The United States, U.S, senator, Patrick Leahy, who sponsored the Leahy Law which prohibits the country’s Department of State and Department of Defence from providing military assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights with impunity, has noted that President Muhammadu Buhari’s opinion of the effect of the law on the war against Boko Haram was “misdirected”.
Leahy insisted that neither he nor the law could be blamed for the atrocities committed by the “murderers and rapists in the Nigerian military”.
According to him, “It is well-documented by the State Department and by respected human rights organisations that Nigerian army personnel have, for many years, engaged in a pattern and practice of gross violations of human rights against the Nigerian people and others, including summary executions of prisoners, indiscriminate attacks against civilians, torture, forced disappearances and rape.”
Noting that the perpetrators of these acts have rarely been prosecuted or punished, the lawmaker said, “This abusive conduct not only violates the laws of war, it creates fear and loathing among the Nigerian people whose support is necessary to defeat a terrorist group like Boko Haram.
“President Buhari ignores the undisputed fact that most Nigerian army units have been approved, under the Leahy Law, for U.S. training and equipment. Only those particular units against which there is credible evidence of the most heinous crimes are ineligible for U.S. aid. And even those units can again become eligible if the Nigerian Government takes effective steps to bring the responsible individuals to justice.
“I strongly agree with President Buhari about the need to defeat Boko Haram, and I have supported tens of millions of dollars in U.S. aid to Nigeria for that purpose. But rather than suggest that the United States is at fault for not funding murderers and rapists in the Nigerian military, he should face up to his own responsibility to effectively counter Boko Haram. He should direct his attention to the Nigerian military, and the Nigerian courts, and clean up the units implicated in such atrocities.”
Buhari was reported to have lamented while speaking at the United States Institute for Peace, USIP, on Wednesday that the U. S law “aided and abetted” the campaign of bloodletting of Boko Haram, urging the US government to review it so that it could provide the needed assistance to Nigeria to crush Boko Haram.
Comments