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LONDON: Somalia remains the world's most
dangerous country for minority groups,
followed by Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan and
Myanmar, a leading human-rights group said
Thursday.
The five were in unchanged positions from
last year's Minority Rights Group
International's (MRG) list of countries
where groups or peoples are most at risk of
genocide, mass killing or other systematic
violent repression.
In Somalia, the latest round of bloodletting
in two decades of civil war kicked off when
hardline Islamist groups launched in May a
fresh offensive aimed at removing President
Sharif Sheikh Ahmad.
Meanwhile, the report says that despite
reduced violence, Iraq remained a highly
dangerous place, with between 300 and 800
civilians a month still dying violently over
the last year.
Since the last report, MRG says the
situation has deteriorated in Pakistan,
Ethiopia, Eritrea, Georgia, Zimbabwe,
Guinea, Niger, Kenya, and Israel and the
Occupied Palestinian Territories.
In Pakistan, the report says minorities are
at particular risk from the fight against
violent extremism, specifically the conflict
between different Islamist groups in the
northwest and tribal areas, repression of
dissidents elsewhere and what it calls
"growing violence in national politics."
MRG director Mark Lattimer said: "Ethnic and
religious minorities across West Asia are
under greater threat than ever before as a
result of escalating military operations
against Islamic extremists."
Half the top 20 countries in the "Peoples
under Threat 2009" report are African and
six are in Asia.
Completing the top 10 are the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and
the Occupied Palestinian Territories, where
the report said the war earlier this year in
Gaza "leaves a continuing grave risk" to the
lives of civilians.
"If the current push for peace led by the US
administration and Arab states founders,
there is a real risk of further
radicalization on both sides," it added. -
AFP |
