Let's stop anarchy and human rights violation in Central African Republic.

Texte de la Conférence de Londres.

1. 1. LET’S STOP ANARCHY AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION IN CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC By Marie-Reine Hassen Former Government minister of the CAR (LONDON,September 2013) Ladies and gentlemen, I am a former diplomat and former Government minister of the Central African Republic. I was ambassador of my country to the Republic of Senegal, then deputy minister at the foreign affairs department in 2006 and deputy minister for the international cooperation department in 2008. This mineral-rich country is a former French colony. The people of the Central African Republic have suffered decades of violence and human rights abuse. Government forces, armed groups and criminal gangs have killed unarmed men, women and children, with total impunity. Women, little girls, old women and boys have been raped. Villagers fled their homes and live in the bush to avoid the attacks. They live like animals in the wilderness, without any access to food and water. People in this country die from injuries, hunger or sickness. Several armed groups have, in the past, been responsible of the same abuses. Those movements are all currently part of the Seleka coalition, which has launched its insurgency in early December 2012, starting from the north-east, committing horrific abuses all their way down to the Capital city, carrying out large scale attacks, profaning churches, beating and humiliating priests, raping nuns, deliberately killing scores of unarmed civilians, includind children, women and elderly people, looting, destroying numerous homes and villages. Human Rights Watch last report says that more than 1,000 homes have been destroyed. Public buildings, ministries, schools, hospitals and private homes were not spared. All humanitarian organizations working in the country were affected. The residences of UN agencies and international NGOs have been looted repeatedly in Bangui. The catalogue of violations and abuses is huge. It includes abductions for ransom, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and torture. Up to today, human rights violations are being committed everyday all over the 86 regions of the country, and in the capital city Bangui. These uncontrolled armed groups recruit children into their ranks. According to a statement made by the head of UNICEF in Bangui, the Seleka rebel troups, and forces of the government have recruited about 2,500 children as child soldiers. Most of these children are aged between 3 and 18. The boys are forced into battlefields and carry out some of this carnage. They carry military equipment or act as messengers, while girls cook and are used as sex objects. While everybody is just watching, this country is rapidly falling apart. Public services no longer exist; the formal economy has collapsed; journalists live in fear; relations between 1
2. 2. Christians and Muslims have turned violent; the country may be on the brink of a humanitarian crisis at a time when even aid workers are under threat. The situation is so bad that Genocide Watch has issued a Genocide Alert for the Central African Republic. (Genocide Watch’s Country Report of 2012). HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION & IMPUNITY Rebel groups and government forces have been committing crimes for decades knowing that they would never be prosecuted. The Seleka are now committing similar abuses with total impunity in Bangui and the provinces People who have been raped have no access to adequate health care because of the insecurity and also because there are no health services. Civilians who have been abused have nowhere to turn to: the state in CAR has collapsed. A lot of people are responsible for serious human rights violations committed during all the crisis, coups and rebellions. Most of these violations constitute war crimes. National and international justice has been incapable of charging and judging the authors of international crimes committed since the armed conflicts started in 2002, with the exception of Jean-Pierre Bemba, who is being tried before the International Criminal Court (ICC) as co- perpetrator of war crimes and crimes against humanity. In CAR impunity is the rule, and lots of amnesties usually reinforce this evident impunity. CHAOS AND ANARCHY There are at least 500 000 displaced people, and ongoing humanitarian crises in Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan will only worsen as more Central African refugees flee the violence in their homeland. That last undemocratic coup has plunged the country into total chaos and anarchy. It was obviously unprepared. The Central African Republic's rebel leader-turned-self proclaimed president makes lots of promesses that he cannot respect. Seleka commanders are unable to maintain discipline within their own ranks. The Government has no control at all over the rebels. Seleka rebels even kill their own members. There is no real structure of command within the Seleka. There is no military hierarchy. High-ranking generals (who are not professional military at all) cannot maintain control over their troops. The authorities are not able to control the territory and ensure public order and security. I am extremely concerned by the situation in the Central African Republic. The ongoing violence against the population is unbearable and unacceptable. There is an urgent need to mobilise the international community, and draw the attention on the atrocities that are happening there. For the majority of most Central Africans, 2013 has been hell on earth. Civilians are always the main victims of those conflicts in Central African Republic, and the death toll in this country is extremely heavy. The situation is worse than it has ever been before. It’s even getting worse everyday. 2
