US-based Bali Cultural group says genocide is being committed in NW, SW

Indigenes from Bali in the North West regions resident in the United States are the latest to condemn a recent wave of military raids in the Anglophone regions.

The US based Bali Cultural Association has condemned the new wave of violence in the restive Anglophone regions, noting that the actions have the hallmarks of a genocide.

In a letter signed by the Board of Directors of the cultural association, it condemns “particularly the recent inhumane actions perpetrated by purported forces of law and order and their collaborators on Friday, January 17, 2020”.

“These forces of law and order have organized systematic attacks in the villages of Bali, killing and wounding people, burning homes and businesses, killing livestock, and looting of household valuables, including food” it reads.

“Unable to flee, the old, the sick and the infirm have been subjected to unspeakable indignities” it states.

Before, ” military incursions of this nature used to be in response to attacks by armed anti-government groups or devised to root out these groups from their strongholds. However, these latest rampages are unprovoked and have been largely directed at civilians, leading us to surmise that there is a clear intent to render the people destitute, decimate the population or reduce survivors to living life as animals while hiding in the bushes” it notes.

“The burning down of houses, especially the unoccupied ones have invariably been preceded by breaking and entering for the purpose of looting” it adds.

To them, “these despicable and barbaric acts bear the hallmarks of genocide and will not and should not be tolerated under any circumstances, not even in times of war. The perpetrators need to be held accountable”.

The letter goes on to call on the authorities to “move immediately to prevent any further acts of violence or destruction, secure and preserve all evidence of genocidal acts against the population of the Bali Nyonga Fondom, and the affected region and to prosecute the perpetrators, as inaction and silence mean condoning and legitimizing such inhumane acts”.

The group’s call comes on the heels of similar messages by the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, PCC and Bali Nyonga groups cultural groups in the diaspora.