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Thursday, May 26, 2011

ICC and the Mladics in Nigeria

ICC and the Mladics in Nigeria
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde


The arrest of Radko Mladic, the Serbian General who, in 1995, massacred over 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, Bosnia, has just been confirmed by Serbian authorities. The arrest of Mladic, though long overdue, does send another strong signal to the rest of humanity that the enemies of peaceful coexistence can be apprehended wherever they may be in the globe.

When Mladic was directing the massacre, he and other Serbian leaders like Milosevic and Radovan Karadic, must have thought that they would get away with it, while enjoying the protection of the Serbian government and the cheers of its nationalists. They expected the Christian West to turn a blind eye on the massacre of Muslims, as it is doing to the Palestinians. It turned out to be a gross miscalculation similar to that done by agents of hate and barbarity in the Third Reich.

It was ultraconservatives like the British Prime Minsiter Margaret Thatcher that awakened the West to its responsibity. These are Europeans killed, she argued, pointing to the Muslim victims of Bosnia. In the end, the killings were stopped by the joint efforts of the UN, America and several European countries. Not withstanding the time it has taken to arrest the principal culprits, Europe has demonstrated its post World War II commitment that never would it allow atrocities similar to those committed by Nazi Germany be repeated on its soil.

With time that commitment is shouldered by the rest of the world. After Bosnia, agents of hate have continued to commit such atrocities in other parts of the world like the horrific massacre of 700,000 Tutsis in Rwanda and the war crimes committed in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Here too, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has reached at the main culprit, the ex-Liberian leader, Charles Taylor.

Different war crimes are still committed in various parts of the world with Africa registering the most barbaric. The prolonged wars in Congo, Sudan, Somalia and Uganda are daily witnessing killings, rapes, and maimings of innocent citizens. The brains behind these war crimes take solace that African countries and indeed the United Nations are incapable of stopping them. However, it is just a question of time before the world would unite and put an end to those who still cannot subdue the savage gene in their blood. Africa will be civilized, respecting the lives and properties of its citizens. A number of the culprits have been apprehended. There are some like Al-Bashir of Sudan who are still buying time. But, like Mladic, in the end the long arm of the law will reach them.

It is in this light that I think the ICC should take the recent trend of ethnic cleansing in Central Nigeria with all seriousness. Since the Kafanchan crisis of 1987, there has been efforts to depopulate certain areas in Central Nigeria of Muslim populations. Attempts have been made to trivialize the killings even in international circles which in other parts of the world would have strongly detested. As I drive into many such areas, I am reminded by their empty walls of settlements that were once flourishing there. And they are many. They have been ransacked and destroyed by agents of hate similar to those that carried the killings in Bosnia, Rwanda, Sudan and Congo. The culprits are known. They walk the streets free with the readiness to seize the next slight opportunity and repeat their horrendous acts.

The victims have no way of getting justice in Nigeria. The killings are serving the political interests of the present leadership, cultivating bad blood amongst northerners to ensure the electoral victory. And since the price of life is naught in Africa, no matter the thousands killed in every round of violence, there will always be publishers from other regions who always trivialize the atrocities, praise the criminals and vilify the victims. In almost all the cases, law enforcement agents side with the culprits and aid in the massacres. A stoppage is effected only with military intervention. Thereafter, lopsided arrests are made while the criminals go Scot free. It is a perfect case for the ICC to intervene.

But the ICC is reluctant, except for the recent threat which its prosecutors issued in the wake of the recent post-election violence, ostensibly at the instance of the Nigerian government. When civil society groups pressed the ICC Chief Prosecutor to investigate the ethnic cleansing that has been taking place in Central Nigeria, his reaction was that they have not reached the threshold for his intervention! It seems that on the scale of the ICC, lives of different races carry different weights. While the killing of 8,000 Bosnians was sufficient to kick-start its engine of justice, for Africa, the victims must be in hundreds of thousands. A figure like the Rwandan 700,000 Tutsis may just be eligible.

In any case, with the future unity of Nigeria increasingly becoming untenable, an investment by the ICC in stopping the recurring carnage in Nigeria will be yield dividends for the future. So while from a distant land of Africa we join the ICC in celebrating the arrival of its latest guest, Radko Mladic, we plead to the court to consider all lives equal and recognize the fact that there are many Mladics in Nigeria deserving to join him.