3. 3. THREAT TO BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY We condemn the mass destruction of the world wildlife in this country, the mass killing of elephants, lions, and otherexotic animals with automatic guns. The current violence also threatens the CAR’s remarkable biological diversity and may even fuel global terrorism. Armed rebel groups are increasingly involved in the ivory trade in the CAR. As I said before, this also fuels further violence not only in the CAR but also elsewhere. It is reported that the Somali group al-Shabab receives up to half its operating funds from ivory sales. The radical armed group Boko Haram could occupy some CAR’s territory. The CAR’s forests also suffer from illegal logging. The south part of the country is covered by rainforest. Timber has always provided the largest source of revenue and jobs in the country. THREAT TO THE WORLD What’s happening in CAR poses a serious threat to the already fragile stability of the whole region. It not only threatens to spread chaos in the heart of the continent, but also puts the rest of the world at risk. The CAR is in the process of becoming a no-man's land in the heart of Africa. This country is becoming a haven for a range of militant jihadists and Islamist extremist groups, puting also Europe and the world to risk, because they are gaining greater power throughout the continent. The rebels have been getting CAR’s regular Passports, diplomatic Passports and IDs, traveling all over the world. These people are able to program and execute terrorist attacks anywhere in the world. The geopolitical ramifications of the CAR's anarchy have already extended beyond its borders. This country is becoming a magnet for extremists and for non-state actors, where porous borders and ungovernable terrain make it a hub for States in war and non-State actors. They exploit it for arms caches and natural resources for their respective interests. The CAR's diamonds are being funneled into the hands of Khartoum-backed Janjaweed militias in Darfur. That indicates that the CAR's chaos is already having significant implications beyond its borders. In sum, the CAR was a failed state, and remains a failed state, and the current environment gives little hope for a positive change in the near or even medium-term. THE WEST WOULD BE WELL ADVISED TO PUT THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC ON THE FRONT BURNER NOW, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. I’M HERE TODAY, because the situation has become totally unmanageable and because we need to get the international decision makers to implement the right solutions immediately. INTERNATIONAL REACTION So far, the main actors are adopting a wait-and-see attitude rather than actively engaging with the crisis. The United Nations Integrated Office for the Consolidation of Peace in the Central African Republic (BINUCA) has been active since 2010. But even though it has a Human Rights and Justice Unit and has a mandate to effectively monitor and report on past and 3
4. 4. ongoing human rights abuses in the Central African Republic, it has a passive role despite it’s numerous staff. It does not systematically collect information on human rights abuses, and issues no regular public or internal UN reports on its activities. According to Human Rights Watch, the BONUCA human rights section also seems to do minimal, if any, substantive reporting to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva. (MINURCA). Reinforcing it is not gonna make it more efficient. The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) has maintained a peacekeeping force since 2008. Were they capable of preventing this disaster ? The answer is no. France has had an almost continuous military presence in CAR since the country gained independence in 1960, and it deployed 400 soldiers at the start of the current crisis to secure the airport. But it said clearly that it’s not going to do what it did in Mali. What about the African Union ? The African Organisation created a mission to secure the country : the MISCA (International Mission for support to the CAR) So far, the MISCA has only 1.400 men, while it was supposed to have 3.600, and doesn’t have enough ressource to do it’s job .The AU force would not be large enough to deploy beyond key cities to rural areas where there is also great instability. Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, who’s been committing atrocities in eastern CAR since 2008, is under indictment by the International Criminal Court. The Ugandan army and American military advisors have tracked him, but so far the’ve been unsuccessfull) The CAR former authorities failed miserably to protect the civilian population. Now the whole territory and it’s civil population has an urgent need for protection. WHAT COULD BE DONE? WHICH SOLUTION? Negotiations were never the solution. None of the many peace agreements signed in the past with the rebel leaders has succeeded. No dialogue has ever brought any peace. Giving more support, ressources and power for the multinational African Union force that is deploying in the Central African Republic would be to no avail. A United Nations peacekeeping mission would be to no avail, cause there is no peace to keep yet. In order to end the anarchy and decades of human abuses that have been going on in CAR, emergency action should be taken to protect civilians and end impunity. On April 2013, I wrote an open letter to the presidents of the Central African countries to suggest an immediate and durable solution. Since then, I keep asking for those STEPS TO BE TAKEN: 1° A State member of the Security Council of the United Nations should urgently ask for a RESOLUTION allowing an international military cooperation to be deployed in CAR to protect civilians and the whole territory. The country needs an international force, a fighter 4
