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Africa Subsaharan
Central African disaster
2014-02-12
[DAWN] THE global community appears oblivious to the situation in the Central African Republic from where 20pc of the population has reportedly fled to neighbouring countries following widespread killings, rapes and looting. UN officials have warned that without international intervention, the situation can degenerate into genocide. Observers claim that the 1,600-strong French force and some African troops are unable to control the anarchy as frenzied mobs indulge in what the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court
... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
 called "hundreds of killings, acts of rape and sexual slavery, destruction of property, pillaging, torture, forced displacement" and use of child soldiers. Entire villages have been burnt down and fields abandoned, raising fears of an acute food crisis. A Human Rights Watch
... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world...
 official said children were being slaughtered in front of their parents. Nearly a million people, mostly Moslem, have fled to Chad and Cameroon.

The situation in the potentially rich African country has been volatile since Michel Djotodia, a Moslem, captured power in the predominantly Christian state by overthrowing president François Bozize in March last year, thus triggering communal violence. Under pressure from regional countries, Mr Djotodia resigned last month and went into exile, but his militia has continued to exist and is involved in battles with Christian partisans and other groups. Even though all communities have suffered, foreign NGOs say now it is primarily the Moslems who are bearing the brunt of mob fury. There is no doubt the 10-month rule by Moslem rebels, called Seleka, was characterised by great atrocities committed on other communities by the militia for perceived wrongs during Mr Bozize's rule. Today, as Seleka soldiers withdraw from an area, Christian gunnies move in and wreak vengeance on the Moslem community. While the ICC prosecutor has begun exploring the possibilities of determining war crimes, it is unfortunate that the OIC has taken no notice of the situation.
Posted by:Fred

#10  Always with the bickering and the stealing and the rape and the genocide and whatnot. What they need is a Central African Umpire. Better yet, a whole crew.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220   2014-02-12 18:46  

#9  UN Should just declare eminent domain on the rain forests, remove the governments and pay everyone in the area a stipend as UN employees as long as they don't kill each other. UN gets a chance for graft, locals stop killing and starving, rest of the world is milked by a more creative scheme than usual and can claim its all for the environment.

In the end it owuld be cheaper than all the aid or the military adventures requried to set things right.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2014-02-12 14:44  

#8  Spot on TFSM! These folks were skewering one another thousands of years before the first European arrived. Rhodes and others like him simply taught them to read which automated the skewering.
Posted by: Besoeker   2014-02-12 11:03  

#7  Besoeker: I'd be more inclined to blame this on local people if I didn't suspect it was outsiders that started the war. Someone thought it was a good idea for Mr Djotodia to gain a lot of cheap weapons and payroll money to overthrow the elected government and start this war, and I don't think it was a bunch of dirt-poor people in the Central African Republic. I suspect it was someone outside. Someone with a flowchart saying "and if he stays in power, we can get the contract, and if he doesn't, we can take advantage of the chaos to remove the country's sovereignity and then we'll be able to get the contracts..."

Africa is more of a colony today than it ever was under Cecil Rhodes.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2014-02-12 10:49  

#6  We have more-organized, less ineffectual international (and secular) hand-wringers.

Amen! Without secular hand-wringers, collective anxt and guilt, the cult of victimization cannot survive. No victimization provides no requirement for the political enterprise of intervention. Some things simply cannot be picked up.... by the clean end. Better we leave it to a higher authority and quietly move on.
Posted by: Besoeker   2014-02-12 10:45  

#5  The whole region could be renamed the Central African Disaster. CAD, Gulf of Rumsfeld, it's all part of the New World Geographical Order.

Central African Disaster would also be a great band name.
Posted by: SteveS   2014-02-12 10:45  

#4  I have yet to meet the he or she who placed the Lap in Lapland or the Fijian in Fiji, but it would appear to have been done for good reason. Civilizations or cultures in competition, whatever. Call me racist and narrow minded if you will, but first prove me wrong.

The last sentence doesn't follow logically.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2014-02-12 10:43  

#3  The difference between now and one-hundred years ago? We have more-organized, less more ineffectual international (and secular) hand-wringers.
Posted by: Pappy   2014-02-12 10:32  

#2  The 'Central African Disaster' enjoys the like minded company of the 'disasters' of both North Africa and the South. Ethnologists and multiculturalists ignore or deny the causes even as the skulls of the inhabitants are piled higher and higher. Generational memory perishes and sound-bites betray us. One must read the history of the region, heed the travel warning, and pursue alternate routes.

I have yet to meet the he or she who placed the Lap in Lapland or the Fijian in Fiji, but it would appear to have been done for good reason. Civilizations or cultures in competition, whatever. Call me racist and narrow minded if you will, but first prove me wrong.
Posted by: Besoeker   2014-02-12 03:09  

#1  "hundreds of killings, acts of rape and sexual slavery, destruction of property, pillaging, torture, forced displacement"

How do we know that Islam is Religion of Peace? Because we never hear of Muslims doing things like this!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2014-02-12 02:15  

00:00