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C. African Republic town turns on Muslim leader


In this Monday, Feb. 10, 2014 photo released by Amnesty International, Deputy Mayor Saleh Dido exits a building in Mbaiki, Central African Republic. Even as thousands of Muslims fled the town, Saleh Dido vowed to carry on with his duties. On Friday, Feb. 28, 2014, witnesses said a mob armed with knives chased him and killed him. His fate shows how far the violence has gone in the Central African Republic, where hundreds of Muslims have been killed in just a few months, redefining who belongs here by their religion alone.
(AP Photo/Amnesty International, Joanne Mariner)


In this Monday, Feb. 10, 2014 photo released by Amnesty International, Deputy Mayor Saleh Dido walks with an armful of papers of Quranic texts in Mbaiki, Central African Republic. Even as thousands of Muslims fled the town, Dido vowed to carry on with his duties. On Friday, Feb. 28, 2014, witnesses said a mob armed with knives chased him and killed him. His fate shows how far the violence has gone in the Central African Republic, where hundreds of Muslims have been killed in just a few months, redefining who belongs here by their religion alone.
(AP Photo/Amnesty International, Joanne Mariner)

By KRISTA LARSON
March 05, 2014 11:42 am

MBAIKI, Central African Republic (AP) — The swarm of people showed up on their deputy mayor's doorstep late on a Friday morning, just before the time of the Muslim prayers.

By then, it no longer mattered that he was the deputy mayor. It didn't matter that the mayor called him a brother, or that his family had lived in Mbaiki for almost a century. It didn't even matter that his wife was seven months pregnant.

It mattered only that he was Muslim.

The fate of Saleh Dido shows how far the violence in the Central African Republic has gone, redefining who belongs here by their religion alone. It poses a deeply troubling question in a nation where hundreds of Muslims have been killed in just a few months: If even a prominent local official interviewed by a prominent Western aid group could not be saved in his own hometown, who can?

No police officer tried to stop the attack on Dido. No resident helped him as he ran to escape. And by the time the peacekeepers arrived, it was too late.

"Dido's killing is a stain on the world's moral conscience," said Joanne Mariner, a senior crisis adviser with Amnesty International who had spoken with him several times. "It's terribly disappointing that the community — including his neighbors — didn't protect him."

Mariner noted that many Christians who have tried to help Muslims were threatened themselves, and that Dido trusted the international community to protect him. But nobody did.

Mbaiki is a small town sixty miles south of the capital of Central African Republic, a country of 4.6 million people torn apart by intercommunal violence since early December.

Dido's family had lived in Mbaiki for generations, part of a Muslim minority in Central African Republic of about 15 percent. However, his ancestors hailed from Chad to the north - sharing the same roots as the Muslim rebels who overthrew the country's government in March last year.

Many of these rebels were paid to torture and kill civilians. So when the rebel-backed government fell apart in January, retaliatory attacks against Muslims escalated. As the threat of carnage grew, thousands of Muslims fled Mbaiki in convoys.

Not Dido. The 46-year-old lanky father of seven still proudly wore his deputy mayor label pin. He vowed to carry on his duties. People started to call him the last Muslim of Mbaiki.

"I was born here; I had my children here," he told the French newspaper Le Monde in mid-February. "I have been at the mayor's office for five years. I took an oath. I am patriotic — why should I leave? I want to live in my country."

When the French defense minister came to visit Mbaiki, the mayor called Dido "a brother" and promised the community would protect him.

On Feb. 10, Christians who wanted Dido gone looted his store. Dido lectured the mobs that they were stealing not only his things but the future of Central African Republic.

Then the Muslim mayor of another community was killed, and the tension mounted. Dido's brother-in-law begged him to leave, friends say.

He refused. He even invited a fellow Muslim traveling to the capital to stay at his home.

For the Christians of his community, that was the final straw. The word spread — not only was Dido refusing to leave, he was encouraging other Muslims to come back.

On Feb. 28, a crowd of nearly 100 people turned up at his home, according to witness accounts.

"All the other Muslims have left. Why are you still there?" they demanded.

What happened next is disputed. Some neighbors allege Dido fired arrows into the crowd first, wounding several people. Others say he did so only in a desperate attempt to defend his life.

Then he began to run.

The path to the police station took him a mile (2 kilometers) uphill, past dozens of tin roof homes and phone-charging shacks. No one tried to help.

The mob chased him, armed with knives. Panting and exhausted, he made it to the roundabout a few hundred meters (yards) from the police station. There, as he caught his breath, the crowd descended on him.

They ripped off his clothes. They slit his throat. They attacked him repeatedly until his head nearly fell off. One woman even cut off his genitals.

Two police officers were there. But the attackers threatened to harm the families of anyone who sheltered Muslims, so they did nothing. Police commandant Yvon Bemakassoui declined to discuss the case.

By the time peacekeepers from the Republic of Congo arrived, Dido was dead. His corpse lay in a drainage ditch on the side of the road.

The peacekeepers arrested 22 people, including five women, and handed them over to the police. Photos show the suspects lying face down on the ground.