5. 5. contingent of at least 7 000 gunmen, to disarm all the armed groups, to secure not only the capital but also the whole country. 2° It is absolutely necessary to find a political solution to bring peace into this country. The immediate organisation of a Sovereign National Conference is the only way we can put an end to that constant nightmare, globally and definitively. All social strata of the country should participate. The decisions taken during the conference will allow restore the authority of the State, peace and security. The international community, particularly the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union and the United Nations Security Council, should support that National Conference process to guarantee a lasting peace, which respects the civil, political, social and cultural rights of the population in the Central African Republic. 3° The National Conference should start immediately, to guarantee a transparent political transition, which will allow the establishment of a better governance of the country, particularly in the fight against impunity for the most serious crimes that remains one of the causes of instability in Central Africa. 4° A good political transition, a government led by people with expertise and skills, capable of restoring law and order, will prevent further fighting. Unless security conditions improve, it is doubtful that the state will be capable of managing elections so soon. The only way to get fair and free election is to have a good transition that will: • Reinstate institutions in the entire territory, including the police, the gendarmerie and the regular army; • Provide access to health and other services for victims of human rights violations. We need to pay special attention to the needs of women and girls who have survived sexual violence; • Reinstate a strong institution of Justice that will be able to carry out effective investigations and prosecutions, fight against impunity of the authors of serious crimes perpetrated in the CAR, as the absence of justice contributes to the repeated conflicts in this country over the last decades. • The United Nations Security Council should approve a resolution really aimed at stabilizing the Central African Republic. • All the international crimes perpetrated by either one or the other of the parties to the conflict must fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, as in 2006 CAR's Court of Appeal recognized the inability of domestic courts to prosecute war criminals. It said that Justice could only come from the International Justice. 5
6. 6. • Any amnesty should be excluded from any agreement. Accountability for the large-scale crimes committed in CAR for decades has to be an essential part of resolving definitely the problem of CAR. The victims of rebel and army atrocities deserve justice, and ending impunity by state security forces is an essential component of reducing, and maybe stopping, the cycle of violence in this country. • The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC should publicly assert its authority over the current events, and continue its investigations in the Central African Republic in order to prosecute those at the highest level responsible for international crimes, which fall under its jurisdiction. • The Human Rights and Justice Unit of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic (BINUCA), has to effectively monitor and report on past and ongoing human rights abuses in the Central African Republic; In order to do that, the Peace Keeping Operation (PKO) must be backed by the UN’s political will to support it financially, with enough well-trained personnel, the PKO must have the material means to enforce it’s mandate, and of course there must be a peace to keep. • A monitoring mission should be deployed to the Central African Republic to document, investigate, and report on human rights violations committed since December 2012. This could be done by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The mission should include investigators that are trained to document sexual violence; • We need to investigate and prosecute all persons deemed responsible for the recent and past abuses, including Seleka members, in fair and credible trials. This is not going to happen now, because the Central African justice system is unable to carry out effective investigations and prosecutions. In CAR, government officials are more invested in promoting their own interests than good governance or human development. This undermines prospects for political unity and meaningful state building. Help us stop the atrocities and the massive violation of human rights committed on civilians in Central African Republic. Let’s stop the mass killings in Central African Republic (CAR) before it becomes a genocide. Venue: Howard De Walden Room, the Marylebone Hôtel, 47 Welbeck Street, London W1G 8DN. 6
7. 7. • Any amnesty should be excluded from any agreement. Accountability for the large-scale crimes committed in CAR for decades has to be an essential part of resolving definitely the problem of CAR. The victims of rebel and army atrocities deserve justice, and ending impunity by state security forces is an essential component of reducing, and maybe stopping, the cycle of violence in this country. • The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC should publicly assert its authority over the current events, and continue its investigations in the Central African Republic in order to prosecute those at the highest level responsible for international crimes, which fall under its jurisdiction. • The Human Rights and Justice Unit of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic (BINUCA), has to effectively monitor and report on past and ongoing human rights abuses in the Central African Republic; In order to do that, the Peace Keeping Operation (PKO) must be backed by the UN’s political will to support it financially, with enough well-trained personnel, the PKO must have the material means to enforce it’s mandate, and of course there must be a peace to keep. • A monitoring mission should be deployed to the Central African Republic to document, investigate, and report on human rights violations committed since December 2012. This could be done by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The mission should include investigators that are trained to document sexual violence; • We need to investigate and prosecute all persons deemed responsible for the recent and past abuses, including Seleka members, in fair and credible trials. This is not going to happen now, because the Central African justice system is unable to carry out effective investigations and prosecutions. In CAR, government officials are more invested in promoting their own interests than good governance or human development. This undermines prospects for political unity and meaningful state building. Help us stop the atrocities and the massive violation of human rights committed on civilians in Central African Republic. Let’s stop the mass killings in Central African Republic (CAR) before it becomes a genocide. Venue: Howard De Walden Room, the Marylebone Hôtel, 47 Welbeck Street, London W1G 8DN. 6
8. http://fr.slideshare.net/MarieReineHassen2016