Human Rights Groups Slam Nigeria

by Dave Clark published on December 02, 2003 in iafrica.com

A major international human rights group on Tuesday accused the Nigerian government, the host of this week's Commonwealth summit, of using violence and intimidation to silence its critics.

The US-based group Human Rights Watch accused the 54-nation global body of hypocrisy in honouring President Olusegun Obasanjo's Nigerian regime while excluding Zimbabwe's pariah leader, President Robert Mugabe.

"Foreign governments remained virtually silent about election violence in Nigeria, yet abuses during the Zimbabwe elections provoked widespread condemnation," said Peter Takirambudde, the body's Africa director.

Double standards

"Unless the Commonwealth addresses abuses in all of its member countries and denounces them accordingly, it will stand accused of maintaining double standards and its credibility will be undermined," he argued.

Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth 20 months ago after Mugabe was re-elected in a poll which observers said was tainted by fraud and violence. The Harare government has not been invited to the summit.

Nigeria's elections in April this received similar, but less severe, criticism from European Union and US poll monitors, while being given a clean bill of health by the Commonwealth's own team of election watchers.

Obasanjo, a former military leader who has now won two civilian elections, will now be the host of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which opens on Friday under the banner "Democracy and Development".

Turn blind eye to human rights abuses

"There is no excuse for Commonwealth leaders to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses in the very country where they are meeting," Takirambudde said.

Obasanjo's media office did not respond to a call seeking a comment on the accusations.

Human Rights Watch has released a 40 page report to coincide with this years summit, which will be opened on Friday in Abuja by Queen Elizabeth II and be attended by 52 leaders from Commonwealth member states around the world.

The report gives a detailed account of a series of killings, arrests, detentions and episodes of torture allegedly carried out by or with the tacit consent of Obasanjo's supporters in the security services.

"Even though military rule has ended, Nigerians still cannot express themselves freely without fear of grave consequences," Takirambudde said.

Attacks on journalists

In particular, the report cites evidence of a renewed spate of attacks on journalists, in what it sees as a coordinated attempt to suppress critical voices in the media.

Several journalists have been arrested in recent months, in particular during fuel price protests in June and July, when police in Abuja deliberately targeted reporters and photographers for beatings.

Opposition demonstrators have also been targeted, for example 30 people who were detained without charge on the eve of US President George W. Bush's visit to Abuja in July. The detainees allege they were tortured by police.

Ogoni minority suffer police repression

The Ogoni ethnic minority group have continued to suffer from police repression, the report says.

In 1995 Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth after nine Ogoni rights activists were executed.

Separately the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative released its own report into freedom of expression around the Commonwealth, which is a voluntary global association mainly made up of former British colonies.

"The Commonwealth has a deficit of both democracy and development. At Abuja in 2003, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) will — not for the first time — be searching for ways to deal with these problems," it said.

"Open government is the answer," it said, concluding with a call for the summit to promote enforceable freedom of information laws.