Human Rights Watch (Washington, DC)
19 December 2007
press release
Dakar — Niger's armed forces and the rebel Nigerien Movement for Justice should end abuses against civilians in the conflict in the northern Agadez region of Niger, Human Rights Watch said today. The rebels took up arms in February 2007 over the perceived economic marginalization of Tuaregs. The conflict threatens the livelihoods of tens of thousands in Niger's vast northern desert areas.
Human Rights Watch has documented violations of the laws of war by soldiers of the Niger armed forces, including extrajudicial killing, rape, and the destruction of livestock. Laws of war violations by the ethnic Tuareg Nigerien Movement for Justice (MNJ) include the indiscriminate use of anti-vehicular landmines and the taking of personal property from non-Tuareg civilians. In November and December, Human Rights Watch conducted interviews with victims and eyewitnesses in the Nigerien capital, Niamey, and the Senegalese capital, Dakar.
Human Rights Watch called on both sides to cease deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians, to take concrete steps to minimize civilian casualties, and to hold perpetrators of violations accountable.
"The Niger armed forces and the rebels have a duty to respect the lives and property of civilians in Agadez," said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "Both government officials and rebel leaders should send a clear message to their troops that attacks on civilians won't be tolerated."
The rebels claim they are fighting for a larger share of the region's abundant mineral wealth - mostly uranium - for Tuaregs and other ethnic groups. The government dismisses the MNJ as "bandits and drug traffickers" and insists they should address grievances through nonviolent means. The MNJ movement follows a previous Tuareg rebellion, which began in 1990 and ended in 1995 with a peace agreement designed to increase Tuareg access to the region's resource wealth, develop the north and incorporate thousands of former Tuareg fighters into the government and security forces. MNJ leaders maintain that the government has failed to fully implement the 1995 accords.
Niger, which suffers from regular droughts and food shortages, is one of the world's poorest countries. The conflict has severely undermined the lives of tens of thousands of people already living precariously close to the edge. Tuareg civilians from the Agadez region have been particularly hard hit. They described to Human Rights Watch living in a situation of fear and economic hardship brought mainly by the combatants' persistent use of landmines and the irregular supply of food, medicines, fuel and other essentials. They described being forced to sell their goats, camels, and jewelry to be able to afford soaring commodity prices or to pay to bring sick family members to the capital for treatment. Landmine use has forced several international aid agencies to temporarily suspend or restrict operations, including vital monitoring of humanitarian indicators such as food security and malnutrition, which is reported to be on the rise.
"The people of Agadez are living in the margins in one of Africa's poorest countries, and what little they have is now threatened by the actions of both soldiers and rebels," said Takirambudde.
All parties to the armed conflict in Niger are obliged to respect Common Article 3 of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, the Second Additional Protocol of 1977 to the Geneva Conventions (Protocol II), and customary international humanitarian law. This law requires the humane treatment of all persons taking no active part in hostilities, prohibits deliberate or indiscriminate attacks on civilians, and prohibits the destruction of property indispensable to the survival of the civilian population. Serious violations of the laws of war carried out intentionally or recklessly are war crimes.
Abuses Involving the Niger Armed Forces
Extrajudicial Killings and Deliberate or Indiscriminate Attacks on Civilians
Human Rights Watch documented several extrajudicial killings and incidents of indiscriminate and possibly deliberate attacks on civilians by members of the Niger army. Most of these incidents occurred in the immediate aftermath of landmine explosions against military vehicles and personnel. Eyewitnesses described how soldiers, enraged by the casualties they had suffered, summarily executed individuals, apparently at random, present near the scene of the explosion.
One such incident, in late November, involved the summary execution by soldiers of an elderly man and his nephew near the village of Tzintebarac, some 30 kilometers east of Agadez. A Tuareg trader related what he saw:
"When the news came, I traveled by motorcycle to see what had happened. When I got there, I saw a military vehicle, which was mangled from the blast, and the bodies of the two villagers there. I didn't see the bodies of any soldiers, but by the look of the vehicle, I'd bet there had been casualties. I spoke to a herdsboy who had been near the old man and his nephew. He told me he and the others were bringing their camels in from grazing when they heard a huge explosion. They rushed to where the sound came from to see what happened, but when they got there he saw the military grab the old man and his nephew. The herdsboy ran and informed the villagers of what had happened."
Several other eyewitnesses described landmine explosions being followed by soldiers firing deliberately or indiscriminately at or near groups of civilians - when no rebel forces were visibly present - causing a number of civilian casualties. A young woman who fled the town of Iferouane in mid-November described one such incident:
"It has been an exhausting few months. We are from Iferouane but left on November 11 because we were afraid and tired because we could not get enough food for our family, afraid of the mines, afraid of the military occupying our village and shooting at us. One day I was getting water in one of the wells in town when, just down the road, a military vehicle ran over a landmine. After this, the soldiers went crazy and started shooting everywhere in the air - here, there and all over the village. They went into people's houses looking for the ones who planted it and beat people they came across. People ran everywhere and several of the villagers were injured as they ran. This was just one of the many difficult and frightening things that happened to us."
Human Rights Watch also learned of several other incidents of alleged unlawful killing of Tuaregs and other northerners by Niger soldiers, but was unable to obtain eyewitness accounts. The incidents in question include: the alleged summary execution of three elderly men on June 2 in Tezirzayt; the alleged killing of seven individuals on the Iferouane-Gougaram road on August 26; and the alleged killing of some 10 civilians north of Iferouane on September 27.
Human Rights Watch urges the government to promptly investigate these incidents and prosecute any individuals found responsible in compliance with international fair-trial standards. In addition, an army report that soldiers accidentally shot seven civilians, including two prominent businessmen, during a military operation east of Agadez on December 9 should be independently investigated, especially in light of accounts by family members that the men were summarily executed.
Killing of Livestock
Three eyewitnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch described the killing by Niger army units of large numbers of livestock owned by Tuareg nomads, including camels, goats, sheep and cows. These animals play a central role in feeding and sustaining Tuareg families, who suffer extreme hardship from the loss of their herds. Several local and foreign sources told Human Rights Watch they believed the destruction of animals was a form of collective punishment by the armed forces against the Tuaregs for their perceived support for the rebel movement.
One individual who traveled north of Iferouane in late November described seeing groups of dead animals in at least four places, including a herd of 20 camels and 30 goats some 15 kilometers from Iferouane, which appeared to have been sprayed with bullets. An elderly Tuareg man described seeing groups of dead livestock further south, near Agadez:
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