Abuja,
27 May, 2011

12 comments:

photo said...

we hope that, Jos is also in urgent need.

Anonymous said...

Yes, starting with the posthumous trial of Murtala Mohammed, the father of genocides and ethnic cleansing in Nigeria.

Mladic ordered the massacre of 7500Bosnians in former Yugoslavia, 1995He is in court today for genocide charges.

But Murtala Mohammed whose photo still appears in the nigerian currency ordered the massacre of 8000 adult Igbo males at Asaba in 1967 as his army sang:

Mu je mu kashe nyamiri
Mu kashe maza su da yan maza su
Mu chi mata su da yan mata su
Mu kwashe kaya su
(English translation: Let’s go kill the damned Igbo/Kill off their men and boys/Rape their wives and daughters/Cart off their property).

Get it?




er of genocide in nigeria.

MB said...

Nice write-up,Dr. Tilde. the circle of violence is incomplete in Nigeria especially with so called "genocide" in Jos.

Umar,Pretoria

Anonymous said...

May Allah reward you. I hope this write-up gets the attention of the right people. I Also pray Allah protect you from the milosvec and Elie Hobeika of Nigeria, so that the do not attack you for dare to speak againts their action.
The Muslims are not vocal. So it is assumed they are the culprit. The same culprit place advert about their casualty in less than 10 days after the crisis, as if the figure were planned & prepared in advanced

Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde said...

Dear readers,

By now some of my readers have noticed that I have started filtering comments made on this blog. This is necessary. My blog is not a market square. This is not a place for propagating abuses, hate and unsubstantiated claims. For a comment to be published here, it has to, one, be devoid of abusive words and, two, add substance to the argument by way of opposing it cogently or supporting it. I welcome constructive dissenting voices.

For example, if someone calls me a closet dictator and almajiri columnist how does he expect me to publish his comments? If someone says what I wrote is rubbish without showing why it is or giving my readers a better view than what I said, how do I publish that?

Those who want to propagate abuses can find better websites to do so. Here, I am in control. Be responsible or I trash your comment. Simple.

I will place a notice to this effect on the banner of the blog.

Thank you.

Bradly Jones said...

We Jos Want Peace. This is the cry of people living in Jos city. It has to stop and if Nigeria cannot help this matter then the world should be addressed.



--
call Nigeria

Samirah said...

Excellent piece!!Actually a wake up call to all of us!!

Abdullahi said...

Dr. Tilde, d Bosnian Muslims greatest victory was to survive extermination long enough for the Western powers to finally wake up & force a truce in Dayton. And this was only made possible by the Islamic Republic of Iran breaking the arms embargo & arming the Sunni Bosnian Muslims to survive the onslaught of the Serbs

Dr adam ahmed okene said...

Once again, Dr Tilde tackled a very sensitive issue that touches on the continous existence of Nigeria.It's a timely call & indeed, warning to nihilists of Nigeria to redress their way. The genocide as being continuously perpetuted against the Muslims of North Nigeria can only accentuate the hate for the country & create weapon for extremism. The time line is near. Thanks Tilde for your patriotism & courage

Dr. Jan H. Boer said...

Aliyu, I do not approve of violence in general, but there are times when it is unavoidable due to provocations. I lived under Nazi occupation and praise our local "underground" for the havoc they unleashed on the occupier. I believe a case can be made that Kafanchan's situation was one of Muslim provocation. I refer you to vols 1-3 of my series Studies in Christian-Muslim Relations.

Hauwa H.I said...

I must commend you for writing such an educative and informative article I just hope Nigerians wl understand that violence is not the answer.More grease to ur elbow.

Babanhajiya said...

in plateau state there are many ghost towns like garkawa,kadarko,kuru karama.tim tim,dorawa,sabon gidan kanar,dogo na hauwa etc all this villages were once inhabitate by hausa/fulani muslims before 2001 crisis but now you will hardly see a muslim there some are killed while others fled never to return back.in plateau state there are many ghost towns like garkawa,kadarko,kuru karama.tim tim,dorawa,sabon gidan kanar,dogo na hauwa etc all this villages were once inhabitate by hausa/fulani muslims before 2001 crisis but now you will hardly see a muslim there some are killed while others fled never to return back.