/story/tigertalk/64827/a-second-casino-in-johor.html
Jackpot? What jackpot…. c’monla, winning putrajaya baru la jackpot. Its your gambling mentality again… hahaha!
Look at the bigger picture. DAP need the malay votes to win putrajaya. Not getting that, their almost 100% chinese votes become irrelevant. Granted you wrapped up penang… but thats it! No additional malay votes since PAS did not deliver, only PKR did with some urban malays. UMNO knows what to do, having learned a bitter lesson. Only if they fail to turn around najib n co., will GE14 endanger their hold on putrajaya.
Before the era of internet, race based politic is viable because each community is basically live within their own community without any contact. They got their own school, newspaper, radio, TV station etc. There is no necessity of contact between races. If they need contact, their communication is often via the politicians from various parties within the BN. Each raced based party can maintain their political support even though they can blame the other race day in day out because the other side have know way to know.
But after the era of internet, there are channels of getting info of what is happening in the other race based party. If you touch the pride and sensitivity of one race, the other race will not be sitting tight and be blamed. They will fight back. This is when raced based politics become a zero sum game. If PM is giving lots of friendly gesture to the non Malay but in his backyard non Malay is being painted as anti Malay and anti Islam, this is not going to help much for PM. So the only consequence is for PM to lose all the non Malay votes especially Chinese.
So you are saying the unleashing of the Red Bean Army did not touch the pride and sensitivity of the malays? Its well known that DAP had been very good at this game….. so who was fighting back?
Who’s been painting the bigger canvas given the sheer force of RBA? Why say its because of UMNO’s painting negatively on the nons which chased away their votes…. are you blind or deaf to what DAP’s been painting that the nons rush to vote for them in the hope of overruning putrajaya? Hahaha… its this kind of denial which would not help the case of not having a zero sum result.
The malays had proven their generosity and tolerance for so long starting with the jus soli thingy. Instead of encouraging the nons to return the gesture, the DAP strives to wrest total power by demonising UMNO (and ‘tempias’ on the malays) so that they can marginalise the malays nationally as they do now within the DAP in general, and the CEC in particular.
Dap – cec also cannot get right. Infighting amongst members. Cakap tak serupa bikin. Talk of popular votes to hold post. Lge menang ke popular vote tapi hold high post. Mana mahu taruk muka.
Dap – malu lah sikit. Cannot even get their own organisation in order nak run country konon.
Sorry lah malaysian. Your rba only knows how to spread lies to the unlearned chinese who would believe anything you all spin. You all pick on the vulnerable. Sooner or later they will call your bluff. In fact they are beginning to see it.
How on the earth do they justify claiming DAP as a “multiracial” party when theres not a single bona fide Malay elected into the CEC. They should be embarassed given the fact that Malays make up more than 50% of the country’s population. But then as you hinted: “muka tak malu”!
Hello Malaysian…
It is now really about the market-dominant minority versus disadvantaged majority.
The first bad news for Chinese in Malaysia is that in 50 years or less, you will make out only “13 per cent or less’ of the national population.
The second bad news is that, as middlemen minority, you will never be really welcomed into the bureaucracy.
The third bad news is that you will be foolish to think that, as middlemen minority, you can dominate.
The fourth bad news is that there is no doubt now that the Malays will ascend in all areas of Malaysian life.
The Malays are more self-confident now and they will enlist the help either of you or others around the world in their search for greater progress.
It does not help you anymore to put the Malays down.
Your future very much depends on how well you demonstrate your commitment to partner with the Malays.
You must drop your tendency to take advantage of any division within the Malay community – by extracting concessions or fermenting discord among Malays.
You should have learnt well by now that the Malays will never give you that kind of advantage or forgive your ill intents.
As Malays and being Muslims, they will close ranks before you know it, so beware if you have not.
So for you, to quote….” …The threat will come from the disunity and impoverishment of the Malays”.
Malaysian,
“race based politics become a zero sum game”… u tak reti mengira ke…
Only in Malaysia, majority billionaires are Chinese, only in Malaysia there are Chinese schools and only in Malaysia..there are Chinese holding political power.
If UMNO really practised a zero sum race politic game, you will still be non citizens, you will be marginalised still living in kongsi house and and still worked as coolies as your forefaters.
The problem with you ingrates, you are greedy, kalau boleh you want economic power and also political power.. Just say so and dont hide behind ‘equality” crap.
In 1969, the DAP said “Chinese were third class citizens” because of the privileges enshrined in the constitutions. The Chinese then had won a bit more seat but already lost their senses by insulting the Malays..
What do you get after that?
Najib is the most pro Chinese prime Ministers. He had done almost everything to soothe the Chinese but yet Chinese abandoned him because the Chinese believed in DAP lies more.
Helen put up these horror stories for people like you to think. The religious clash happen in Africa, Bosnia, Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, China and dont you think this is also can happen in Malaysia.
Only fools like you think otherwise.
The illusory nature of the Dunya that people covet:
[YouTube]
Man… religion kills.
Ms H. SHALL WE GIVE CREDIT TO THE BN GOVERNMENT AND ITS PREDECESSORS AS LED BY THE UMNO AND THE 13 COMPONENT PARTIES THAT OUR BELOVED MALAYSIA HAS PEACE, STABILITY AND PROSPERITY AND THAT WE HAVE A CREDIBLE MALAYSIAN DEMOCRACY WITH A VIABLE OPPOSITION WITHOUT WHICH A DEMOCRACY IS NOT COMPLETE ?
Where are you Washington DC. And we have had 6 democratically elected Prime Ministers from 1959 to 2013 whereas the REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE HAS ONLY ONE AND HE IS STILL THERE !
Ms H. For the ill-informed, as far back as 1951 in Bombay, India, I saw homeless people from the rural areas slept on the side-walks which lined the streets like corpses. I could not believe my eyes as there was no such spectacle in 1945 !
Think how fortunate we have been to have the proper Governments since 1957 even though it needs servicing and overhauling like a motor-car of a certain vintage !
AK47,
I was staying at the Taj Palace Hotel in Mumbai in the late 90’s, the homeless are just across the streets in the Park and thousands of them….
Given the multitude and the lack of basic facilities, wonder how they answer the call of nature and where? Petty question maybe, but imagine the impact on cleanliness, health and hygiene. Ah well…!
People who see Malaysia’s glass as half empty fail to see the half full, in that the country has come very far in a very short time. We have dirty public toilets (1/2 empty) but we have a wide swathe of middle class (1/2 full) with presumably clean home toilets washed by their maids and cleaning ladies.
They just squat by the road side and in the open…
The same goes to the Vietnamese in the mid 90’s.