•
Minister Debunks Alleged Suspension Of US Military Aids
• US-based Nigerians Say
Group At War With Nation
• Nigeria Remains Strategic
Partner To U.S., Says Govt
ALTHOUGH the Federal Government may have swallowed its pride by
opening negotiations with the Boko Haram group, there are indications that this
decision has not gone down well with the international community.
This comes as government reassures Nigerians that the country
remained a strategic partner of the United States.
Reports credited to the US Ambassador, Terence McCulley, during
the week, had suggested his country was withdrawing military assistance to
Nigeria because of various human rights violations by security forces,
particularly the military accentuated killing and destruction in Baga, Borno
State, during a clash with members of the Boko Haram. The US supports the
Nigerian military and security agencies with training, intelligence and
weapons.
Only on Friday, the United Nations categorically rejected Federal
Government’s plans to grant amnesty to members of the group, who the body said
have been involved in serious human rights violations. Some US-based Nigerians
are also against the amnesty, saying the group is at war with Nigeria.
In a statement in Geneva, at the weekend, the United Nations’
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN-OHCHR, said while
welcoming the important step the country undertook by establishing a Committee
“to open talks with Boko Haram and work out modalities for an amnesty and
compensation for victims,” the UN still wants perpetrators of serious
violations of peoples fundamental rights to be punished.
According to the statement made available on Friday, the UN-OHCHR
urged the “Nigerian authorities to make sure that perpetrators of serious human
rights violations, including Boko Haram elements and members of the security
forces, were held accountable and that amnesties were not granted to anyone
responsible for very serious human rights violations.”
Diplomatic sources explained that the UN’s rejection of amnesty to
the group and Nigerian security officials and soldiers is not unexpected.
It would be recalled that already, the UN-backed International
Criminal Court (ICC) had announced last November, “there is a reasonable basis
to believe that since July 2009, Boko Haram has committed acts constituting
crimes against humanity,” including murder and persecution, according to the
Court Prosecutor’s report in 2012.
That report also cited a “reasonable basis” to believe that the
group has “launched a widespread and systematic attack that has resulted in the
killings of more than 1 200 Christians and Muslims”, further noting that
the group is pursuing a policy of “imposing an exclusive Islamic system of
government in northern Nigeria at the expense of Christians specifically.”
The UN-OHCHR statement, signed by its spokesperson, Rupert
Colville, noted that the UN is “very concerned about the large number of
casualties, reportedly including many civilians, and massive destruction of
houses and property, as well as population displacement that had taken place in
over the past few weeks in north-eastern Nigeria.”
Meanwhile, some US-based Nigerians have supported the military’s
intervention in the insurgence at Baga.
According to Dr. Ola Kassim, a former Chairman of the Nigerians in
Diaspora Organisation, NIDO, a worldwide group of Nigerians abroad, “we
cannot send our soldiers and policemen into a battle with the Boko
Haram with one arm tied to their backs.”
Although the US-based Prof. Joseph Igietseme, an award winning
scientist, objected to extra-judicial killing, he argued, “the baby gloves with
which the Nigeria government and people are handling Boko Haram is mainly
responsible for why the situation is still not under control.”
According to him, “a bunch of mindless, rag-tag religionists
cannot hold a nation to ransom and render citizens’ lives to standstill.”
In its weekend statement, the UN quoted various sources, that
reported that about 200 people were killed, at least 70 others injured, and
more than 2,000 houses damaged during raids conducted by Nigerian military
troops in Baga, Borno State.
The UN stated, “Boko Haram had reportedly been responsible for
kidnappings, killings and drive-by motorbike assassinations of civilians and
politicians, members of government institutions, security forces and foreign
nationals.”
The UN statement also noted regarding the incident as follows:
• The Nigerian Army had been conducting special operations
searching for suspects in the wake of bomb attacks, and or in retaliation for
the killing of members of the security forces. However, the latest
clashes resulted in what had perhaps been the single deadliest intervention by
the army in its fight against Boko Haram;
• OHCHR welcomed President Goodluck Jonathan’s commitment to
hold accountable all those involved in the human rights violations perpetrated
during the Baga attack, and urged the Nigerian government to carry out a full
and impartial investigation of the incidents;
• OHCHR called on the Nigerian government to make sure its efforts
to achieve security were in full compliance with human rights principles.
It also urged security forces and the military to respect human rights,
and avoid excessive use of force when conducting operations, as those were
feeding local resentment, especially when civilians were killed or had their
property damaged; and
• OHCHR also repeated calls for concerted efforts to tackle
the causes of the repeated outbreaks of violence in the north east of Nigeria
and to put an end to the cycle of violence and deadly reprisal attacks.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru, who was in the US recently, said the claims were
spurious and unnecessary distraction.
The minister said: “The story about US stopping military
assistance to Nigeria is false. I have just concluded a visit to US and met
with Senator John Kerry, US Secretary of State. He stressed that Nigeria
remains a strategic partner to US. He vowed that US - Nigeria relations would
be further strengthened in all areas of political, Security, Defence and
Economic Cooperation under our Bi- National Commission... Exactly the same
message was repeated at a meeting with Canadian Foreign Minister, Mr. John
Baird, on May 2, in Ottawa.”
Ashiru queried, “so, where are all these coming from?”
Before the minister’s reaction, a tweet on the twitter account of
the US Mission in Nigeria reads: “The US has not suspended security assistance
to Nigeria. We continue to emphasise importance of security force respect for
human rights.”
A suspension of military aid would send shock waves to the
diplomatic community.
At the restart of the BNC last year, both countries started
working along the lines of improved cooperation to tackle general security
challenges in the country.
To give full effect to this, both countries decided to re-arrange
the BNC cooperation framework by splitting its Regional Security Cooperation
and the Niger Delta component into an entirely separate working group.
Speaking at the inaugural meeting of the regional security
cooperation working group, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary, Mr. William
Fitzgerald, who led the US delegation, noted that the security situation in the
northern part of Nigeria had reached a significant dimension.
The split would ostensibly enable a sharper focus on the terrorism
onslaught emanating in Nigeria while the tail end of the same instrument was
meant to take care of the older Niger Delta problem.
The American military and intelligence officials also held
discussions with their Nigerian counterparts, which were led by the Permanent
Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Martin Uhoimobhi, and
included the late National Security Adviser, Gen Andrew Owoye Azazi, as well as
the Nigerian Ambassador to the US, Professor Ade Adefuye.
The BNC between the two countries was given a formal launch pad in
April 2010 when its framework was signed and with the convergence of four of
the identified working groups-Good Governance, Transparency, and Integrity;
Energy and Investment; Niger Delta and Regional Security Cooperation; and
Agriculture and Food Security.
Source: Guardian
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