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Islamic rebels patrol
the streets of Mogadishu. Al Qaeda-linked
fighters in the al Shabaab rebel group are
battling to oust President Sheikh Sharif
Ahmed. REUTERS/Mowliid Abd
LONDON - Countries on the front line
in the "war on terror" are using the battle
against extremists as a smokescreen to crack
down on minority groups, according to an
international human rights group.
For the fourth straight year, Somalia, Iraq,
Sudan and Afghanistan topped an annual index
compiled by Minority Rights Group
International (MRG) of countries where
minorities are most at risk of genocide,
mass killings or violent repression.
"You see governments who have faced a
genuine threat, but the point is the actions
they have taken against the wider civilian
population, including minority civilians,
has been justified as part of the 'war on
terror,'" MRG director Mark Lattimer told
Reuters on Thursday.
"It has included disappearances, torture and
extrajudicial executions."
A two-year insurgency in Somalia led by al
Shabaab militants, who have links to al
Qaeda and include foreign Islamists among
their ranks, has killed some 18,000
civilians.
The insurgency has put historically
oppressed minority groups such as the Bantu,
Gabooye and Yibir at particular risk, the
chairman of Somali Minority Rights and Aid
Forum, Mohamed Hassan Daryeel, said.
"If the Yibir go with the government, they
will be attacked by the radical Islamists.
At the same time, if they go with the
Islamists, they will be considered
terrorists, and if they are neutral they'll
be targeted by all sides."
Daryeel said recent amputations carried out
by al Shabaab fighters were performed on
child soldiers forcibly recruited from
minority groups. "They are at the bottom of
society, the most disadvantaged," he said.
Despite a decline in violence in Iraq, the
report said civilian deaths from violence
were still estimated at 300-800 a month over
the past year.
It said minorities continued to bear the
brunt of the violence, especially in the
Nineveh area, home to the Shabak people.
"The Shabak community has suffered a lot at
the hands of the terrorist groups and at the
hands of the Kurdish 'Assayish' (secret
police)," head of Iraq's Minorities Council,
Hunain Al-Qaddo, told Reuters.
He said around 10,000 Shabak families had
fled parts of Mosul to their homeland in the
Nineveh plains for fear of being killed
because of their ethnicity.
The rest of the top 10 list was comprised of
Myanmar in fifth place, followed by
Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Ethiopia, Nigeria and Israel/Palestinian
territories.
Pakistan rose on the list due to an
escalating conflict against different
Islamist groups, combined with growing
violence in national politics and
suppression of dissidents.
Ethiopia, Eritrea and Yemen were assessed as
under greater danger than a year ago with
their governments' involvement in regional
conflicts compounding the risk of repression
at home. |
