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'Contagious' wars put minorities at risk
Written by: Timothy Large
An ethnic Karen girl stares out from a boat, waiting for Thai authorities to let her into a refugee camp in Mae Hon Son province, north of Bangkok in this June 2007 file photo. REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang
Is war contagious? That's a question posed in a new report that finds a growing number of minority groups at risk of genocide, mass killing or violent repression as ethnic conflicts spill across borders. From the Horn of Africa to Central Asia, minorities are in the firing line. The study by Minority Rights Group International (MRG) ranks Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan and Myanmar as countries where minorities are most under threat, followed by Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Chad. Some of these hotspots are not surprising. The U.N. refugee body estimates that up to a third of Iraqi refugees who have fled to Jordan or Syria come from minority communities, including Armenians, Turkomans, Chaldo-Assyrians and Faili Kurds. In Myanmar, the ruling junta has long targeted the Karen, Rohingya and Shan ethnic groups. But the "biggest risers" on the risk radar are less obvious - countries like Pakistan, Ethiopia and Chad. These nations have become more dangerous for minorities since MRG's last "People's Under Threat" report in 2007. As MRG sees it, what's changed is the export of the ethnic dynamics of conflict to kin populations across borders. "So where you have fighting between Arab militias and settled communities in Darfur, we now see exactly the same pattern of attacks and retaliation across the border in eastern Chad," explained MRG director Mark Lattimer. "Where you have a community caught up in the war on terror in eastern Afghanistan, with operations focused very heavily in the Pashtun community, so we have an exact pattern of conflict replicated across the border of Pakistan." Ethiopia is a prime example of how the chain reactions of cross-border violence can hit minorities hard. Consider this flow of events. In December 2006, Ethiopian troops helped Somalia's transitional government oust Islamists from Mogadishu. In the process some 50,000 Somalis fled across the border into Ethiopia. Many brought small arms and bitter tales of Ethiopian acts in Somalia, helping to fuel a long-running insurgency in Ethiopia's Ogaden region. Attacks by Ogaden rebels prompted Ethiopian forces to launch a major counter-insurgency campaign in Ogaden in June last year. No surprises that allegations soon arose of widespread abuses against ethnic Somali civilians. According to Lattimer, the U.S.-led "war on terror" has been especially bad news for minorities, with many countries using it as a smoke screen to crack down on smaller groups that don't toe the majority line. "In a country like Pakistan there's quite clearly the military operations in the North West Frontier Province against suspected Al Qaeda sympathisers which have resulted in mass violations against civilians, demolitions of houses and so forth," he said. "But there's also a rapidly increasing pattern of violations against Baluchis in Baluchistan where really the links with the war on terror are very tenuous. Basically Pakistan is using the support of the United States and its ongoing military operations as an excuse to crack down on home-grown dissidents." Below are the 10 countries MRG is most worried about in 2008, along with the minority groups potentially under threat. See also MRG's Global Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, a new database that promises to be a valuable research tool.
|
Rank |
Country |
Group |
|
1 |
|
Darood, Hawiye, Issaq and other clans; Ogadenis;
Bantu; Gabooye (Midgan)
and other 'caste' groups |
|
2 |
|
Shia, Sunnis, Kurds, Turkomans,
Christians, Mandeans, Yezidis,
Faili Kurds, Shabak,
Baha'is, Palestinians |
|
3 |
|
Fur, Zaghawa,
Massalit and others in |
|
4 |
|
Hazara, Pashtun, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turkomans, Baluchis |
|
5 |
|
Kachin, Karenni, Karen, |
|
6 |
|
Hema and Lendu, Hunde, Hutu, Luba, Lunda, Tutsi/Banyamulenge, Twa/Mbuti |
|
7 |
|
Ahmaddiya, Baluchis, Hindus, Mohhajirs, Pashtun, Sindhis, other religious minorities |
|
8 |
|
Ibo, Ijaw,
Ogoni, Yoruba, Hausa (Muslims) and Christians in
the north |
|
9 |
|
Anuak, Afars, Oromo, Somalis,
smaller minorities |
|
10 |
|
'Black African' groups,
Arabs, Southerners |
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3 responses to “'Contagious' wars put minorities at risk”
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Tim Large has been AlertNet's deputy editor since 2003. Prior to that, he was a correspondent with Reuters in Tokyo, a staff writer on a major Japanese daily and news editor of a popular science website. He has written widely on politics, economics, social issues and the arts. He is also a passionate photographer.
29 Feb 2008 09:18:45 GMT
Dear Timothy Large,
I want to remind you that Ogaden sub-clan belongs to Darood. They reside in Southern Somalia, Norhern Frontier Districts (NFD) of Kenya and the majority live in Ogaden, i.e Eastern part of Ethiopia. They are not among the cast groups or others. That is muy point of correction. Thank you, Ahmed04 Mar 2008 12:23:07 GMT
The global war on Interiors is the best thing to happen for many muslim countries and African countries dictators. The military general Musharaf had never stayed on power without the bad guys in backyard. To gain all the helps he needs to stay on power he has to exist in symbiosis with bad guys because no bad guys no aids.
During the cold war it was the bad guys who were the ally of superpower fighting the redarmy but post cold war the allies became the enemies. The superpower that spends more than $250 bln on military budget has to have a longterm enemy otherwise without the enemy you canââ¬â¢t train the army. The high price of black gold is waking up the bear as the dragon and the elephant are expanding their nisch on raw materials. When the new enemy emerges may be the superpower will be forced to change its position on former ally or may be bad guys may gain the new ally. In horn Africa ethnic cleansing and genocides are existed before the world divided in two camps and the global war on Interiors is introduced. Itââ¬â¢s not always the majority that commit ethnic cleansing and genocides against minorities. In Ethiopia 120 years ago emperor Minilik from Amhara minority had wept out more than half of Karayyuu Oromo and Arsii Oromo in central Oromia. And today also the minority Tigray TPLF is committing systematic ethnic cleansing and genocide on defenceless majority Oromo and on minorities like Ogaden ââ¬" Somalis, Sidama, Nuer, Anuk-Gambella, BeniShangul etcââ¬Â¦ Minority on power is more likely to commit ethnic cleansing and genocides than the majority ruler because the minority rulers are always at constant fear that they may loose the power. In Iraq itââ¬â¢s the sunni minority that were committing genocides against the Kurds in the north and against the majority Mash Arabs in the south but now the majority rule have ended the crimes by government at least.06 Mar 2008 14:17:42 GMT
Contagious Wars, Good wording for selective Genocide. Like in the past, all wars have they roots in revenge. Whether it be for a relative, a stolen herd, or pasture and area. Peoples that conquer and rule over an area badly or retake the land from those that held it, are targeted for further attacks. In the relm of bad treatment of its subjects, we need only look to WWII, The Balkan conflicts, the threat by Serbia-Russia-China over Kosovo's rebellion and proclaimed independence. They who treat others poorly, either are attacked or do the attacking, a pre-emptive strike to say, and eradicate those that caused the threat or most likely to cause a threat. If they are all gone, no one can prove what they claim. In cases like Israel, alastinians feel they own the land and not the Jews. On the other hand Israelis feel it is their homeland and they want it back, so they took it. The world is afraid of others like Israel, Croatia, Bosnia, and Slovenia. They have reclaimed their homelands back from the invaders.