Amnesty slams army for abuses in Boko Haram battle

Lagos - Nigerian military abuses have
caused the deaths of some 8,000
civilians in the fight against Boko
Haram extremists, Amnesty
International said in a report
released Wednesday.
The London-based human rights
group named senior officers it
wanted tried for alleged war crimes
and called on newly-elected
government, led by former military
dictator Muhammadu Buhari, to look
into the abuses.

"The Nigerian military, including
senior military commanders, must be
investigated for participating in,
sanctioning or failing to prevent the
deaths of more than 8,000 people
murdered, starved, suffocated, and
tortured to death," the report said.
If correct, those figures would
exponentially increase the estimated
toll from the nearly 6-year-old
Islamic uprising, put at about 13,000
dead. There was no immediate
response from the military.
Boko Haram has been fighting to
impose Islamic Law across the north,
massacring civilians and kidnapping
thousands of women and children,
but Amnesty alleges that the
military also has committed
atrocities.
The soldiers have detained more
than 20,000 people, some boys as
young as 9 and often on scant
evidence and then held them in
brutal conditions that resulted in
many deaths, alleged the report.
"Former detainees and senior
military sources described how
detainees were regularly tortured to
death, hung on poles over fires,
tossed into deep pits or interrogated
using electric batons," said the
report, entitled "Stars on their
Shoulders, Blood on their Hands."
The organization called for the
Nigerian government to promptly
investigate five officers for war
crimes: Maj. Gen. John A.H.
Ewansiha, Maj. Gen. Obida T.
Ethnan, Maj. Gen. Ahmadu
Mohammed, Brig. Gen. Austin O.
Edokpayi and Brig. Gen. Rufus O.
Bamigboye.
It also said the chiefs of defense and
army staff, and their two
predecessors, should be investigated
for potential command
responsibility.
Amnesty said it interviewed 412
people over several years for the
report, including victims, relatives,
witnesses and activists as well as
military officials.
Nigeria's military had promised in
the past to investigate Amnesty's
allegations, but little has happened.
In his inaugural address Friday,
Buhari promised to investigate
abuses.
Reports of such widespread abuses
have strained relations between the
United States and Nigeria. U.S. laws
prohibit sales of certain weapons to
the countries of military forces
accused of gross human rights
violations.