[size=14pt]Group asks ICC to investigate Jos killings[/size]
By Ayo Okulaja
February 1, 2010 02:02AM


A Lagos-based group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has petitioned the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate allegations of unlawful killing of over 300 people during the recent violence in Jos.

The petition also wants the ICC to investigate reports that the military and police used excessive force in quelling the violence.

The petition, sent to the ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo by the group’s attorney, Femi Falana, quoted the Plateau State Police Command as saying: “at least 326 people were killed during the violence. Tens of thousands are displaced and denied access to humanitarian assistance and basic necessities of life such as food and medical care. Many have not been assisted to return to their homes and land, or provided with alternative accommodation.” The group said the crimes committed against the Nigerian people in Jos ‘could amount to crimes against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the ICC, which falls under the jurisdiction of the ICC.’ “The latest violation of international law in Jos is coming just after the apparently unlawful killings of more than 700 people that followed the Boko Haram crisis last year,” the group said.

It also said that those who are suspected to be responsible for the latest violence and previous outbreaks of deadly violence in Jos have not been arrested, let alone brought to justice because the government has shown itself to be too weak to act, contrary to its international legal obligations.

“The government usually respond to outbreaks of violence in many parts of the country by setting up commissions of inquiry, but few of them have ever published their reports, and even when they have, their recommendations have rarely been acted upon or led to prosecutions,” the group said.

Both the federal and the state government set up a committee to investigate the last crisis in 2008 that claimed close to 200 lives. While the state government’s committee, chaired by a former attorney general and member of International Criminal Court, Bola Ajibola submitted its report in January 2009, the government is yet to issue a white paper on the report. The committee established by the federal government recently commenced sittings.

Unwilling to prosecute

The group said that the government has shown itself to be unwilling or unable to transparently and effectively investigate and prosecute allegations of crimes under international law committed in the context of the outbreaks of violence in the country.

“This situation amounts to a denial of the victims’ access to a fair, effective and prompt system of justice,” it said. “The denial of justice to the victims of violence also violates the Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, which emphasises the responsibility of all states to put an end to impunity and to prosecute those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.” According to the group, under Article 17 of the Rome Statute, the ICC is the last resort, as the Article 17 of the Rome Statute states “the ICC is expected to exercise its jurisdiction if states themselves are unwilling or unable genuinely to investigate and prosecute international crimes.”

Mr. Ocampo is currently investigating crimes against humanity in Kenya, as a result of the 2007 post election violence in which over a thousand lives were lost.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/National/5520368-147/group_asks_icc_to_investigate_jos.csp

ICC should start their probings from the 1967 pogrom, murtala muhammed's asaba genocide and all the other killings in the north from the 90's till date.