The
Human Rights Watch (HRW) yesterday threw a spanner into the works of
the preliminary report of the Nigerian Army which whittled down the
level of bloodshed in the fighting between soldiers and members of the
Boko Haram sect at Baga town in Borno State, alleging a plot to cover up
the massive destruction and killings from the military raid.
There is also an indication that President Goodluck Jonathan may order a review of the preliminary report submitted to him on Tuesday by Defence Headquarters and the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) on the Baga mayhem, following the fresh report by the international human rights body.
After receiving the report by the Army and NEMA at a meeting he held with security chiefs in his office on Tuesday, President Jonathan, through his special adviser on media and publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, noted that he “also welcomed the plan by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to carry out independent investigations”.
In their preliminary report, following an investigation on the orders of the president, the military high command and NEMA said media reports on the Baga massacre exaggerated the incident as only 36 persons were killed, as against the initial death toll pegged at 185.
While absolving the JTF of its action which, it claimed, was legal and needed to be sustained, the report also indicated that the gun battle between the soldiers and the Boko Haram members did not occur on April 19 as reported in the media but actually occurred on Tuesday, April 16, 2013.
But HRW argued in its report yesterday that satellite images and witness accounts on the Baga incident “raise concerns of cover-up, as images reveal massive destruction of civilian property from a military raid on April 16 and 17, 2013, in the northern Nigerian town of Baga, undermining the military’s claim that only 30 houses were destroyed”.
The global rights organisation urged the Nigerian government to “thoroughly and impartially investigate allegations that soldiers carried out widespread destruction and killing in the town”.
Alleging that men of the Nigerian Army have also wreaked havoc and unleashed terror on innocent citizens in the same manner the insurgents had done, HRW said, “Attacks by Boko Haram or splinter groups, clashes between these groups and government security forces, and extrajudicial killings by the security forces have killed more than 3,600 people since 2009.
“During security raids in communities where attacks have occurred, the military has burned homes and summarily executed men in front of their families. The Nigerian authorities have also arrested thousands of people in raids across the north. Many of these people have been held incommunicado without charge or trial for months or even years. In some cases they have been detained in inhuman conditions, tortured, or killed.
“The Nigerian authorities have repeatedly denied allegations of security force abuses, labeling those who report such abuses as “Boko Haram sympathisers.”
The International Criminal Court, which opened a preliminary examination of the situation in Nigeria, found in 2012 that there was a “reasonable basis to believe” that Boko Haram attacks, including murder and persecution, amount to crimes against humanity”.
Giving a different account from the military report, the rights group said, “Baga residents told HRW that soldiers ransacked the town after the Boko Haram group attacked a military patrol, killing a soldier. Community leaders said that immediately after the attack they counted 2,000 burned homes and 183 bodies.
“Satellite images of the town analysed by Human Rights Watch corroborate these accounts and identify 2,275 destroyed buildings, the vast majority likely residences, with another 125 severely damaged.”
“The Nigerian military has a duty to protect itself and the population from Boko Haram attacks, but the evidence indicates that it engaged more in destruction than in protection,” Africa director at HRW Mr Daniel Bekele stated.
“The glaring discrepancies between the facts on the ground and statements by senior military officials raise concerns that they tried to cover up military abuses.”
The HRW noted that, while it interviewed seven residents of Baga who fled the town on the night of the devastation, “many survivors spent several nights hiding in the bush and expressed fear in describing what they saw, fearing military retaliation”.
It stated: “One resident, a 42-year-old-fisherman, told Human Rights Watch that while he was fleeing he saw two men in civilian clothes, whom he assumed were Boko Haram members because they were not in uniform, running while firing assault rifles. Residents said that, as they were fleeing the heavy gunfire, they saw bodies in the streets and in front of houses.”
The release by the rights body noted: “Some residents said that they saw soldiers in uniform kill residents and burn houses. A 27-year-old woman, who stayed in her house after the gunfire erupted, described to Human Rights Watch how soldiers went door-to-door looking for any men that remained in her neighborhood.
“I saw the soldiers drag a man out of another house. They started beating him with their guns. They were beating him severely and he was crying,” she said. “The man then ran, and I saw the soldiers shoot him. I heard the gunshots and saw him fall. On the other side of the road the soldiers were beating other people.”
Another resident, a 32-year-old fisherman, believes soldiers killed his uncle whose bad leg kept him from fleeing the town. He discovered his uncle’s badly beaten body after the attack. “We had heard the soldiers say before [the attack] that since you people are not cooperating with us and are hiding your brothers, we will treat you as one of them,” the fisherman told HRW. “I heard the soldiers say this. Everyone heard them say this. They were saying this in the open.”
