ICC Note:
According to a recently released United Nations report (U.N.), experts have found no reason to suspect genocide has or is occurring in the Central African Republic (C.A.R.). Rather, a sickly series of reprisal attacks has and continues to plague the C.A.R., inciting radicalized Muslims, including remnants of the ousted Séléka movement, to perpetrate attacks against Christians, prodding return attacks by anti-Balaka militants upon both Islamic militants and Muslim civilians.
06/06/2014 Geneva (Washington Post) – new U.N. report says “ample evidence” exists that both sides in the devastating conflict in Central African Republic have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, but it says it’s too early to speak of genocide or ethnic cleansing.
A commission of inquiry’s preliminary report, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, appears to conflict with an earlier U.N. human rights assessment that ethnic cleansing has occurred in the months of fighting between Christians and Muslims. At least one prominent human rights group, Amnesty International, quickly objected to the report’s finding.
The report also says neighboring countries, notably Chad, “participated or helped the parties to the armed conflict,” and that perhaps Central African Republic’s unprecedented sectarian violence will be proven to be an international conflict, not just an internal one.
Thousands have been killed since the fighting began in December, and thousands of Muslims have fled the country. The sectarian nature of the violence has shocked the international community, and its ferocity has led to beheadings of children and entire villages burned.
…
