As far as the mainstream media is concerned, Christians in the Central African Republic are gratuitously targeting innocent Muslims. This story, however, will get little play. And they never mention how Muslims murdered 1,000 Christians over a two-day period. Or how 450,000 Christians fled their homes in the face of Muslim attacks. All that is fine; it’s only when Christians fight back that it becomes news: “humanitarian catastrophe — Muslims suffering in the CAR.”
“13 bodies found in former rebel camp in Bangui,” from the Oman Tribune, February 15 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
BANGUI Thirteen decomposing corpses have been discovered in a camp housing ex-rebels in the strife-torn Central African Republic, a prosecutor said on Friday.
The corpses, some mere skeletons, were found in a disused fuel tank at a camp of former fighters of the mostly Muslim Seleka rebel group whose coup a year ago sparked the country’s descent into chaos.
Killings and pillaging by ex-Seleka rebels following the coup led to the formation of mainly Christians, whose attacks in recent weeks have led many minority Muslims to flee the country.
The bodies “were found in different places in the tank, which suggests that the people were thrown in there alive and struggled to get out,” Ghislain Grezenguet, lead prosecutor in the capital Bangui, said.
They were found by international peacekeepers whose suspicions were aroused by the nauseating stench coming from the site, he said.
Some of the victims, whose identities have not yet been established, are thought to have died between a week and 10 days ago.
The commander of the camp, Aboubakar Mahamat, said that he had “said everything to the investigators.”
Amnesty International this week warned that violence in Central Africa has grown into an “ethnic cleansing” campaign, while the UN refugee agency has described the situation as “a humanitarian catastrophe of unspeakable proportions”.
The UN children’s agency on Friday said it was horrified at how children are being maimed and killed, including by beheadings, in the country.
“There is no future for a country where adults can viciously target innocent children with impunity,” said Manuel Fontaine, Unicef regional director for west and central Africa.
Unicef officials in the region “are horrified by the cruelty and impunity with which children are being killed and mutilated” and are “increasingly targeted because of their religion, or because of their community”, the organisation said in a statement.
At least 133 children have been killed and maimed, some of them in horrific ways, in the past two months and Unicef has verified cases of children intentionally beheaded and mutilated. “Impunity must end,” Fontaine said….