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Nigeria's, Khin Nyunt's nightmare



If Nigeria can do it, so can Burma. No wonder Khin Nyunt & gang are
scared. How long can the new Nigerian democracy hang on? Who knows? They
are forging ahead, bravely. A good example and lesson for all dictators.
ds
********** > >From The Sunday telegraph (UK) , August 22nd 1999
> Truth Panel will call Nigeria?s strongmen to account 
> by Christina Lamb

> Nigeria is to investigate the sins of its military past in an unprecedented
> attempt to curb the power of the generals who have ruled for most of the
> years since independence.
> The creation of a truth commission, along with  the announcement that the
> government is slashing the army by almost half and sacking 150 top officers,
> has sent shock waves through the senior ranks of Africa?s most powerful
> military.
> President Olesegun Obasanjo, the former military ruler who took office on
> May 29 after democratic elections, has told western diplomats he is
> committed to cracking down on his former colleagues, insisting "there will
> be no sacred cows".
> The so-called Oputa Panel is modelled on the Truth and Reconciliation
> Commissions set up in South Africa to investigate human rights abuses during
> the apartheid era and those of Argentina and Chile to examine the activities
> of military regimes.  Headed by Justice Chukwudifa Oputa, Nigeria?s most
> respected judge, the seven member panel began hearings last week and will
> spend the next year investigating alleged torture and killings carried out
> by Nigeria?s various military regimes since 1976.
> Most of the focus is expected to be on General Sani Abacha who held power
> from 1993 until his sudden death last year and is generally agreed to have
> been the country?s most repressive ruler, particularly through his secret
> police, called "the Gestapo".
> President Obasanjo will be in the unusual position of being both answerable
> to the panel as military ruler between 1976 and 1979-and able to appeal to
> it as a victim, having spent two years in jail under General Abacha.
> Already thousands of submissions are pouring in, including such high profile
> cases as the hanging of Ken Saro Wiwa, the playwright, and eight other Ogoni
> activists in 1995 and the death last year in detention of Moshod Abiola, the
> winner of the annulled 1993 elections, who was locked up by General Abacha
> after declaring himself president.
> The largest number of cases to date have come from the Niger Delta, the
> country?s main oil-producing region, which has been under de-facto military
> occupation in recent years because of unrest from tribes fighting for a
> share in the country?s oil income. Several British oilworkers have been
> kidnapped in the delta over the last year and last week one was killed.
> So far the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop), one of the
> most prominent Delta tribes, has presented 8,000 cases in graphic detail of
> shooting, killing, raids on villages in which villagers were randomly shot,
> raped and assaulted. One incident describes how a senior military officer
> personally ordered the shooting to death of a 14 year-old disabled boy at
> point blank range.
> "We are asking the panel to recognise the degree to which the government of
> General Abacha instituted a reign of terror against a peaceful population?"
> said Ledum Mitee MOSOP?s acting President. "The record we present is one of
> soldiers shooting law abiding citizens, looting property, detaining
> individuals at will and torturing those it suspected of being MOSOP
> activists."
> Kayode Fayemi, the director of the London-based Centre for Democracy and
> Development, which is advising the Truth commission, said: "its important
> for the country to go through this process if we are not to repeat the same
> endless cycle of impunity."
> "This is being watched carefully all over west Africa."
> But the panel has no institutional status and critics say it is not clear
> what powers it will have and whether it could ever result in prosecutions.
> The issue of whether or not to offer amnesty to those who come forward to
> admit abuses is still being discussed. "It needs to be an exercise in truth
> telling rather than revenge seeking," Mr Fayemi said.
> Many witnesses do not have the money to travel to Abuja, where the
> Commission is based, or to meet the requirement of 10 copies of each case
> submitted. Olua Kamalu from Mosop last week: "the peasant economy of Ogoni
> will collapse if we do so much photocopying."
> Coming at the same time as sweeping reductions in the size of the armed
> forces, there is a fear that too much investigation into the past could
> prompt a backlash among a military which has ruled for all but 10 years
> since independence in 1960.
> Last week Theophilus Danjuma, the defence minister, unveiled plans to reduce
> the armed forces from 80,000 to 50,000 as part of a cost cutting exercise.
> As a result of last minute spending by the last military regime, the
> government inherited a £.1.6 billion deficit in this year?s budget.
> The reduction was presented as part of a programme to "professionalise" the
> military but those close to Gen Obasanjo say it was protective "anti coup"
> measure designed to counter any future threat.
> The president  has already changed all battalion commanders and sacked 150
> officers who held political posts in previous regimes.
> Reduced defence spending is one of the main requirements of the
> International Monetary Fund and World Bank in resuming lending to Nigeria
> and many military officials argue that General Obasanjo?s reforms are
> designed to pander to the West rather than deal with the country?s
> underlying economic crisis.
> Ishola Williams, a retired general, pointed out that Nigeria has led
> peacekeeping in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
> "It is totally unrealistic and illogical for the western world to expect us
> to both demilitarise and do peacekeeping," he said.
> "We are a rich country and can afford a large army providing our resources
> are properly managed. That?s what Obasanjo should be tackling."