US embassy cable - 04ABUJA1234

UNCLAS ABUJA 001234 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, ASEC, PREL, NI, HUMANRIGHTS 
SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH ON MEETINGS WITH POLICE AND 
MILITARY 
 
REF: ABUJA 1159 
 
1.  (U) Summary:  Human Rights Watch (HRW) briefed the 
Ambassador about meetings with top police and army officials, 
who gave HRW significant meeting time, but stonewalled on all 
issues of excessive violence by police and military.  End 
summary. 
 
2.  (U) On the afternoon of July 12, the Ambassador met with 
Carina Tertsakian, HRW's London-based Nigeria Researcher, and 
Sonya Maldar, a HRW advisor working with a Lagos human rights 
NGO.  At a June 29 meeting with the Ambassador (reftel) at 
the beginning of HRW's Nigeria trip, he had invited HRW back 
to discuss its findings at the conclusion of the trip. 
 
3.  (SBU) HRW discussed a 60-75 minute meeting with Tafa 
Balogun, the Inspector-General of Police, who refused to 
engage HRW on the use of excess force by police, particularly 
with regard to the "armed robbers" police regularly kill. 
When HRW pointed out that the number of armed robbers killed 
is unusually close to the number of weapons that have been 
"turned in by citizens", Balogun denied any connection.  HRW 
also brought up police shootings in crowd-control situations, 
which Balogun denied, then said he would investigate.  HRW 
said that Balogun was more interested in discussing police 
efforts against corruption, and didn't recognize any problems 
with police violence. 
 
4.  (SBU) HRW also told the Ambassador about a 90-minute 
meeting (originally scheduled for 30 minutes) with General 
Alexander Ogomudia, Chief of Defense Staff.  When HRW brought 
up the massacres at Odi in 1999 and at Zaki Biam in 2001, 
Ogomudia completely denied any involvement by the army--"This 
is the first time I'm hearing of this"--but nonetheless went 
on to discuss details of the events.  Ogomudia said that 
previous investigations had not blamed the army, and told HRW 
that he would not consider any new investigations. 
 
5.  (SBU) HRW told the Ambassador that they had contacted the 
Information Minister regarding the Zaki Biam "white paper" 
that President Obasanjo had promised HRW when he met them on 
June 28.  The Information Minister told HRW that the white 
paper is not available to the public because of a ruling by 
Nigeria's Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission 
(the "Oputa Panel") that the GON cannot set up commissions of 
inquiry like the one that generated the white paper.  Added 
the Minister, according to HRW, "even the President cannot 
release this report." 
CAMPBELL