Human Rights Watch testifies on Benue killings

Human Rights Watch, the US-based international human rights group on Monday began testifying in Nigeria on the massacre of hundreds of civilians by the military during ethnic clashes last year in the country’s central region. The group’s Nigeria researcher, Carina Tertsakian, appeared before a government commission in the capital, Abuja, to defend its report holding the military culpable for reprisal attacks against unarmed civilians after 19 soldiers were killed by a local militia. The commission, headed by Okwuchukwu Opene, a judge of Nigeria’s federal high court, was appointed by President Olusegun Obasanjo to probe the causes of the ethnic conflicts which have wracked Benue, Taraba, Nasarawa and Plateau states in the last two years. Tertsakian defended the rights group against suggestions by the counsel to the security forces, Bello Fadile, that its report blaming soldiers for killing over 200 civilians of the Tiv community was full of "fabrications" and "half-truths". "The operations in Benue State were well planned," she said. "All the witnesses we interviewed confirmed that the military operatives came in large numbers and the command structure of those who executed the killings was perfect, showing that the authorities gave their blessings." Despite overwhelming evidence that soldiers carried out the killings, the military authorities in Nigeria have yet to officially accept responsibility for the massacre. Obasanjo initially defended the deployment of the soldiers to the region where Tivs and their Jukun neighbours were locked in conflict over land disputes. But last month he apologised to a delegation from Benue State on a courtesy visit to the presidential residence for the killings. The Benue killings and a similar attack also ordred by the government in Odi town, in the southern oil region in 1999, were among reasons given by federal legislators for their move to begin impeachment proceedings against the president. The testimony of Human Rights Watch is expected to last two days.