LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria's military is
recommending immediate trial for 500 suspected
extremist militants and the president is promising an
economic boost for the northeast region confronting
an Islamic uprising — both issues that address
concerns expressed by the United States.
The suspects include military and paramilitary
personnel accused of aiding the Islamic extremist
group Boko Haram that the United States last month
declared a terrorist organization.
Wednesday's developments come the week the U.S.
assistant secretary of state for African affairs is in
Nigeria for security meetings including officials from
the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Africa
Command and USAID.
They come after Islamic militants scored a major
success Monday in attacks on an air force base and
artillery barracks just outside the northeast
provincial capital Maiduguri, raising more doubts
about the military's ability to put down the
insurgency.
Charred bodies, burned out wrecks of aircraft,
military buildings, vehicles, and roads littered with
shells bore testament Wednesday to the ferocity of
the battle that witnesses said had the insurgents
"practically walking all over the (air force) base" and
brought soldiers to flee the artillery barracks.
Nigerian security forces have been accused of
massive human rights abuses in responding to the
Islamic uprising with draconian powers under a 6-
month-old state of emergency — abuses that some
fear could win support for the extremists who say
strict Islamic Shariah law would end the corruption
endemic in Nigeria's government and society.
Hundreds of detainees have died in detention — from
starvation, asphyxiation in grossly overcrowded cells,
from wounds from torture and in outright executions,
according to Amnesty International and an
Associated Press investigation of mortuary records at
Maiduguri's main hospital.
The United States, which gives military aid to
Nigeria, has repeatedly raised the alleged abuses
with Nigerian officials, including in a meeting
between President Barack Obama and President
Goodluck Jonathan on the sidelines of the United
Nations general assembly earlier this year.
On previous visits, U.S. Assistant Secretary Linda
Thomas-Greenfield has called for detainees to be
charged and brought to court.
On Wednesday, an investigative team set up by
Nigeria's Defense Headquarters issued a report
recommending immediate trial for 500 detainees
among nearly 1,400 screened at detention facilities in
the region under a state of emergency.
The detainees include "high-profile suspects" who
allegedly trained terrorists in weapons handling as
well as insurgents trained in Mali and other countries
"for the purpose of perpetuating terror in Nigeria,"
according to a statement from Defense spokesman
Brig. Gen. Chris Olokulade.
Among the suspects are "a medical doctor,
paramilitary or (military) service personnel who were
fighting on the side of the terrorists" or offered
logistical support to them.
The team has recommended the release of 167
detainees, Olukolade said.
On Tuesday, after an hours-long emergency meeting
with defense officials about the Maiduguri attack,
Jonathan announced an "intervention program
specifically targeted at accelerating the pace of socio-
economic development in the northeast geopolitical
zone."
However, he warned that such a program could not
be successfully implemented until peace and security
are restored.
The Islamic uprising poses the greatest threat in
years to the security and cohesion of Africa's largest
oil producer and most populous nation of more than
160 million people roughly divided between
Christians and Muslims.
Northeast Nigeria is the country's poorest region
with the worst health and education statistics —
factors that make the rebellion attractive for some of
the hundreds of thousands of unemployed young
people.
Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. official, is holding
meetings this week in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, and
then will travel to Kano, the biggest city in the
Muslim-dominated north, to meet with government,
business and civil society representatives, the U.S.
State Department said.
Kano is not under a state of emergency but has
suffered attacks by Boko Haram, most recently
multiple bombings in July that killed 27 in the city's
minority Christian quarter. A shootout in Kano in
November killed five suspected Islamist extremists
and two soldiers.


news.yahoo.com/nigeria-trial-500-islamic-extremist-suspects-120155362.html

Nigeria recommends trial for 500 held during
Boko Haram raids
AFP - 3 hrs ago
Abuja (AFP) - Nigeria said on Wednesday that 500
people who were arrested during security operations
against Boko Haram militants in three northeast
states should be put on trial for terror offences.
The 500 are among nearly 1,400 detained in Borno,
Adamawa and Yobe states between July and
September, the country's defence spokesman, Chris
Olukolade, said in a statement.
Human rights groups have criticised what they said
were arbitrary detentions as well as torture and
deaths in custody, calling for suspects to either be
put on trial or released without charge.
Olukolade said that "high-profile suspects, some of
whom were training other terrorists in weapon-
handling, as well as those who confessed to being
trained in Mali and other countries for the purpose of
perpetrating terror in Nigeria" were among those
recommended for trial.
Others included "a medical doctor, paramilitary and
other individuals who offered direct logistics support
to the terrorists", he added.
Human rights lawyers in the country cautiously
welcomed the announcement, applauding the pledge
to adhere to due process and the rule of law but
warning that justice may not be swift for the
detainees.
Lawyer Jiti Ogunye described the move as
"significant" but voiced concern that the military may
simply be using the justice system to rubber stamp
the indefinite detention of purported insurgents.
"If you look at our criminal justice system, there are
problems handling just one terrorism case," he told
AFP.
"How can the system cope with a load of 500? My
concern is that these people are just going to be
brought to court so a judge can issue a remand
order" and they may not face trial for many years, he
added.
The president of the Campaign for Democracy
umbrella group of human rights organisations in
Nigeria, Joe Okei-Odumakin, said the announcement
was "both a welcome and ugly development".
"It is a welcome development because they will at
last be moving towards getting justice that they
deserve," he said.
"But it is an ugly development because holding them
in detention and incommunicado without trial for
several months infringes on their fundamental human
rights to freedom."
'Deaths in detention'
Nigeria's government imposed emergency rule on
Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in May this year
and in November won approval from parliament for a
six-month extension of special powers.
Thousands of people have lost their lives during the
insurgency either in Boko Haram attacks or as a
result of the military response.
Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch
have highlighted the issue of enforced
disappearances and detention without charge of
suspected militants.
In October, Amnesty claimed that more than 950
people had died in military custody in the first six
months of 2013 alone, mostly at military barracks in
Maiduguri and Damataru.
Human Rights Watch last week called for "all those
who committed crimes during the conflict, including
members of the government security forces and pro-
government vigilante groups" to be prosecuted.
Nigeria's defence ministry said that 167 detainees
had been recommended for release from facilities in
the cities of Maiduguri, Yola and Damataru, while the
cases of 614 individuals should be reviewed.
Some of those held should be tried for other offences,
including armed robbery, murder and drug offences,
the statement added.
Nigeria appointed a team to look at the cases of those
detained in July this year with the aim of easing
overcrowding in detention facilities in the northeast
as well as leading to the prosecution of terror
suspects.
Their report has been sent to President Goodluck
Jonathan, while the country's national security
adviser is considering the recommendations for
prosecution with the attorney general, the statement
added.
Nigeria's chief of defence staff, Admiral Ola Saad
Ibrahim, said that "the recommendations will be
treated with dispatch after due consultations with
appropriate authorities".