Countering the Army further, the human rights body added: “There are conflicting accounts as to how many people were killed in the attack. A community leader who participated in the burial of victims told HRW that 183 people were buried on April 18 in individual graves within two cemeteries. Other victims were also later buried, he said.
“The military called these figures ‘terribly inflated’, and, in an April 22 statement, Edokpaye claimed that only 37 people were killed -- 30 of them Boko Haram members. He said that only one soldier and six civilians died. Senator Maina Lawan, the federal senator representing Baga, told the HRW, based on a two-day site visit on April 25 and 26, that some 220 people had been buried in three cemeteries, while six others had been buried in separate locations.
“None of the residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch saw how the fires were started on the night of April 16, but they all described seeing parts of the town alight. Two residents who returned to the town the following morning, April 17, said they saw soldiers in military vehicles setting fire to houses. ‘I saw a group of soldiers throw explosive devices into houses,’ one of the residents, a farmer, recalled. ‘They would throw [the explosive] and then fire would come out of it. I saw them do this to about 10 houses.’
“Satellite images analyzed by HRW indicate that damaged structures were likely caused by intense and widespread fires. Additional satellite data detected the presence of active fires in the southern part of the town on the night of April 16 and during the day of April 17, consistent with witness accounts and the location of identified building damages.
“Because of the number of buildings destroyed by fire as well as their distribution across large sections of the town, Human Rights Watch believes that such fires were intentionally set and not inadvertently sparked by the detonation of rocket-propelled grenades or improvised explosive devices. Such weapons could not ignite fires on such a wide scale, nor could they set fire to non-attached structures. Small arms and light weapons do not contain the amount of explosive or incendiary material to produce such a scale of damage.”
It noted further that while the military team said they visited two graveyards in Baga but could only identify 32 fresh graves, “community leaders, including a senior politician interviewed by HRW, allege that the military is trying to cover up evidence of what happened.
“In the past, Nigerian military authorities have repeatedly denied or even covered up reports of security force abuses,” Human Rights Watch said. “The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, which in 2010 opened a ‘preliminary examination’ of the situation in Nigeria, has indicated that crimes committed by Boko Haram members might constitute crimes against humanity, and members of the Nigerian security forces might also have committed serious human rights violations in their operations against Boko Haram.
“This incident in Baga should be added to the prosecutor’s preliminary examination of Nigeria. There’s a tragic lack of accountability for atrocities with high body counts in Nigeria. The government needs to end this murderous cycle of violence by bringing all those responsible to justice.”
Shettima Sheds Tears For Victims
Borno State governor Kashim Shettima could not hide his feelings when he was receiving a N20 million cheque from Kano State governor Rabiu Kwankwaso for assistance to Baga victims and other Boko Haram victims across the state. He wept.
In tears, Shettima said, “This is the first time any governor or anybody this year is assisting us since the Boko Haram crisis started. We are left on our own to swim or sink. I am mourning but still cannot hide my tears of joy, fraternity and brotherhood as I receive this cheque because no government or individual has so far assisted us since the crisis started. We are left alone to swim or sink on our own.”
He added that Governor Kwankwaso was a champion of good governance in Nigeria, a strategist and versatile governor with the desire to serve his people especially the poor masses. He further described him as the architect of the modern Kano city for building two universities in Kano, making his people name him “the Caterpillar” or Sarkin Aiki, which fetched him about 50 prestigious awards both nationally and internationally.
On his part, Kwankwaso, who was in Maiduguri to commiserate with the government and people of Borno State over the Baga carnage, yesterday, donated N20 million cheque to Governor Kashim Shettima as assistance to the Baga victims.
The governor also described the incident as an unfortunate event while appealing to Governor Shettima to use his good leadership qualities as a man of unity and progress to weather the storm.
Baga survivors still bury dead amidst homelessness, hunger
Meanwhile, homeless residents of Baga, the Borno State commercial border town where a clash between soldiers and insurgents left at least 185 persons dead and about 2,000 families homeless, said they were still burying the dead every day.
“Things have calmed down for some days now, but we are still burying the dead almost every day. It has been an everyday thing; we buried a man who died on Monday after he was found in the bush almost dead two days ago; we buried another one who suffered serious injuries without medication today,” a resident said.
A fisherman, Abdullahi Gumel, who lost his house and could not find one of his sons, told LEADERSHIP, “I have lost my house of over 45 years; I have not seen my 24 year-old-son, Idrissa, since the attack last week. I have nothing left; the clothes I am putting on were given to me by a friend. We need help and medication. I suffered for six days in the bush before coming back.”
