The Global Amnesty Watch, GAW, an international human rights organization, has spoken on activities of troops of the Operation Lafiya Dole currently fighting Boko Haram terrorists in north eastern part of Nigeria.
President of GAW, David Falt, while speaking during a visit to the headquarters of Operation Lafiya Dole, called on other international bodies to come to the aid of the country.
According to Falt, GAW decided to visit Nigeria in order to witness activities of the troops and condition of the Internally Displaced Persons in the region.
In his speech, the GAWA boss said, “The Global Amnesty Watch has been in town for sometimes now and having worked extensively to examine the war against terror in Nigeria, it will be out of place not to visit the theatre of operations to pay our complement to the Nigerian troops.”
“The reality however is that I am here after an extended field trip of affected areas and attending the International Conference on Terrorism here in Nigeria. Participants and experts at the conference assessed the war on terrorism in the past three years, which incidentally covers the period the present administration has been in office.”
“This is a method of evaluation I recommend experts in conflict monitoring and resolution to return to, on the ground assessment. Advancement in technology has internet connectivity means that international organizations are able to remotely monitor conflicts, conduct interviews and exchange documents and other information.
“But these are fraught with downsides, with the greatest minus being the ease with which they can be easily manipulated for mischief – satellite images that have been doctored, interviews with composite personalities that do not exist but were created to mislead researchers, videos, pictures and audios that have been edited to alter the contexts are few of the pitfalls that have compromised the reports of organizations that otherwise see themselves as reputable.”
David, while expressing his reservation on the recent reports against the Nigerian Military by an agency, stated that the limited number of staff deployed as human intervention to mediate technology used on the field have proven even less reliable than the process they are meant to moderate.
The Global President applauded the Nigerian Military saying “One must commend the Army leadership for instilling the highest level of respect for rules of engagement and human rights in the course of fighting terrorists.
“Nigeria has done well in this fight. The kind of destabilization in other places with ISIS and al-Qaeda has been averted for Nigeria because the Army at some point did the right thing by adopting a Nigerian approach to a global problem that surfaced in your country. It is working, even though there are forces that prefer things turn out differently.”
Falt charged the Army not to relent or else things will degenerate again, especially in the case of groups in their formative stages of becoming terrorist organizations.
“The world is looking up the Nigerian military. This is why the Nigerian military must shun every form of distraction when carrying out their duties.
“You must continue to ensure that troops comply with rules of engagement and respect human rights so that those working to place obstacle in the way of the war on terrorism would not have substantiation for their allegations. This much is owed to the civilian populations that have come to rightly depend on the military for protection from terrorists. We commend your protection and appeal that you do not let them down for any reason.”
In his response, Commodore Aminu Hassan, the Deputy Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, said it was their pleasure to see credible organisations to always come and cross check facts for themselves in the theatre.
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