Nigeria Forces Are Implicated in the Killings of Muslims
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/world/africa/21nigeria.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Nigeria&st=cse
By LYDIA POLGREEN
Published: December 20, 2008

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DAKAR, Senegal — Government security forces were implicated in the deaths of at least 90 of the hundreds of people killed in religious violence in the central Nigerian city of Jos last month, Human Rights Watch said Saturday.

At least 400 people died when fighting broke out between Muslim and Christian gangs in the city on Nov. 28 and 29 after a dispute about local elections. Each side accused the other of rigging the vote.

Muslims and Christians mingle uneasily in the so-called middle belt region of Nigeria, and tension frequently flares along religious, ethnic and political fault lines.

Initial accounts of the killing in Jos indicated that the gangs had set upon each other’s neighborhoods, burning churches, homes, businesses and mosques.

But based on testimony from witnesses interviewed in the aftermath of the violence, Human Rights Watch researchers documented seven shootings in which the police had killed at least 46 men and boys, almost all of them Muslim.

In addition, military troops killed 47 people, also nearly all Muslims, according to the rights group’s investigation.

Human Rights Watch is an independent group based in New York.

The regional governor had issued a shoot-to-kill order in the city to quell the violence, which had erupted with sudden ferocity.

Witnesses described seeing police officers hunt down men and kill them at close range, according to the report.

“The duty of the police and the military was to stop the bloodshed generated by this extremely tragic episode of intercommunal violence, not contribute to it,” Corinne Dufka, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch who visited Jos in the days after the killings, said in a statement.

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation, and its 140 million people are divided almost evenly between Islam and Christianity. Tensions between the religious groups have exploded periodically, often as proxy for deeper divisions over land, power and politics.

auwal87:

The gangs killed with other arms but not guns, as such the police can stop them with tear gas and other less harmful weapons, but not real guns

auwal87:

The gangs killed with other arms but not guns, as such the police can stop them with tear gas and other less harmful weapons, but not real guns

"They Do not Own this Place"
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/nigeria0406webwcover.pdf

auwal87:

None of the rioters were carrying guns, and therefore the police can be able to stop them with rubber bullets or shock, but not shoot to kill approach.

PeeDaVinci:

the source of the report is senegal- of all countries, senegal reporting about nigeria and not just reporting, but reporting statistical facts- were they there? how did they know, ? the tone of the report is even very very biased. if there is anything i will advice anybody to do with this report, i will say just trash it in the bin- this can't form any basis for any form of argument or discusssion

Jakumo:

Q. What would you call a thousand zealots at the bottom of the sea ?

A. A good start.

Auwal
The Senegal release itself is err. It was C.A.N that infiltrated the Nigerian police and killed innocents in Jos. And it has been long when they started engineering this kind of debacle. Let me figure out their (CAN) weapon stations in Jos. In u knw Jos watch following churches they are the depository centres of CAN ammunitions
1.Anglican church Amigo junction by new market.
2. catholic ecwa Church at Nassarawa Junction if ur going to Dogon Dutse
3. Our ladie saint Fatima Ali kazaure by Monido street
4. Saint Morumba zaria Road
Jona Jang the excutive Govt of plateau state is highly involved in the recent riot thats why the panic.
For those that don't knw, the indigeneos mendicants of plateau state are not the brain behind the myhem in Jos city. As time goes on C.A.N will have no place to hide their evil agenders.

Abu-Maryam:

It was C.A.N that infiltrated the Nigerian police and killed innocents in Jos. And it has been long when they started [b]engineering[/b]this kind of debacle.