Leadership
There is also an indication that President Goodluck Jonathan may order a review of the preliminary report submitted to him on Tuesday by Defence Headquarters and the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) on the Baga mayhem, following the fresh report by the international human rights body.
After receiving the report by the Army and NEMA at a meeting he held with security chiefs in his office on Tuesday, President Jonathan, through his special adviser on media and publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, noted that he “also welcomed the plan by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to carry out independent investigations”.
In their preliminary report, following an investigation on the orders of the president, the military high command and NEMA said media reports on the Baga massacre exaggerated the incident as only 36 persons were killed, as against the initial death toll pegged at 185.
While absolving the JTF of its action which, it claimed, was legal and needed to be sustained, the report also indicated that the gun battle between the soldiers and the Boko Haram members did not occur on April 19 as reported in the media but actually occurred on Tuesday, April 16, 2013.
But HRW argued in its report yesterday that satellite images and witness accounts on the Baga incident “raise concerns of cover-up, as images reveal massive destruction of civilian property from a military raid on April 16 and 17, 2013, in the northern Nigerian town of Baga, undermining the military’s claim that only 30 houses were destroyed”.
The global rights organisation urged the Nigerian government to “thoroughly and impartially investigate allegations that soldiers carried out widespread destruction and killing in the town”.
Alleging that men of the Nigerian Army have also wreaked havoc and unleashed terror on innocent citizens in the same manner the insurgents had done, HRW said, “Attacks by Boko Haram or splinter groups, clashes between these groups and government security forces, and extrajudicial killings by the security forces have killed more than 3,600 people since 2009.
“During security raids in communities where attacks have occurred, the military has burned homes and summarily executed men in front of their families. The Nigerian authorities have also arrested thousands of people in raids across the north. Many of these people have been held incommunicado without charge or trial for months or even years. In some cases they have been detained in inhuman conditions, tortured, or killed.
“The Nigerian authorities have repeatedly denied allegations of security force abuses, labeling those who report such abuses as “Boko Haram sympathisers.”
The International Criminal Court, which opened a preliminary examination of the situation in Nigeria, found in 2012 that there was a “reasonable basis to believe” that Boko Haram attacks, including murder and persecution, amount to crimes against humanity”.
Giving a different account from the military report, the rights group said, “Baga residents told HRW that soldiers ransacked the town after the Boko Haram group attacked a military patrol, killing a soldier. Community leaders said that immediately after the attack they counted 2,000 burned homes and 183 bodies.
“Satellite images of the town analysed by Human Rights Watch corroborate these accounts and identify 2,275 destroyed buildings, the vast majority likely residences, with another 125 severely damaged.”
“The Nigerian military has a duty to protect itself and the population from Boko Haram attacks, but the evidence indicates that it engaged more in destruction than in protection,” Africa director at HRW Mr Daniel Bekele stated.
“The glaring discrepancies between the facts on the ground and statements by senior military officials raise concerns that they tried to cover up military abuses.”
The HRW noted that, while it interviewed seven residents of Baga who fled the town on the night of the devastation, “many survivors spent several nights hiding in the bush and expressed fear in describing what they saw, fearing military retaliation”.
It stated: “One resident, a 42-year-old-fisherman, told Human Rights Watch that while he was fleeing he saw two men in civilian clothes, whom he assumed were Boko Haram members because they were not in uniform, running while firing assault rifles. Residents said that, as they were fleeing the heavy gunfire, they saw bodies in the streets and in front of houses.”
The release by the rights body noted: “Some residents said that they saw soldiers in uniform kill residents and burn houses. A 27-year-old woman, who stayed in her house after the gunfire erupted, described to Human Rights Watch how soldiers went door-to-door looking for any men that remained in her neighborhood.
“I saw the soldiers drag a man out of another house. They started beating him with their guns. They were beating him severely and he was crying,” she said. “The man then ran, and I saw the soldiers shoot him. I heard the gunshots and saw him fall. On the other side of the road the soldiers were beating other people.”
Another resident, a 32-year-old fisherman, believes soldiers killed his uncle whose bad leg kept him from fleeing the town. He discovered his uncle’s badly beaten body after the attack. “We had heard the soldiers say before [the attack] that since you people are not cooperating with us and are hiding your brothers, we will treat you as one of them,” the fisherman told HRW. “I heard the soldiers say this. Everyone heard them say this. They were saying this in the open.”
