Obasanjo accused of failing to end rights abuse

Human Rights Watch has urged Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to put the "ending of impunity for human rights abuses" at his top agenda after failing to rein in widespread abuses by the security forces during his first four-year term as elected leader. The organisation said in an open letter to Obasanjo, published on Wednesday, that no action had been taken so far to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of extrajudicial killings and political violence in the run-up to last April's general elections. Hundreds of people were killed in the run-up to these elections, which returned Obasanjo to power for a second four-year term. Human Rights Watch singled out two particularly serious cases of human rights violations by the security forces: the indiscriminate killing of hundreds of people in Odi, Bayelsa State in November 1999, and the killing more than two hundred people in Benue State in October 2001. "The Obasanjo government must prosecute those members of the military responsible for these horrific crimes," Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the Africa Division at Human Rights Watch said. "Only then will the government's commitment to human rights be taken seriously." Human Rights Watch said it regretted Obasanjo's failure to publish the findings of the Human Rights Violations Investigations Commission, which was set up to investigate abuses committed under previous regimes, more than one year after its final report had been submitted. The New York-based human rights organisation accused the Nigerian police of committing widespread extrajudicial executions and routinely responding to suspected criminal activity with excessive force. In the oil-rich Niger Delta, it said, entire communities had been indiscriminately targeted by the security forces in response to local demands for resource control and protests against environmental damage. Human Rights Watch said it had received reports that the security forces fired indiscriminately on villages near Warri, Delta State, during the clashes there last March. It accused Obasanjo of failing to resolve the underlying causes of communal violence, which has caused the deaths of thousands of Nigerians since he was first elected president in 1999. "President Obasanjo has repeatedly emphasized the importance of good governance in Africa, including in the context of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)," Takirambudde said. "But in Nigeria, where he should have the greatest chance of effecting change, serious human rights abuses so far have largely not been addressed."