US embassy cable - 04ABUJA337

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 000337 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, NI 
SUBJECT: VIOLENT CLASHES IN PLATEAU STATE 
 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, NOT FOR PUBLICATION ON THE 
INTERNET OR INTRANET. 
 
1.  (U) Summary.  February 26 newspapers reported at least 12 
people were killed on February 24, and 49 more have been 
reported killed over the past two weeks in ethnic/religious 
clashes in the southern part of Plateau State in northern 
Nigeria.  Some press reports have claimed as many as 117 
people have died.  Plateau has been the site of violent 
land-use disputes since 2001 between Jukuns, Fulanis, Taroks 
and Bogoms, and all of them are willing to take on any police 
or soldiers who get in their way.  The militias say the 
ruling PDP state government has stoked the violence as an 
excuse to cancel next month's Local Government Area (LGA) 
elections, which the opposition ANPP would likely win.  A 
state official said the elections in four LGAs would likely 
soon be suspended indefinitely, prompting fears of additional 
unrest.  End Summary. 
 
LONGSTANDING ETHNIC LAND FEUDS NOW RELIGIOUS AND DEADLY 
 
2. (U) Pastoralist Muslim Jukuns and Fulani have been 
battling farm-based Christian Taroks without letup for more 
than a year, in a rivalry for land rights going back at least 
two centuries.  Tarok farmers claim the area's 
government-sanctioned "traditional leaders," the Muslim 
Emirate Council, ignores their claimed rights to the land as 
the original inhabitants, and the Jukuns and Fulani feel they 
are not given enough access to land for their cattle because 
Taroks have stronger influence in the state government. 
Religion has been used to rally each tribe's zealots, and the 
cycle of violence has pushed many Christians out of the Wase 
Local Government Area (LGA) and many Muslims out of Langtang 
LGA, in southeast Plateau State. 
 
3. (U) The attacks have grown steadily more deadly after a 
Muslim Jukun was killed by an unidentified assailant February 
10 near Mavo village, according to the Plateau State 
Governor's assistant, Gabriel Makan.  Mobile police went to 
the scene but returned within two days without finding any 
suspects.  Christian Taroks allegedly responded by massacring 
11 people in Mavo February 13, predominantly Muslim Jukuns, 
although Plateau State officials said only four people died 
and one of them was a Muslim school principal from the Bogom 
tribe.  About 30 Wase-based mobile police and about 30 
soldiers went to Mavo afterwards.  Fulani militias swept 
through Tarok villages in Langtang South and Shendam Local 
Government Areas February 23 killing at least 33 civilians 
and four police officers, Makan told Poloff, although Makan 
noted that the Muslim Jukuns and Muslim Fulani do not usually 
coordinate. 
 
4. (U) The violence spilled over to Shendam LGA February 24, 
where conflicting press reports say 48 or 12 persons were 
killed in a church.  Former Federal Capital Territory 
Minister Jeremiah Useni issued a public call on the Arewa 
Consultative Forum, an umbrella advocacy group for Nigeria's 
northern states, to mediate an end to the fighting.  General 
Useni, himself a Tarok from Langtang, said he had been 
consulting with the Emir of Wase until he had discovered a 
militia training center in Wase last week. 
 
5. (SBU) The Plateau State government said it has been trying 
this month to reconcile the groups and prevent revenge 
attacks.    Governor Dariye visited Wase last week, where 
Mavo residents complained that Tarok raiders go unpunished 
because of their influential political contacts.  The 
Governor's assistant, Makan, acknowledged to Poloff that the 
police have no suspects.  Despite what Makan said was the 
state government's best efforts at reconciliation, Tarok and 
Jukun leaders all claim the state government is using the 
fighting for political gain. 
 
SIDE EFFECTS ON POLIO AND ELECTIONS 
 
6. (SBU) World Health Organization (WHO) security officials 
working on the oral polio vaccination campaign confirmed the 
reports of violence on February 22.  They also reported that 
the violence has spread to the Kanam and Quanpaan LGAs. 
Displaced people are congesting the main towns in the region 
as they move away from outlying villages, and one Fulani 
village reportedly refused the oral polio vaccine "as a 
reaction to what is happening to their people" throughout the 
state, the WHO reported February 25.  The Plateau State 
government reportedly stopped the vaccination campaign 
February 25 in response to the controversy elsewhere in 
northern Nigeria over safety of the vaccine, but the stoppage 
seems more related to the fighting at home. 
 
7. (SBU) The warring tribes seem to agree that the state 
government is using their violence to forestall LGA elections 
scheduled for March 27.  Governor Dariye is unpopular among 
all ethnic groups in the southern parts of Plateau State, and 
they accuse him of seeking to maintain his handpicked and 
unpopular caretaker officials now running the LGAs.  Both 
Tarok and Jukun leaders agree that Dariye's PDP would lose to 
the ANPP in free and fair LGA elections.  The PDP lost to the 
ANPP and UNPP in the four LGAs during last year's 
violence-affected state and national elections.  Governor's 
aide Makan told Poloff that elections in the four LGAs are 
"likely" to be soon postponed indefinitely.  Under these 
security conditions, Makan said, "it does not seem morally 
right to tell them to go out and vote." 
ROBERTS