KADUNA, Nigeria (Reuters) - A video
obtained by Reuters shows Nigerian
troops shooting unarmed captives in
broad daylight by the roadside in the
northeastern city of Maiduguri, the
bastion of an Islamist insurgency.
Nigeria's military has long been
accused of human rights abuses,
including summary executions, in the
troubled north but there has been
no video proof since the first
crackdown on the Islamist sect Boko
Haram in 2009.
A spokesman for the army said it was
"impossible" for Nigerian troops to
do such a thing.
Boko Haram is fighting to carve an
Islamic state out of Nigeria, and its
fighters have killed hundreds in
bomb and gun attacks, many of them
from the security forces, since
beginning the uprising three years
ago.
The video was taken by a soldier who
said he was present while the
shootings took place two weeks ago.
The soldier, who requested
anonymity, passed it to Reuters on
Sunday.
In the grainy footage, a man sits
down next to three or four corpses
piled together on the roadside. He
pleads for his life while soldiers
shout at him and a crowd looks on a
few meters away. "Please don't fire,"
the man says in pidgin English.
He tries to stand up and get onto the
back of a pick up truck to the left. A
Nigerian soldier shouts "come out",
and drags him off it, shoving him on
the ground.
One of them kicks him in the head.
Then he and another soldier aim
assault rifles at him. Four gunshots
are heard and the man lies still next
to the others.
Nigerian army spokesman Colonel
Mohammed Yerima said he had not
seen the video but that the events
must have been staged.
"How can they do that? It is not
possible. This is the Boko Haram
tactics," He said. "They will do the
killing, say it's the military and then
Amnesty International and so on will
blame us. It's not possible for
Nigerian troops to act in this way."
Nigerian forces have repeatedly
denied accusations of such abuses,
saying the only times they kill
suspected militants is during combat.
Those captured are questioned or
freed, they say.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for
Democracy, Human Rights and
Labour Michael Posner said on Friday
that the United States was seriously
concerned by reported abuses
committed by Nigerian security forces
in their efforts to quell the
insurgency.
Such alleged abuses usually occur
shortly after members of the security
forces have been killed or wounded
in an attack by the sect. The killings in
this video happened after a bomb
attack on a military patrol further up
the road, the soldier who provided
the footage said.
Another video from the same
source, which he said was taken after
the executions, shows soldiers piling
up about two dozen bodies in two
bloody heaps on the ground from
the back of a military truck.
The videos could spur renewed calls
for Nigeria's security forces to change
their approach to the insurgency,
which critics say is prompting
desperate, angry youths to join Boko
Haram and encouraging the
northern population to shelter them.
That uprising was sparked by a
military crackdown on the sect in
which hundreds were killed,
including its founder and spiritual
leader Mohammed Yusuf, who died
in police custody.
President Goodluck Jonathan has
been accused of treating the conflict
as a security problem that can be
solved with force alone, rather than
addressing the root causes of the
insurgency.
Amnesty International issued a
report this month in which it said
human rights abuses committed by
security forces were fuelling the
conflict they were meant to end.
The report said a "significant
number" of people accused of links
with Boko Haram had been executed
after arrest without due process,
while hundreds were detained
without charge or trial and many of
those arrested disappeared or were
later found dead.
The Nigerian military rejected that
report, including accusations that
they execute suspects, as "biased
and mischievous."
(Writing by Tim Cocks; editing by
David Stamp)


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This is so sad