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Central African Republic is essentially a collapsed state with no ability of its own to restore order

Samantha Power Downplays Jihadist Threat During Visit To Central African Republic



Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has spent a couple of days this past week visiting the violence-plagued Central African Republic (CAR). She toured some areas affected by the sectarian violence that has broken out between Muslims and Christians.
After speaking with victims and their relatives, as well as religious leaders of both faiths, Ambassador Power called for restoration of communal harmony and reconciliation. “I come away from our time in CAR very concerned about the extent of the polarization,” she said. “There is a tyranny of the mob that has taken hold here that is horrific in its own right, but also something that can be hard to stop once it’s been unleashed.” That is an understatement, to say the least. The Central African Republic is essentially a collapsed state with no ability of its own to restore order. The chaos was triggered by the Muslim rebel group known as Seleka, which took over the government last March. Michel Djotodia, the leader of the Seleka, is now president of a transition government, which was supposed to disarm the Seleka militias, stop the violence and move towards free elections as early as 2015. There is anarchy instead. The violence has worsened as armed Seleka members and other Muslim supporters have continued to engage in atrocities against civilians including pillage, summary executions, rape, and torture. Christian civilians, churches and priests have been targeted. Christian groups have been organized in response to fight back.

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As a result, there is a severe humanitarian crisis, with hundreds killed and more than 710,000 people uprooted within the CAR. More than 75,000 others have fled into exile, including into the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has had its own share of violence and instability. About 210,000 people have been forcibly displaced by violence just in the last two weeks alone in the embattled capital, Bangui. “In Bangui, our staff are reporting continued shooting and a mood of widespread fear,” Adrian Edwards, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters in Geneva as the UN deployed additional emergency teams to cope with the crisis. “We continue to hear of attacks against Christians by former Séléka, with looting, killing and houses being set on fire,” the UNCHR spokesperson added. Nevertheless, in the midst of total chaos and with no working central government in CAR to deal with the growing violence, Ambassador Power tweeted during her visit: “Told CAR's transitional leaders they must have free elections. The people are desperately waiting for them, delays would create new dangers.”

Ambassador Power is ignoring the reality on the ground when she focuses attention now on the need for free elections in the CAR

Ambassador Power is ignoring the reality on the ground when she focuses attention now on the need for free elections in the CAR. While free elections are a laudable goal, Ambassador Power needs to get her priorities straight. The people are “desperately waiting” for the restoration of enough order and security so that they can go about their normal business and not have to cower in their homes or seek refuge in camps near very heavily guarded areas to escape being massacred. Indeed, Ambassador Power proved this point in an earlier tweet from the CAR when she quoted this chilling plea from a survivor: "You're asking me to think about peace, but I ask, have you ever seen your mother & father killed?" In response to the growing violence against civilians, the UN Security Council passed a resolution earlier this month that gave African and French troops authorization to use force to impose peace in the CAR with logistical support from the UN. However, the Security Council stopped short of authorizing a full-blown UN peacekeeping force, as exists today in the neighboring countries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and South Sudan. The African force is planned to reach 6000 soldiers. France, the Central African Republic’s former colonial ruler, is the only non-African country to date that has sent its own troops to assist, approximately 1600 soldiers. The Security Council directed Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to start preparing for the possibility of a future UN peacekeeping force of between 6000 to 9000 troops to take over the primary responsibility to restore order and protect civilians. There may be little appetite, however, for countries to commit troops to yet another UN peacekeeping force in view of the increasing amount of fatalities among soldiers and police deployed by the UN. The latest are the deaths of two Indian Battalion soldiers assigned to the UN peacekeeping force in South Sudan, which borders on the CAR. In fact, the UN peacekeeping forces in South Sudan are being overwhelmed by the breakdown in law and order in the UN’s youngest member state, with a UN base just overrun by an attack by 2000 armed militiamen that has led to an evacuation of that base. Tens of thousands of civilians have sought shelter in other UN bases in South Sudan. The United States is non-committal as to whether or not it would support the idea of another UN peacekeeping force in the Central African Republic. It appears to prefer relying on the African Union-led force and the French to do the job if they can, with U.S. financial assistance. The U.S. has already contributed $100 million towards aiding in the transport and equipping of the African Union-led forces. Ambassador Power announced during her visit that the U.S. would contribute $7 million more to assist in reconciliation efforts.

Wholesale jihad against Christians by the Muslims

Before there can be any chance for real reconciliation, however, the source of the breakdown of peaceful relations that have existed in the CAR between the Christian and Muslim populations must be identified. The coup led by the rebel group Séléka appears to have been originally politically motivated. It originated in response to the alleged refusal by former CAR President Francois Bozizé, whom had himself taken power years earlier in a coup of his own, to honor certain peace agreements with the political opposition. But it soon degenerated into a wholesale jihad against Christians by the Muslims who dominate the Séléka group. Muslims constitute only 15 percent of the CAR’s overall population. Christians make up approximately 50 percent of the population.

Entire country is in the hands of Séléka rebels led by Central African, Chadian and Sudanese warlords

Séléka went on a rampage following their coup, killing defenseless Christians including women and children. According to the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), “A fact-finding mission carried out in the Central African Republic (CAR) from 4th to 13th July 2013, has found that, over three months after the rebel leaders took power, the entire country is in the hands of Séléka rebels led by Central African, Chadian and Sudanese warlords. Originally estimated to consist of some 5,000 members, the rebel group is now believed to be three to four times larger. Its members continue to commit crimes serious enough to be considered war crimes.” “The civilian population is left in the hands of Séléka criminals. The persistence of anarchy in the Central African Republic may weaken the country even more, increase tensions and impede economic recovery", said Eric Plouvier, FIDH head of mission. “Certainly, we have seen targeting of Christians,” Michelle Kissenkoetter, IFHR representative to the United Nations added. “We have seen selective attacks on Christians and their churches.” Chad and Sudan are Muslim majority countries from which jihadists have spilled into the Central African Republic. They are there to help the Muslim rebel group Seleka consolidate the power of the Muslim minority population of the Central African Republic against the much larger Christian population. Christian groups have sprung up in defense. Some have conducted violent reprisals against Muslims, but nowhere near the scale of the Muslim dominated Seleka group’s reign of terror against Christian civilians. Yet Samantha Power appears to be assigning equal blame to both sides. When a Christian young man told the ambassador that he was considering joining a Christian militia after losing cousins to Muslim fighters who initiated the rampage against Christian civilians, Samantha Power showed no understanding of the young man’s fears. Instead, according to the New York Times, she looked up from her note taking and asked: “Does that mean killing people because they are Muslim?” This question is insulting to a man whom has experienced the awful trauma caused by the Muslim rebel group’s atrocities committed against his own family. He tried to explain his unease to Ambassador Power during her two day visit to the CAR before her return to safety in the United States for the holidays. Her callous remark reflects the moral relativism of the Obama administration, which fails to connect the jihadist dots along a line stretching from Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Libya and other parts of the Middle East region to Nigeria, Mali and now the Central African Republic.

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Joseph A. Klein, CFP United Nations Columnist -- Bio and Archives

Joseph A. Klein is the author of Global Deception: The UN’s Stealth Assault on America’s Freedom.


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