02 November, 2012

Boko Haram suspects held in inhuman conditions - Amnesty International


Nigeria is illegally holding hundreds of people suspected of participation in violence by the radical Boko sect in inhuman conditions and without access to lawyers, an international rights group, Amnesty International, warned yesterday. The report released by Amnesty International alleges most of those imprisoned around the country are held without criminal charges and suggests that some have been summarily executed by security forces before facing trial.Some of those detained told the rights group that they were shackled for days, forced to sit in their own excrement in overcrowded cells while watching other prisoners get beaten and coerced into confessions. 

However, in a swift reaction, the Nigeria Police Force yesterday faulted the methodology adopted by the Amnesty International on the abuses of human rights by security agencies in trying to curtail the excesses of the Boko Haram menace in the North.

In a statement, Deputy Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Frank Mba said, “A recent Amnesty International Report dated November, 2012 has just been received by relevant authority of the Nigeria Police Force. 

As a responsible law enforcement agency, the Nigeria Police Force takes all criticisms against its organization seriously. Consequently, the Police Authority has begun a comprehensive and critical study of the report with a view to establishing its veracity and relevance vis-à-vis our contemporary security challenges and needs.

“Bearing in mind that the Force has no monopoly of knowledge, the Police High Command (on the strength of the Report) will not hesitate to accept honest and factual recommendations (if any) contained therein and initiate appropriate reforms where necessary.

“However, the Force is deeply concerned over a key research methodology adopted by Amnesty International in compiling its report. The fact that most of the sources of the content of the report are “not named”, (and thus not open to confirmation or reconciliation) puts the authenticity, credibility and legitimacy of the report in question.

“Nevertheless, the Nigeria Police will continue to do everything humanly possible to improve the capacity and efficiency of its service delivery especially as it relates to its core responsibility of protecting lives and property. 

The Force will also continue to initiate and improve on policies designed to strengthen the essential values of democratic policing which includes: transparency, accountability, respect for the fundamental human rights of all citizens and the promotion of a strong professional ethics within the Force.

“In this regard, the Force will at all times, reward excellent deeds by its men, while at the same time, holding accountable those found wanting in the discharge of their statutory duties, bearing in mind that no organization – including Amnesty International- is perfect”.

In its report, Amnesty also blamed both the Nigerian government and the Boko Haram sect of likely committing crimes against humanity as the guerrilla conflict engulfing the nation's Muslim north continues to kills civilians.

"There is a vicious cycle of violence currently taking place in Nigeria," the report reads. "The Nigerian people are trapped in the middle."

Security forces routinely deny committing abuses, though the nation has a long history of abuses and  extrajudicial killings being carried out by police officers and soldiers.

 Military spokesman Col. Mohammed Yerima said soldiers do hold prisoners, but only to do a "thorough job" investigating their backgrounds. He said some had falsely reported neighbors as Boko Haram members out of petty disputes.

"We don't torture people. We interrogate them and find out if they are members of the Boko Haram," Yerima told The Associated Press. "We don't have any concentration camp that they are talking about. All we have is offices where we work."

The Amnesty report comes as both Nigeria's government and Boko Haram faces increasing international condemnation. Violence blamed on Boko Haram has killed more than 720 people this year alone, according to an AP account — the deadliest year since the sect began its attacks in 2009. A Human Rights Watch report in October also accused Nigerian security forces and Boko Haram of likely committing crimes against humanity in their fighting.

The Amnesty report includes claims of killings, house burnings and rapes carried out by security forces, allegations that have trailed the government's response to Boko Haram for months. Amnesty estimates that more than 200 suspected Boko Haram members are being held at a barracks in Maiduguri, while more than 100 others are being held at a police station in Abuja. Dozens of others probably are being held at the headquarters of the State Security Service, Nigeria's secret police, and others elsewhere, Amnesty said.

Those held largely do not know where they are detained, cannot contact their families or speak to lawyers, in contravention of Nigerian law, Amnesty said. Many are shackled together for nearly the entire day, the report said. Those held at the police station in Abuja are kept in a former slaughterhouse where chains still hang from the ceiling, the rights group said.

"There were shots in the night. I was hearing the shot of guns but I didn't know what they are doing," said one former detainee at the police station quoted in the Amnesty report.

"When (the police) were collecting statements, some of us cannot speak English, and some of the officers cannot speak our language, so those that have difficulty, they have been beaten ... Our lives were — we were not alive. We had no food, no water and no bath."

Others told Amnesty that soldiers beat at least one prisoner with an electrical cable, while others were denied access to medicine and care. In the report, Amnesty said it requested to see prisons, police stations, military detention centers and holding cells of the Nigeria's secret police, but did not get access to the facilities.

Source: Compass

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