Nigerian Troops Shooting Captives
Avideo obtained by Reuters shows Nigerian troops shooting unarmed captives in broad daylight by the roadside in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the bastion of an Islamist insurgency.
Nigeria's
military has long been accused of human rights abuses, including
summary executions, in the troubled north but there has been no video
proof since the first crackdown on the Islamist sect Boko Haram in 2009.
A spokesman for the army said it was "impossible" for Nigerian troops to do such a thing.
Boko
Haram is fighting to carve an Islamic state out of Nigeria, and its
fighters have killed hundreds in bomb and gun attacks, many of them from
the security forces, since beginning the uprising three years ago.
The
video was taken by a soldier who said he was present while the
shootings took place two weeks ago. The soldier, who requested
anonymity, passed it to Reuters on Sunday.
In the grainy footage,
a man sits down next to three or four corpses piled together on the
roadside. He pleads for his life while soldiers shout at him and a crowd
looks on a few meters away. "Please don't fire," the man says in pidgin English.
He
tries to stand up and get onto the back of a pick up truck to the left.
A Nigerian soldier shouts "come out", and drags him off it, shoving him
on the ground.
One of them kicks him in the head. Then he and
another soldier aim assault rifles at him. Four gunshots are heard and
the man lies still next to the others.
Nigerian army spokesman Colonel Mohammed Yerima said he had not seen the video but that the events must have been staged.
"How
can they do that? It is not possible. This is the Boko Haram tactics,"
He said. "They will do the killing, say it's the military and then
Amnesty International and so on will blame us. It's not possible for
Nigerian troops to act in this way."
Nigerian forces have
repeatedly denied accusations of such abuses, saying the only times they
kill suspected militants is during combat. Those captured are
questioned or freed, they say.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State
for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour Michael Posner said on Friday
that the United States was seriously concerned by reported abuses
committed by Nigerian security forces in their efforts to quell the
insurgency.
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