Date Published: 05/20/09

Respect Human Rights, HURIWA tells JTF

HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA, (HURIWA), a development focused Non-Governmental Organization yesterday urged the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) Currently engaged in fierce fighting with some armed militants to allow free access to the local and international human rights organizations and the media to monitor the human rights situation in those Ijaw communities.

Specifically, hostilities between the Joint Military Task force (JTF) and militants in the Niger Delta escalated on Monday May 18 th 2009 as the Joint Task Force confirmed to the media through electronic mail that it has destroyed “IROKO CAMP”, a militant stronghold in Oporoza community, warri south Local Government Area of Delta State and that several militants were killed.

The Rights group further cautioned against military activities by the Nigerian military in the oil rich Niger Delta that may precipitate widespread abuse of the human rights of the civilians and other supposedly protected individuals under international humanitarian laws, the universal Declaration of Human Rights and the African Human and peoples Rights charter.

HURIWA in a media statement endorsed by its national coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko also called on the armed militants to embrace constructive and peaceful dialogues with the Federal Government and lay down their arms in order for meaningful economic development of the oil rich but heavily impoverished Niger Delta region to take place.

The Rights group stated thus;

“We strongly urge the president and commander–in–chief of the Nigerian Armed forces Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’adua to advise the military high command to halt the ongoing operations in the coastal areas of Delta State and to give the local and international media and human rights groups access to the embattled Niger Delta communities in order to assess the human Rights situation as it affects civilians and other protected individuals under international humanitarian laws and other international human Rights laws and treaties that Nigeria has signed on to as a member of the United Nations.”

HURIWA argued that sections 39 and 45 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria made it mandatory that the media And other human Rights practitioners should have access to areas of internal military operations even as it calls on the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria to deploy her staff and mobilize other organized civil society groups to assess the human Rights situation in these Ijaw Communities where the joint task force and the militants are engaged in combats.

The Rights group stated that; “sections 39 and 45 of the 1999 constitution are clear that every Nigerian has the right to receive information without interference, on all subjects and matters, including the conduct of operations by the Nigerian military. The state obligation to respect human rights means that Government is obliged to refrain from interfering and also entails the prohibition of certain acts by Government that may undermine the enjoyment of Human Rights. We strongly appeal to the Federal Government to ensure that the human Rights of all innocent civilians in the Niger Delta region are protected.”