inShare . Report: Innocent people killed, raped, tortured. Report is biased, mischievous — Defence HQ
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Human rights abuses including extra-judicial killings, rape and torture
committed by security forces in their fight against Boko Haram are
spurring the very uprising they are meant to contain, Amnesty
International said in Abuja yesterday.
In a report titled ‘Nigeria: Trapped in
the cycle of violence’ released to journalists, the London-based rights
group accused the Military and Police personnel of showing “little
regard for the rule of law or human rights” in their operations.
The 76-page report detailed how hundreds
of people accused of having links with Boko Haram have been arbitrarily
detained, and others who did not pose any threat summarily executed
outside their homes.
“Every injustice carried out in the name
of security only fuels more terrorism, creating a vicious circle of
murder and destruction,” said Amnesty’s secretary general Salil Shetty
while unveiling the report in Abuja yesterday.
“You cannot protect people by abusing human rights and you cannot achieve security by creating insecurity,” he added.
But the Defence Headquarters in Abuja
dismissed the report as “biased and mischievous,” while the Police said
credibility of the report was doubtful because it quoted anonymous
witnesses.
The Amnesty secretary general said the
group’s experience of chronicling acts of terrorism in other countries
showed that adopting the use of force to counter violence never worked
and Nigeria needed to change its approach.
“Violating human rights in order to
improve human condition might work in the short term but would backfire
eventually. The only way to counter terrorism is with justice within the
human rights framework,” Shetty said.
He said Amnesty received “mixed” reactions from government officials in meetings before the report was issued.
“The most important and positive
reaction came from the office of NSA (National Security Adviser) and
very encouragingly they have informed that they would investigate the
cases we have identified and come out with a response,” he said.
But he added that many government
officials have denied the existence of these abuses and “that is a bit
more worrying because it is very important that early action is taken.”
‘Say your last prayer’
The Amnesty report detailed incidents of
human rights abuses in Boko Haram-prone areas, relying on accounts of
anonymous witnesses. It said it had sent a delegation to Kano and Borno
between February and July to investigate reported atrocities.
“Amnesty International received
consistent accounts of witnesses who saw people summarily executed
outside their homes, shot dead during operations, after arrest, or
beaten to death in detention or in the street by security forces in
Maiduguri,” the report said.
It added that a “significant number” of
people accused of links with Boko Haram were extra judicially killed,
while hundreds were detained without charge or trial and many of those
arrested disappeared or were later found dead.
“People are living in a climate of fear
and insecurity, vulnerable to attack from Boko Haram and facing human
rights violations at the hands of the very state security forces which
should be protecting them,” Shetty said.
Amnesty said it had spoken to witnesses
who described seeing people who were unarmed and lying down with their
hands over their heads shot at close range by soldiers.
In one case, a widow described how
soldiers put a gun against her husband’s head three times and told him
to say his last prayers before shooting him dead. They then burned down
their home. She now fends for her seven children alone.
Cycle of violence
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, and others elsewhere, it said.
Those held largely do not know where
they are detained, cannot contact their families or speak to lawyers, in
contravention of the 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.”
In the report, Amnesty said it requested
to see prisons, police stations, military detention centers and holding
cells of the SSS but did not get access to the facilities.
Amnesty said Boko Haram’s relentless
targeting of civilians “may constitute crimes against humanity,” but
urged Nigeria “to take responsibility for its own failings” in
combatting the insurgents.
“The cycle of attack and counter-attack
has been marked by unlawful violence on both sides, with devastating
consequences for the human rights of those trapped in the middle,”
Shetty said.
‘Biased and mischievous’
The Defence Headquarters, the Nigeria
Police Force and the Joint Task Force operating in Maiduguri yesterday
dismissed the allegations of human rights abuses by Amnesty.
JTF spokesman Lt.-Colonel Sagir Musa
said in an emailed response to Daily Trust: “The report is not
fundamentally different from the one of Thursday 11 October, 2012—the
same allegations. JTF has severally debunked the allegations.
“For the sake of posterity, there is no
established or recorded case of extra judicial killing, arson and
arbitrary detention by the task force. Be that as it may, we will
continue to look at local and international concerns about our
operations. We will continue to investigate these allegations and if
found to be true, we will legally and militarily punish offenders and
where possible make our findings public.
“JTF don’t condone or encourage
infractions/indiscipline and where that happens we immediately visit
sanctions accordingly. That accounted for the successes we have so far
recorded.”
For his part, spokesman for the Police
Force, CSP Frank Mba, said, “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.”
In a statement in Abuja yesterday, Mba
added: “As a responsible law enforcement agency, the Nigeria Police
Force takes all criticisms against its organisation 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.”
Defense spokesman Colonel Mohammed
Yerima said security forces only kill Boko Haram suspects during
gunfights, never in executions.
“We don’t torture people. We interview a
suspect, if he is not involved we let him go. If he is involved we hand
him to the police,” he said, quoted by Reuters news agency. “I totally
disagree with this report. It is biased and it is mischievous.”
Attorney General of the Federation and
Minister of Justice Mohammed Bello Adoke could not be reached for
comments yesterday. His spokesman Professor Akpe said he could not speak
on the matter because he had not been authorised to do so.
DailyTrust
