Nigeria's army behind countless acts of torture and 8,000 deaths, Amnesty says

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: The Guardian

Senior military officers in Nigeria should be investigated for war crimes including the starvation, suffocation and torturing to death of 8,000 people, Amnesty International has said.

An investigation carried out over several years, perhaps the most damning account yet of the military response to Boko Haram, casts a shadow over the first foreign trip of the new Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, during which he is set to discuss a fresh regional strategy against the Islamist group.

Amnesty set out on Wednesday the case against five senior Nigerian officers in a 133-page report based on hundreds of interviews, including with military sources, and leaked defence ministry documents.

During security operations against Boko Haram in the north-east, it says the armed forces “committed countless acts of torture; hundreds, if not thousands, of Nigerians have become victims of enforced disappearance; and at least 7,000 people have died in military detention as a result of starvation, extreme overcrowding and denial of medical assistance”.



Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/03/nigeria-army-countless-acts-torture-8000-deaths-amnesty-boko-haram

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http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/press-releases/new-amnesty-report-senior-members-of-nigerian-military-must-be-investigated-for-war-crimes?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nigeria

[oberliner]

1. And those are the good guys...

Very depressing.

[jamzrockz]

3. I will caution

against automatically believing anything Amnesty international says about Africans. Remember they were the ones spreading the humor about Libya using African mercenary in that war. A lie which lead to the lynching of many black Libyan soldiers and ordinary black men.

I will say that the Nigerian Army can be a mean bunch especially if they find you with large stock of weapons or evidence of assistance to boko haram. That would grantee your a harsh beating or some form of mistreatment. Also the fact that the make up of Nigerian Army is mostly hausa and the area where the boko haram operates is predominantly hausa makes me very suspicious that they would harass and kill so many of their own people for no reason.

I say you wait a few more month while the fog of war clears up and see if there is concrete evidence to back up their allegation.

[LiberalLovinLug]

4. Where did you get your information from?

Because what I have found is the exact opposite.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/amnesty-questions-claim-that-gaddafi-ordered-rape-as-weapon-of-war-2302037.html

Rebels have repeatedly charged that mercenary troops from Central and West Africa have been used against them. The Amnesty investigation found there was no evidence for this. "Those shown to journalists as foreign mercenaries were later quietly released," says Ms Rovera. "Most were sub-Saharan migrants working in Libya without documents."

In the same article they also throw water on the rumours about Gaddafi using mass rape to control and intimidate rebels. Rumours which Hillary Clinton used to defend the NATO attacks on Libya.

I did find some crazy pro-Gaddafi and Assad site that claims what you did. Its a way to discredit AI because they don't like the work they do exposing human rights abuses. https://libyanfreepress.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/amnesty-international-disinformation-the-gaddafi-mercenaries-and-the-division-of-africa/

[jamzrockz]

5. Here

There is an accompanying article but I cannot find it at the moment. But this is a small documentary showing AI involvement in smearing black Africans.

Enjoy

[LiberalLovinLug]

6. Oh dear

Really?
That movie is also on that second link I put on my post. On the pro-Gaddafi / Assad site.

I watched most of that video. They are demonizing AI, or at least trying to. There is an early clip of Ms. Garrigos, head of AI in France, saying she heard rumours of Gaddafi using mercenaries and that they hadn't confirmed it. Then after months of work there investigating, they concluded that there was no basis for that and they found no evidence of using mercenaries. What is unusual about that?

Yes of course the corporate MSM, who have an incestuous relationship with the MIC would promote unsubstantiated rumours as fact. And this video tries to conflate them with AI, but even from this pro-Gadaffi video propaganda, its clear that AI did not start that disinformation, only said they had heard it. And then they proceeded to investigate and actually shut up those false rumours by the MSM because of their investigations.

That video is clearly one produced years ago by Gaddafi loyalists, while he was still clinging to power. I'm sure he detests AI and the scrutiny they have placed on his torturous regime during his reign. Thus this pathetic attempt to lump them in with the rest of their enemies.

Sorry, don't buy it. Amnesty International has been a thorn in the side of many cruel dictators, and also western nations like the USA. You have to have more than a badly produced dictators propaganda video where the voice-over is trying to convince the viewer of believing the opposite of what they are watching. (AI concluding after investigating that there was no evidence of mercenaries).

AI has proven themselves honorable and not afraid to confront any world leader on its treatment of prisoners, no matter from where. For instance a scathing report on Gitmo.

Amnesty International is one of the few good organizations doing positive things. That video is nothing more than a third rate attempt to smear them by a now dead vicious dictator who hated them for the spotlight on his activities.

[d_legendary1]

2. They can say that they learned it from the War Shrub Administration

And get a pass.