OIC: World must act fast to help restore order in CAR

[Bengal_Tiger]

OIC: World must act fast to help restore order in CAR



People flee Bangui for Cameroon by road on Saturday. Around 28,000 people have fled from conflict-torn Central African Republic to neighboring Cameroon since the start of this month, the UN refugee agency said.


JEDDAH: HABIB SHAIKH


The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has called on the international community to help restore order in the Central African Republic (CAR) amid raging sectarian violence.
OIC Secretary-General Iyad Ameen Madani said the world must act fast and support the new authorities in stabilizing the country because of the implications of the crisis on the peace, security and stability of the wider region and beyond.
During a meeting of the OIC Executive Committee, Madani expressed concern over the genocidal and ethnic cleansing campaign against Muslims in the republic.
At least 2,000 people have been killed and some 700,000 have been displaced since December since Christian militias calling themselves anti-Balaka waged a campaign against Muslims.
Fighting started when the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power a year ago in the majority Christian state.
Madani cited reports saying the capital, Bangui, has been emptied of its Muslim population with only a quarter remaining in refugee camps. In addition, thousands of Muslims in other provinces of CAR have fled in mass to Chad, Cameron, Mali, Senegal, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan.
The Executive Committee at its emergency meeting on Thursday at OIC Headquarters in Jeddah decided to urgently dispatch a high-level mission led by Guinean Foreign Minister Lounceny Fall, chair of the Council of Foreign Ministers, to visit Bangui “to explore, express solidarity and communicate with the authorities in CAR and contribute to the rapprochement dialogue.”
It also decided to appoint a special representative to lead the efforts toward resolving the crisis and building peace in the country.
Madani urged all to move as fast as possible to alleviate the humanitarian disaster befalling the country and the region.
He said that an OIC team has just returned from Chad after extending humanitarian assistance to Chadian returnees in camps within the capital Ndjamena and in the provincial towns of Sahr, Sido and Doba.
He stressed that the OIC will exert every effort to communicate with the new authorities in CAR towards giving priority to efforts and measures that would enhance dialogue and sustainable national reconciliation. He appreciated all efforts made by organizations working for religious rapprochement and to the present inclusive endeavor of the King Abdullah International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue in Vienna to arrange inclusive session of dialogue among religious and community leadership in CAR.
He assured the CAR government of the OIC’s readiness to contribute to the process and countering impunity.
Madani welcomed the United Nations Security Council resolution that mandated the European Union to deploy troops and the decision by France to raise its troop level to 2,000. He urged the new authorities in CAR as well as the French forces and the African-led Support Mission to take all necessary steps to protect the lives and livelihood of all civilians.
He applauded the recent commitment of the AU and the Transitional President of CAR on taking all necessary measures, including the use of force to wage war against the Anti-Balaka militia, which France had characterized last week as a criminal gang that needed to be combated.
He added that he looked forward to having the African Union consider as an urgent matter the transfer of MISCA into a UN mission.

http://www.arabnews.com/news/529591

There have been calls on Turkey to send troops to the African country.




The OIC is the biggest body of national governments after the UN and has 56 members, it represents the Muslim world.

[randolph85]

this organization has no teeth and should be disbanded.

[Bengal_Tiger]

Taliban condemn violence in C. African Republic

BY CASSANDRA VINOGRAD

Associated PressFebruary 22, 2014


KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — The Afghan Taliban on Saturday called for an end to violence against Muslims in the Central African Republic, making a rare statement on conflicts outside their region that was soon echoed by al-Qaida's North Africa branch.

Central African Republic has been wracked by sectarian violence, with Christian fighters hunting down and killing Muslim civilians in recent weeks despite the presence of thousands of French and African peacekeepers. The violence has displaced tens of thousands of Muslims in what the United Nations human rights body has called "ethnic-religious cleansing."

In a statement released Saturday, the Taliban condemned the "merciless killings" of Muslims at the hands of "bloodthirsty militias" as the world sits "idly by."

It warned that the situation threatens the peaceful coexistence of Muslims and Christians throughout Africa and urged the international community — including the pope — to stop the bloodshed.

The comments are "more than surprising," said Nader Nadery, director of the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, a Kabul-based think tank.

"It has been very rare where the Taliban would comment or show concern about any development internationally that has not been linked to their cause or to their ideology," he said.

While the Taliban long have focused on their domestic conflict, Nadery said the "unusual" statement could be an effort to display Muslim solidarity or may be tied to increasing talk and demands to be recognized as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

"This is symbolically an attempt both to show they are mindful of what's happening globally and caring about the Muslim world, and they are trying to portray themselves as a state," Nadery said.

It could also suggest that the Taliban is trying to help rally international jihad, "more in line with how al-Qaida usually opines on matters from Syria to Iraq to elsewhere," said Michael O'Hanlon, an Afghan expert at The Brookings Institution, in an email.

Shortly after the Taliban statement, al-Qaida's North Africa branch also condemned the "ethnic and sectarian cleansing" in Central African Republic and blamed France, which has peacekeepers in the country, for "fomenting" the conflict.

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, has previously threatened French interests around the world because of France's military intervention in Mali. In its latest statement — which was picked up by Washington-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist websites — AQIM urged Muslims in Africa to strike French interests in vengeance over actions in Central African Republic.

"To the leaders and rulers of France: Know and be sure, that your crimes will not go unpunished," AQIM said.

The group urged Muslims not to remain silent about the events, saying "they are ugly massacres inflicted upon the Muslims there, before the eyes and ears of what claim to be international peacekeeping forces."

Central African Republic, long one of the world's poorest and most unstable countries, plunged deeper into chaos nearly a year ago when Muslim rebels from the north invaded the capital and overthrew the president of a decade. The rebels pillaged neighborhoods, raping and killing people with impunity for months, giving rise to Christian militias. Those fighters attempted a coup in early December, and violence between the two communities exploded in the days that followed.

The president installed by the Muslim rebels has since gone into exile, and a nascent civilian government is attempting to restore order.

Amid the violence, the world's largest bloc of Islamic countries agreed last week to send a high-level fact-finding mission to Central African Republic and to appoint a special representative to coordinate efforts with the African Union and the U.N.

Read more here: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2014/...#storylink=cpy