Countering the Army further, the human rights body added: “There are conflicting accounts as to how many people were killed in the attack. A community leader who participated in the burial of victims told HRW that 183 people were buried on April 18 in individual graves within two cemeteries. Other victims were also later buried, he said.
“The military called these figures ‘terribly inflated’, and, in an April 22 statement, Edokpaye claimed that only 37 people were killed -- 30 of them Boko Haram members. He said that only one soldier and six civilians died. Senator Maina Lawan, the federal senator representing Baga, told the HRW, based on a two-day site visit on April 25 and 26, that some 220 people had been buried in three cemeteries, while six others had been buried in separate locations.
“None of the residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch saw how the fires were started on the night of April 16, but they all described seeing parts of the town alight. Two residents who returned to the town the following morning, April 17, said they saw soldiers in military vehicles setting fire to houses. ‘I saw a group of soldiers throw explosive devices into houses,’ one of the residents, a farmer, recalled. ‘They would throw [the explosive] and then fire would come out of it. I saw them do this to about 10 houses.’
“Satellite images analyzed by HRW indicate that damaged structures were likely caused by intense and widespread fires. Additional satellite data detected the presence of active fires in the southern part of the town on the night of April 16 and during the day of April 17, consistent with witness accounts and the location of identified building damages.
“Because of the number of buildings destroyed by fire as well as their distribution across large sections of the town, Human Rights Watch believes that such fires were intentionally set and not inadvertently sparked by the detonation of rocket-propelled grenades or improvised explosive devices. Such weapons could not ignite fires on such a wide scale, nor could they set fire to non-attached structures. Small arms and light weapons do not contain the amount of explosive or incendiary material to produce such a scale of damage.”
It noted further that while the military team said they visited two graveyards in Baga but could only identify 32 fresh graves, “community leaders, including a senior politician interviewed by HRW, allege that the military is trying to cover up evidence of what happened.
“In the past, Nigerian military authorities have repeatedly denied or even covered up reports of security force abuses,” Human Rights Watch said. “The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, which in 2010 opened a ‘preliminary examination’ of the situation in Nigeria, has indicated that crimes committed by Boko Haram members might constitute crimes against humanity, and members of the Nigerian security forces might also have committed serious human rights violations in their operations against Boko Haram.
“This incident in Baga should be added to the prosecutor’s preliminary examination of Nigeria. There’s a tragic lack of accountability for atrocities with high body counts in Nigeria. The government needs to end this murderous cycle of violence by bringing all those responsible to justice.”
Shettima Sheds Tears For Victims
Borno State governor Kashim Shettima could not hide his feelings when he was receiving a N20 million cheque from Kano State governor Rabiu Kwankwaso for assistance to Baga victims and other Boko Haram victims across the state. He wept.
In tears, Shettima said, “This is the first time any governor or anybody this year is assisting us since the Boko Haram crisis started. We are left on our own to swim or sink. I am mourning but still cannot hide my tears of joy, fraternity and brotherhood as I receive this cheque because no government or individual has so far assisted us since the crisis started. We are left alone to swim or sink on our own.”
He added that Governor Kwankwaso was a champion of good governance in Nigeria, a strategist and versatile governor with the desire to serve his people especially the poor masses. He further described him as the architect of the modern Kano city for building two universities in Kano, making his people name him “the Caterpillar” or Sarkin Aiki, which fetched him about 50 prestigious awards both nationally and internationally.
On his part, Kwankwaso, who was in Maiduguri to commiserate with the government and people of Borno State over the Baga carnage, yesterday, donated N20 million cheque to Governor Kashim Shettima as assistance to the Baga victims.
The governor also described the incident as an unfortunate event while appealing to Governor Shettima to use his good leadership qualities as a man of unity and progress to weather the storm.
Baga survivors still bury dead amidst homelessness, hunger
Meanwhile, homeless residents of Baga, the Borno State commercial border town where a clash between soldiers and insurgents left at least 185 persons dead and about 2,000 families homeless, said they were still burying the dead every day.
“Things have calmed down for some days now, but we are still burying the dead almost every day. It has been an everyday thing; we buried a man who died on Monday after he was found in the bush almost dead two days ago; we buried another one who suffered serious injuries without medication today,” a resident said.
A fisherman, Abdullahi Gumel, who lost his house and could not find one of his sons, told LEADERSHIP, “I have lost my house of over 45 years; I have not seen my 24 year-old-son, Idrissa, since the attack last week. I have nothing left; the clothes I am putting on were given to me by a friend. We need help and medication. I suffered for six days in the bush before coming back.”
Leadership
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