They all were set free. Most escaped into the jungle forest outside town, residents say. Nobody was charged.

In the meantime, neighbors had ferried Dido's family to the safety of a Catholic church. The Congolese peacekeepers took them to the capital, where his widow is now weeks away from giving birth.

There is one other Muslim man in Mbaiki, who thought he was safe because his family is not from Chad. But after Dido's death, he is preparing to spend a few months with his children in the capital.

Is there a future for Muslims here? He cannot say. Once his laundry dries, he plans to pack.

Men still walk about Mbaiki in traditional Muslim gowns and white prayer caps. But they are not Muslims. They are parading about in clothing stolen from the pillaged shops of Muslims like Dido.

Mbaiki's two mosques lie in ruins. Christians stripped the metal roof off one to sell, and now the early rains have flooded it.

The looters have also descended upon Dido's house. The concrete structure is reduced to rubble. On a recent afternoon, small children helped strip what remained of his blue Toyota four-by-four for parts.

In the end, even in death, Dido never got his wish to stay in Mbaiki. The Red Cross buried his body in another town three miles away.

There are no longer any Muslims in that town either.

© 2014 Associated Press

http://democratherald.com/news/world/africa/c-african-republic-town-turns-on-muslim-leader/article_88bdc785-2992-5388-962c-8f89434e8102.html [no comments yet]


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Central African Republic: Christian Militias 'Cleanse' Muslims From Western CAR, UN Says
6 March 2014
http://allafrica.com/stories/201403070066.html


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Central African Republic: Warning Security Council of 'Extremely Grave' Situation in Central African Republic, Top Officials Urge Speedy Authorization of United Nations Operation
6 March 2014
http://allafrica.com/stories/201403070064.html


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United Nations to Consider Large Peacekeeping Force for Central African Republic
MARCH 6, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/07/world/africa/united-nations-central-african-republic.html


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Central African Republic: Muslim Communities Emptied


Halima (center), a 25-year-old Muslim woman, lives under the protection of the Catholic Church, after the anti-balaka militia slaughtered more than 80 Muslims in Bossemptele. Her husband and father-in-law were among the dead, and her three children had run away from the attackers, not to be heard from since. March 3.
Peter Bouckaert/Human Rights Watch

African, French Forces Insufficient to Stem Violence

March 7, 2014

(Bangui) – Muslim residents of the Central African Republic [ https://www.hrw.org/africa/central-african-republic ] have fled the country in droves in the face of persistent attacks by anti-balaka militias, Human Rights Watch said today after visiting numerous towns and villages in the northwestern part of the country. The presence of French and African Union peacekeepers in these areas has been insufficient to protect Muslim residents, who are being targeted by the anti-balaka in retaliation for horrific abuses committed by the predominantly Muslim Seleka group over the past year.

The European Union [ http://www.hrw.org/tag/european-union-foreign-policy ] and other concerned countries should immediately assist French and African Union forces trying to stabilize the country and halt the targeted anti-Muslim violence, Human Rights Watch said. The United Nations Security Council should urgently authorize a strong UN peacekeeping mission, as envisioned by the UN secretary-general, to protect civilians and provide the security necessary to rebuild the country, which has been devastated by massive human rights violations and a resulting humanitarian catastrophe.

“We are seeing entire Muslim communities that have lived in the Central African Republic for generations fleeing their homes,” said Peter Bouckaert [ http://www.hrw.org/bios/peter-bouckaert ], emergencies director at Human Rights Watch. “Muslims in the Central African Republic are contending with unendurable conditions and horrific violence, and the African and French forces there have not been able to protect these residents.”

Human Rights Watch today also released new satellite imagery documenting the vast destruction of homes by anti-balaka militia and, earlier, by the Seleka coalition, which took power in a coup in March 2013.

Bossangoa Boro Neighborhood



The anti-balaka militia comprise mostly Christian and animist residents who came together in September to avenge attacks on Christians by the Seleka. French and African Union troops, deployed in December to halt Seleka violence, found instead a situation where the anti-balaka were exerting greater control, forcing the Seleka to retreat and regroup, and making Muslim residents more vulnerable to looting and pillaging.

In the last week alone, Human Rights Watch observed some of the last Muslims of at least 10 locations in the northwestern region fleeing for Chad and Cameroon, just over Central African Republic’s northern and western borders, respectively. On March 1, 2014, a convoy of commercial trucks heading for Cameroon, protected by African peacekeepers, evacuated Muslims from Boali, Bossemptele, and Baoro.

In Boali, the convoy evacuated 650 Muslims who had lived under the protection of the Catholic Church for six weeks, leaving the town without any Muslim presence. In Baoro, the convoy evacuated the last 20 Muslims from the Catholic Church. That left the town, which once had a population of 4,000 Muslims and at least 12 mosques, without a single Muslim resident.

In Bossemptele, the convoy evacuated about 190 Muslims, but left behind about 65 weak and vulnerable women, children, and people with disabilities who were unable to climb onto the trucks. Human Rights Watch found nine Muslim children with polio and one elderly man suffering from leprosy among those left behind.

