Wed. 11 June: NEW YORK (AFP) — US actress Mia Farrow on Tuesday described the Central African Republic (CAR) as a virtual "collapsed state" where human rights violations are rife, following a trip there last month. "I don't think President Francois Bozize has very much jurisdiction outside of Bangui (the capital) except those towns that he now holds in some fragile fashion," she said in an interview with AFP. "I don't know what the technical definition of a collapsed state is but I can't imagine it would very different from what we're seeing there," said Farrow, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The 63-year-old, who is also well known for speaking out against abuses in Sudan's Darfur region and Chad, gave a chilling account of her swing across CAR last month, saying many civilians have been killed, kidnapped or raped amid fighting between government troops and rebel forces. She said both the rebels and government troops were guilty of atrocities against civilians. "Much of the burning of villages was by the presidential guard, we were told by the people. They said very clearly it was the presidential guard in 2007," she added. The worst victims of the fighting have been children who have been kidnapped by rebel groups. In March, more than 150 people, many of them children as young as six years old, were abducted by Uganda's notorious rebel group Lord Resistance Army (LRA). The LRA has been in conflict with the Kampala government for 22 years and is now operating in CAR. UNICEF said it did not have the resources to track these abducted children who are forced to join rebel armies while the girls are used as sex slaves. On her visit last month, Farrow said she learned that the parents had received a message from the kidnappers. "Their parents were told that the good news is they're probably not dead. The bad news is they probably will never see them again and if they do they (children) will only come to kill them," she said. Farrow's week-long trip last month was her second to the vast, impoverished but mineral-rich country. After her first trip last year, she called for international protection of civilians against attacks from rebel groups, bandits and government troops. "In 2007, I was saying that there should be an international peacekeeping force along the border with Sudan and along the border with Chad," she said. This year, a European Union force (EUFOR) was deployed to monitor CAR's northeastern border with Sudan. But the people living on the country's northwestern border with Chad have been attacked by bandits and the Chadian army, according to Farrow. "Some 300,000 civilians have been driven from their homes largely into the bush and some fled into Chad itself," she added. The US actress stressed the need for a force to protect civilians on the border with Chad. She did however note some positive developments since her last visit. "The big change since we were there last is that instead of two NGOs (non-governmental organizations) there are 23," Farrow said. She voiced hope that her visit would encourage more aid agencies to work there. "It is very dangerous terrain, to ask our aid workers to do what the world will not do," Farrow said.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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