From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: When Is NATO Going To Bomb Lagos? HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- [NATO's colonial outpost in Northwest Africa, headed by yet another Commonwealth-trained general-cum-president, has managed to kill twice as many people in two days as Richard Holbrooke and the KLA pretended were "slaughtered" in Racak, Kosovo in February of 1999. The latter led to the 78 day terror bombing of Yugoslavia under the administration of President Clinton - who killed a respectable amount of innocent civilians in Texas shortly beforehand - and William Cohen and Madeleine Albright, all of whom made a special point of visiting General/President Obasanjo in the waning days of history's latest human rights administration. Anyone know the Yoruba, Hausa and Ibo words for hypocrisy?] Wednesday October 24, 10:36 PM Rampaging soldiers shoot dead over 100 in Nigeria More than 100 people have been shot dead by rampaging soldiers in central Nigeria in the latest bout of unrest in this crisis-torn west African country. The reprisal attacks late Monday and Tuesday came after 19 soldiers were killed by ethnic militiamen two weeks ago near the border of the south central states of Benue and Taraba. The soldiers' corpses were found mutilated. The soldiers were buried on Monday in the country's capital Abuja with an order by President Olusegun Obasanjo that their killers should be found and brought to book. A lorry-load of soldiers on Monday began two days of retaliatory attacks on Anyiin, Gbeji, Iorja and Vaase -- border towns of Benue and Taraba States -- and shot dead more than 100 residents, a government spokesman told AFP. "Over 100 people have been killed since Monday evening," the official in the Benue State press office said Wednesday. He said the soldiers stormed the four villages in reprisal attacks over the killing of the soldiers sent on a peacekeeping mission at the border between two warring communities. Obasanjo has not yet reacted to the massacres carried out by the military, but Nigerian defence headquarters denied ordering the soldiers to launch the reprisal attacks. "Nobody deployed soldiers to fight in Benue, nobody gave them the orders," defence spokesman in Abuja, Ganiyu Adewale, told AFP. He claimed total ignorance of the attack, which began Monday and continued till Tuesday. Residents fleeing the affected four villages said that the attackers were indeed soldiers, according to Francis Ikwur, a resident in Makurdi, capital of Benue State. Benue police spokesman Emmanuel Deebom confirmed the shooting, but declined say if people were killed. He said his men were investigating the incident. "We have sent our men to the area to investigate the shooting. I cannot therefore confirm any casualty at the moment," he said. Two years ago, more than 300 people were killed in Odi, a town in southern Bayelsa State, following the murder of about a dozen policemen in the town. The town was completely destroyed by the soldiers and Obasanjo has so far failed to apologise over the incident which happened a few months after he was sworn into office. His army chief then -- lieutenant general Victor Malu -- warned against sending soldiers to do police duties. "Soldiers are trained to kill. Next time do not invite soldiers for such an assignment," he told journalists. The government spokesman said Wednesday that the house in Benue of the now-retired general Malu was among those razed by the soldiers and that some members of his family were seriously injured. Over the years, Nigeria has faced waves of religious and ethnic unrest which have claimed thousands of lives. With a population of more than 121.8 million, the crowded country is one of the most ethnically diverse on earth with more than 250 indigenous ethnic groups, and also splits north and south along religious lines. In the last two years, a dozen northern states have introduced strict Islamic law to the chagrin of the Nigerian government and Christians, who have continued to oppose the adoption. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
