afrol News, 24 May - An estimated 900 people were killed last year in the clashes between Muslims and Christians in the Nigerian states of Plateau and Kano. Over one year after the religious violence, however, human rights groups complain that the Nigerian government has failed to prosecute those responsible for this cycle of massacres.

According to Peter Takirambudde of the New York-based group Human Rights Watch, "the Nigerian government bears a heavy responsibility for the massive loss of life in these eruptions of violence fuelled by religion." Security forces had been absent while hundreds of people were being massacred. "Instead of protecting those at risk and trying to arrest the perpetrators, police and soldiers shot people on sight in Kano," he says.

The human rights group today released a 75-page report on last year's religious violence in northern and central Nigeria, concluding that the Nigerian government was fuelling impunity by not bringing local perpetrators and security forces to justice.

The report provides detailed documentation of two major outbreaks of violence in the town of Yelwa, Plateau State, in February and May 2004, and a reprisal attack in the northern city of Kano in May 2004.

In the central region that lies between the mainly Muslim north and largely Christian south, armed Muslims on 24 February 2004 killed more than 75 Christians in the town of Yelwa. In May, hundreds of well-armed Christians surrounded the town, killing around 700 Muslims and abducting and raping women. Both attacks were well-organised and the victims were targeted on the basis of their religion.

One week later, reacting to reports of the Yelwa attacks, Muslims in the northern city of Kano turned against Christian residents of the city, killing more than 200. In addition, police and soldiers deployed to restore order in Kano carried out dozens of extrajudicial killings themselves. The victims included people who, according to eyewitnesses, were not even involved in the violence.

These three large attacks come in addition to numerous other incidents in Plateau State over the last four years. Human Rights Watch estimates that between 2,000 and 3,000 people have died in communal violence in Plateau State since 2001. "The warning signs were there for a long time," commented Mr Takirambudde. "But the government chose to do nothing until the situation spiralled out of the control."

Some two weeks after the massacre in Yelwa, President Olusegun Obasanjo declared a state of emergency in Plateau State and suspended the state governor. An interim administrator launched an ambitious peace program, and relative calm has been restored.

Six months later, in November, the state of emergency was lifted, but the peace program appears to have stalled. Various initiatives proposed under the state of emergency - notably a truth and reconciliation commission - have not been implemented.

According to the report, "dozens of people have been arrested, but those responsible for planning and organising the violence have still not been prosecuted. Neither have the police or soldiers responsible for the killings in Kano."

The report explains how a localised dispute in Plateau State between ethnic groups competing for political control, land and economic resources turned into a fully fledged religious conflict. "Both Muslims and Christians have realised that religion is an extremely effective way of mobilising large numbers of people," said Mr Takirambudde. "Local leaders on both sides have cynically manipulated religion with disastrous consequences."

At the heart of the conflict is the distinction between "indigenes" - people who consider themselves as the original inhabitants of an area - and those whom they view as "settlers." The concept of "indigeneship" had been exploited and used to discriminate against those termed as "settlers." The government should abolish this distinction, the report held.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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