{"id":427294,"date":"2011-05-20T09:58:46","date_gmt":"2011-05-20T09:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/05\/20\/amnesty-international-and-the-jos-crises\/"},"modified":"2011-05-20T09:58:46","modified_gmt":"2011-05-20T09:58:46","slug":"amnesty-international-and-the-jos-crises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/20\/amnesty-international-and-the-jos-crises\/","title":{"rendered":"Amnesty International And the Jos Crises"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Daily<\/a><\/p>\n

19 May 2011<\/p>\n

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editorial<\/p>\n

The human rights watchdog Amnesty International (AI) last weekend released its latest report on global human rights situation. Its conclusions on Nigeria, particularly as they relate to the cyclical violence in parts of Plateau State, should be sober reading for the authorities in government, and it is advised that they reflect on its content.<\/p>\n

Its report on the Jos crises appears to tally with this paper’s oft-repeated warning to the Federal Government, specifically the Goodluck Jonathan administration, to be wary of playing politics with them.<\/p>\n

In the report, Amnesty International berated the president for reneging on his pledge, made during his electioneering stop in Jos earlier this year and on previous occasions, to fish out those behind the crises and punish them.<\/p>\n

In response to one of the frequent outbreaks of ethnic clashes in the area, Jonathan empanelled a Presidential Advisory Committee, headed by Chief Solomon Lar in February last year. Receiving the committee’s report in Abuja in August, the president left no one in doubt about the government’s determination to implement its recommendations. That report has not been released to the public, and none of its recommendations seems to have been acted upon. The fate of the Lar panel is not unique; there are several other reports of panels, including that of a Judicial Commission of Inquiry, into the crises, and which are gathering dust on the shelves since they were placed there in 2008, that are yet to see the light of the day.<\/p>\n

In case the government needs reminding, the Amnesty International report recalled some of the harrowing events that took place in Plateau State, including the particularly gruesome one that happened in the settlement of Dogo Nahawa, where in March last year, more than two hundred people, including women and children, were hacked to death in an attack by armed men. Homes and other property in the settlement, as well as in the villages of Zot and Ratsat, were destroyed, causing the displacement of thousands of people. According to the report, in the three days “Between 17 and 20 January (2010) more than 300 people were killed in religious and ethnic violence in and around the city of Jos, the Plateau State capital; 10,000 people were displaced and thousands of homes and shops were destroyed.”<\/p>\n

“At least three bombs exploded in and around Jos on December 24 (2010), killing 80 and injuring many more”, the report said. “The bombings triggered further violence in and around the city of Jos, leaving dozens dead and many more injured. Several buildings were also burnt down.”<\/p>\n

It is necessary to refresh the memory with details of some of the gory occurrence of the past in order to illustrate what we have emphasised repeatedly before, that not punishing those who perpetrate, abet and provide the environment for the violence, only emboldens them to commit more dastardly acts. It also perpetuates a feeling of resentment by aggrieved parties that feeds into a self-perpetuating cycle of violence, which now needs to be broken for sustainable peace to return to the region.<\/p>\n

It is also important that the government considers the Amnesty report seriously in ordering panels to look into all manner of crises that occur in parts of the country.<\/p>\n

The fact that the government has, for some unstated reasons, shown reticence in making public reports of previous panels of inquiry, or making use of some of their recommendations, provides fertile ground for the public not to believe in their efficacy to find lasting solutions to these problems. It also sows seeds of suspicions of cover-up on the part of the government, to powerful interests that may be involved one way or another in the crises. The danger of allowing such misgivings to take root is that any other inquiry that is perceived to advance only the interest of those in authority may be viewed with suspicion and scepticism.<\/p>\n

It is therefore in the government’s own interest, and in the wider interest of public safety, that it makes efforts to release all the reports of inquiries into the various crises in Jos and make them public without further delay.<\/p>\n

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