Halima, 25, a severely malnourished Muslim woman, told Human Rights Watch that the anti-balaka killed her husband and father-in-law in January, and that her three children disappeared in the chaos. She had tried to climb onto the departing trucks on March 1, but found herself too weak: “No one was there to help me,” she told Human Rights Watch in tears. “I was calling after them to take me, but they left without me.

“The depth of the suffering caused by anti-balaka violence is just unfathomable,” Bouckaert said. “In a misguided attempt to avenge the destruction of the Seleka, anti-balaka forces are committing horrific abuses against residents simply because they are Muslim.”

The Muslim community of Yaloké, which once exceeded 10,000 people, is now completely gone. The last Muslims there left for Chad a week ago. In many other towns and villages Human Rights Watch visited, including the large market towns of Zawa, Bekadili, and Boganangone, and the smaller town of Boguera, not a single Muslim remains.

On February 28, anti-balaka fighters killed the last Muslim in Mbaiki, which, as one of the largest population centers in the country, had a pre-conflict population of at least 4,000 Muslims. The anti-balaka also burned the city’s two main mosques. They caught Saleh Dio, who had refused to leave the town and was trying to reach the safety of the police station, and cut his throat.

On February 12, the French defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and the Central African Republic’s interim president, Catherine Samba-Panza, had visited Mbaiki and declared it a “symbol” of peaceful coexistence and reconciliation.

Even in communities where Muslims remain, they face extreme violence from the anti-balaka. In Boda, a diamond trading center, an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 Muslims remain, but they are unable to leave the Muslim district of the town, despite the presence of French forces. Anti-balaka fighters have prohibited anyone from selling food to the Muslims, and on February 28, Human Rights Watch found that many of the Muslims in Boda were starving. The French are deployed between the Muslim and Christian communities, keeping them apart, but have been unable to end the food blockade, Human Rights Watch said.

Al-Haj Abdou Kadil, a frail Muslim man, told Human Rights Watch that he had buried two of his children, Mousa, 3, and Mohammed, 4, who died from hunger the day before. His wife was so weak from hunger that she was unable to speak.

In Bohong, a large cattle-raising town with many people from the Peuhl ethnic group, Human Rights Watch found 120 Muslims remaining in the mosque. They said that the anti-balaka had executed two ethnic Peuhl cattle raisers who had gone to look for their cows just 10 days before. When Human Rights Watch confronted the anti-balaka commanders about the execution, the commanders appeared to admit responsibility for the killing, saying, “They asked to go look for their cows, and we said, ‘Sure,’ and well, they didn’t come back.” The commanders then started to laugh.

Satellite imagery

Human Rights Watch acquired and analyzed satellite imagery that documents the scale of the destruction in more than 60 affected towns and villages in northwestern Central African Republic, including over the last several months, when more peacekeepers were deployed.

In Bossangoa, for example, satellite imagery shows the rapid displacement of thousands of local residents in early December 2013, as well as the systematic destruction of over 1,400 mostly residential buildings. Human Rights Watch observed and gathered accounts from witnesses to corroborate the exodus of virtually the entire Muslim community of Bossangoa, between 7,000 and 10,000 people. The residents sought protection at a nearby school, École Liberté, after anti-balaka attacks on December 5. A campaign of arson attacks on mostly residential buildings between mid-December and late January 2014 almost completely destroyed the Muslim neighborhood of Boro, in the northern half of town.

In Bohong, witnesses had told Human Rights Watch that Seleka forces attacked the town in late September 2013, deliberately targeting Christian neighborhoods, and leaving only the Muslim quarter in the southern part of the town relatively unscathed. Satellite imagery confirmed these findings and showed that more than 1,130 buildings – most of them residential – had probably been burned to the ground by early November.

When Human Rights Watch representatives met with the anti-balaka commanders in Bohong last week and asked if they would be willing to allow the remaining Muslims to stay there, the commander responded: “We have lost all of our homes because of the Seleka. They threw bodies down all of our water holes. And the Muslims are still living in their homes because they were with the Seleka – and now you ask us to tolerate their presence?” The commander asked for immediate humanitarian assistance to help the non-Muslim villagers rebuild their homes and lives.

Human Rights Watch found almost the same situation in Boda, where 892 non-Muslim homes were burned during inter-communal violence in early February. The anti-balaka commander there also told Human Rights Watch that he could not accept Muslims staying in their intact houses in Boda while non-Muslims were forced to sleep outside because the Seleka had destroyed their shelters.

“The humanitarian needs in the Central African Republic are dire, and if they are not addressed, they will contribute to further conflict,” Bouckaert said. “Donors should provide reconstruction assistance to those who have lost their homes, which could lessen the inter-communal tensions fueling the violence.”

Related Materials:

Central African Republic: Muslims Forced to Flee
February 12, 2014 Press release
http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/02/12/central-african-republic-muslims-forced-flee

© Copyright 2014, Human Rights Watch

http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/03/06/central-african-republic-muslim-communities-emptied


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