The Benue Massacre: Matters arising
By
THE recent report of the 'Human Rights Watch' on the atrocities of the Nigerian Army late last year in parts of Benue State has not only indicted Government at the highest level, it has also exposed the extent to which the Government of President Olusegun Obasanjo has continued to misuse the Army to even scores with the citizenry. Following the abduction and killing of 19 soldiers reportedly on a peace mission by a Tiv armed group on 10th October, 2001, soldiers from the Nigerian Army formation from Yola were sent on a punitive mission against parts of Benue. Acting a prepared script, the soldiers went on indiscriminate vengeance in which entire villages were destroyed. Innocent and unarmed citizens were attacked and killed with heavy weapons. Additional breaches including extra judicial and summary executions, unlawful arrests/illegal detentions, ethnic cleansing, forced displacement, disappearance of people, rape, intimidation and destruction of commercial, cultural and educational facilities were widespread.
Initial attempts by the Federal Government to deny and cover up this ignoble and criminal role of the army here did not succeed and before long it became quite clear that the Nigerian Army as in the case of Odi in 1999, had been pushed to breaching international, religion and national instruments for the protection of human rights. Possibly because the 'Benue mission' was sanctioned at the highest level of government, little or no attempts were made to identify and bring to book those responsible for the atrocities.
What the 'Human Rights Watch' report has done is to call attention to this crime and the fact that it cannot go unpunished. As usual, the response of the Federal Government leaves a lot to be desired. The Minister of Information, Professor Jerry Gana, who was first to speak on it, dismissed it as part of the hostile plots against the government of President Obasanjo by detractors and wondered why the authors of the report considering its sensitive nature could not 'talk' with government before releasing it.
President Olusegun Obasanjo in a recent report by the United Nations Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) on April 19th 2002 is quoted as saying he has 'dismissed the report with the contempt it deserves because it failed to condemn the killing of the soldiers who were sent to separate the feuding Jukuns and Tivs...Were the 19 soldiers beheaded not human beings?' Yet on another occasion, this time in an interview with the 'Financial Times' of April 9th 2002, the President was quoted as saying 'you don't expect me to fold my hands and do nothing because tomorrow neither soldiers nor policemen will go anywhere I send them... When you send soldiers, they do not go on a picnic... in human nature, reaction is always more than reaction.'
It is interesting that though Professor Jerry Gana has up to the time of writing not stepped one foot in Benue state to see what 'his soldier' had done, he would want the world to take him seriously on the massacre. We know for example that in all other trouble spots, including when hundreds ran to their deaths at the sound of exploding bombs in Lagos earlier in the year, Professor Gana was one of the early callers. He went to Kano, had been to Kaduna and took rice to Jos recently when the modern market in that city was razed to the ground by fire. How come that a human tragedy inflamed by the Nigerian Army in which thousands were killed and/or displaced and whole villages razed to the ground could not move this 'God fearing Minister' to visit Benue even if in passing? As for Mr. President, it is consoling that the Executive Director, Africa Division of the 'Human Rights Watch' Mr. Peter Takirambudde has since written him, expressing concern over his unguarded comments some of which show that he has not even read the report.
Because the President and his government are justifying the reprisals against parts of Benue on account of the abduction and killing of the 19 soldiers, he has chosen to close his eyes to the extent of the reprisals and the fact that the whole vengeance mission was not only in breach of our constitution but in contempt of the rule of law. Other regional and international instruments for the protection of human rights especially the Geneva Convention on the treatment of innocent civilians during crises and the African Charter on Human Rights and Peoples Rights were also breached. Though, one is not in support of the abduction and murder of the 19 soldiers, the way the federal government has managed the incident indicates that the premium placed on the lives of citizens is nothing compared to the life of one soldier. In a democratic dispensation, this is frightening to say the least. Prior to the abduction and murder of these soldiers, Tiv people in their thousands including children, women and the aged were hunted as game in both Taraba and Nasarawa States. While the heads of children were smashed against trees, pregnant women were slaughtered, their stomachs opened and their yet unborn babies ripped from the wombs and placed on their bodies. In Taraba, these atrocities were carried out by Jukun militia in company of men in Nigerian Army uniforms. Despite repeated reports and petitions on the double standard of the military in the crisis, government turned a blind eye even when a serving Minister was fingered as the main supporter of these atrocities. One expected that the abduction and murder of the 19 soldiers - as condemnable as it was - would have provided an opportunity for a transparent inquiry to get hard answers to questions surrounding the dastardly act.
President Obasanjo has since admitted that he sent them. Yet we deserve answers to why some of them went in bathroom slippers, why they did not have standard reconnaissance communication gadgets on the mission, why they were in unmarked civilian vehicles and also in company of Jukun militia. Did Mr. President also send the Jukun militia? Did he inform Mr. Governor George Akume of Benue on the mission of these 19?
All these questions and more point to a contradictory double action in which the President and Commander in Chief must be firmly held responsible. To do otherwise will be a disservice to the constitution and our nascent democracy. We realise that current abuses are a build up of a rich and irresponsible history of egregious human rights violations going back to long years of military rule in the country. The survival of our nascent democracy will depend on how well we are able to purge the military and other security agencies of these vices and begin to hold them and our political leaders responsible for breaches whenever they occur. Thousands of Nigerians have continued to lose their lives even under the current dispensation because of excesses perpetrated by uniformed men. From Sapele to Osogbo, Yobe to Lagos, Katsina to Warri and Odi to Zaki-Bian, extra judicial executions and unprintable excesses by uniformed men have continued to be committed against unarmed civilian populations. Unless and until there is a separate code insulating uniformed men from these abuses, they cannot go unpunished. In Gbeji for example, the whole village was called out for a 'meeting', after women and children were excused, the men were shot in cold blood and their bodies set on fire. Close to 200 people died in this criminal performance which was virtually repeated in other villages and towns including Vaase, Kyado, Anyiin, Tse Adoor, Aankera and Zaki Biam.
For accountability, we must be interested in knowing the extent to which this vengeance mission was in conformity with national instruments relating to the deployment of soldiers in peace-time. We must also seek to know the number and types of illegal acts committed by the Nigerian Army here. The identity, ranks and stations and the instructions given to these soldiers must also be ascertained. The Army is not about vengeance but about the protection of the country's territorial integrity. No provocation including the death of their men in not so clear circumstances is enough for a Commander in Chief to unleash them on civilians whose guilt is merely by association. If true healing must return to parts of Benue State, the terms of the Commission of Inquiry looking into the crises in the sub region must be enlarged to cover the ignoble role of the Army in the crises. For without the true facts coming out, and without appropriate sanctions against those responsible for these crimes, there can be no true healing and no basis for peace in this area for sometime to come.
June 2002