Punch NHRC accuses soldiers of extrajudicial killings in Baga JULY 1, 2013 BY FIDELIS SORIWEI AND IHUOMA CHIEDOZIE, ABUJA Men of the Joint Task Force committed atrocities in Baga, a town in Borno State, according to an interim report released by the National Human Rights Commission. The report on the April 2013 Baga incident and the situation in North-East listed the atrocities perpetrated by the JTF to include summary executions, torture, and arbitrary detention of people. The report which was released on Sunday, also said personnel of both the JTF and the state environmental outfit regularly disposed corpses in the area. “In particular, we have received persistent and credibly attested allegations of indiscriminate disposal of human remains by personnel of both the JTF and the Borno State Environmental Protection Agency ,” the 40- page report said. It added the JTF detained people indiscriminately and in violation of constitutionally guaranteed rights. The report said, “Detainees are allegedly held in un-gazetted places of detention, with no or inadequate documentation and outside the safeguards provided for under applicable laws, including the 1999 Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. “They are not allowed access to family, counsel or medical personnel.” According to the report, most of the allegations against the JTF related to the question of proportionality of the use of force as well as the standards applicable to the conduct of the armed forces in internal security operations. When one of our correspondents contacted the Director of Defence Information, Brig. Gen Chris Olukolade, he said that the DHQ had not got the report officially. “We have not got that report officially so there would be no need for comments for now until we see the details and understand what they are up to,” he said. On the situation in the North-East, the commission warned that a humanitarian crisis loomed in the area. The commission established the fact that members of the Boko Haram sect carried out multi-faceted attacks on law enforcement agents and service personnel. It said, “In addition to systematic attacks on law enforcement and internal security assets, JALISWAJ is also credibly alleged to have attacked communities, churches and places of worship. “Victims reported the shooting of family members by young men who spoke the local Kanuri language. In many communities, women were reportedly prevented from going to the farms or undertaking planting. Some who ventured were attacked or abducted.” The commission also said that it found incidents of forced marriage perpetrated by members of the sect and spoke with witnesses whose family members were abducted and forced into marriage. The report therefore urged the Federal Government to regularly undertake rotation and renewal of the troops deployed in the North-East to allow them have enough rest and recuperation. It noted that the farming communities of Borno State had lost the 2013 planting season due to fear of Boko Haram attacks. The report added, “The consequences of this are far-reaching. The immediate result is the likelihood of a food security and nutritional crises in Borno and surrounding states that dependent on the. agricultural produce from its Lake Chad Basin,” It called on the Federal Government to urgently deploy mitigation mechanisms in order to avert a food security and nutritional crisis in the area. Already, it established that the prices of foodstuffs had already gone up in most of the states in north-east .It also noted that since the introduction of a state of emergency in some states in the zone, there had been a notable de-escalation in Boko Haram activities, especially in Borno State. Media reports had claimed that between 185 and 228 people, mostly civilians, died in the clash but the military authorities dismissed the figures as highly exaggerated. The Human Rights Watch had in May presented evidence in form of satellite images of the Baga incident showing abuse by the military HRW claimed that 2,275 homes were ruined based on analyzed satellite images contrary to the military’s assertion that only 30 houses were destroyed during the raid. “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,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at HRW.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 07:38:39 +0000
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