Central African Republic President Samba-Panza: 'There Is Still Hope'

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/interview-with-central-african-republic-president-samba-panza-a-955403.html



The Central African Republic has been torn apart by violence, with only the engagement of troops from France and the African Union keeping a modicum of peace. President Catherine Samba-Panza tells SPIEGEL that EU help is crucial.

Central African Republic President Samba-Panza: 'There Is Still Hope'
Interview Conducted by Jan Puhl and Petra Truckendanner
February 25, 2014 – 01:08 PM

SPIEGEL: Violence in your country is escalating: Christians are attacking Muslims, well over a thousand people have died so far and human rights organizations are talking of genocide. Is the international community partly responsible, because it has failed to augment the French and African troop presence?

Catherine Samba-Panza: The international community is playing a cautious role. They can't be everywhere, they don't have enough troops for that. The deployment of 1,600 French troops and the African Union's 5,000-strong force deserves recognition -- one certainly cannot speak of complicity.

SPIEGEL: You yourself are a Christian. Is there a risk that the country's entire Muslim population will be killed or driven out? Is it already too late to stop this from happening?

Samba-Panza: No, there is still hope. It's not as though there is violence against Muslims across the whole of the Central African Republic. In many areas, priests and imams are trying to calm the public down, and without this ecumenical effort, the situation would be much worse.

[JustAnotherGen]

1. I'm going bonkers

At the idea that the French soldiers JUST got there. Nothing has happened in CAR in the past 40 years that has not been the result of someone pulling a lever in Paris. I'm not buying it. It's disingenous of the media to pretend like this conflict is new and is not the direct result of European colonialism. The only thing new to this story is the religious angle.