NIGER: HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE CONFLICT IN THE NORTH

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NIAMEY 001432 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM MOPS PGOV NG SUBJECT: NIGER: HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE CONFLICT IN THE NORTH REF: (A) NIAMEY 1430 (B) NIAMEY 1250 (C) NIAMEY 531 NIAMEY 00001432 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (SBU) Corinne Dufka, Human Rights Watch senior researcher for West Africa on December 5 briefed DCM and Development Coordinator on her visit to Niamey to look into human rights issues associated with the current conflict in northern Niger. Dufka had met with a number of GON officials, including the High Commissioner for Peace Restoration (who is responsible for implementing the peace accords that ended the last rebellion),a member of the National Assembly and a senior Gendarme Officer. Nigerien Armed Forces (FAN) officers, senior Justice Ministry officials and the head of the government's human rights office declined requests for meetings. Dufka met with about ten Tuaregs who had recently returned from the north, most of whom were actually MNJ combatants. She also met with the head of Niger's leading independent human rights organization, the Association Nigerienne pour las Defense des droits d'Homme (ANDDH). ¶3. (SBU) Dufka said that overall the human rights situation was not as bad as she had feared. Her major concerns were the use of child soldiers by the MNJ, extrajudicial killings by the FAN, and the use of landmines. She said that Human Rights Watch may put out a statement expressing concern about these issues. The MNJ uses children, some as young as 14 or 15, to gather intelligence. The boys are sent out with herds of goats as cover to observe GON security forces. Dufka found credible reports that GON security forces have executed civilians, usually following attacks on security forces. There is no evidence that these killings are part of a GON policy, but there is also no indication that the GON punishes those responsible. While it does not appear that either the GON or the MNJ use anti-personnel mines, Dufka is concerned about civilian casualties from anti-tank mines. ¶4. (SBU) Dufka visited predominately Tuareg neighborhoods in Niamey to find Tuaregs who had recently been in the north. Most of the ten or so she interviewed admitted to being MNJ combatants. It appears that the MNJ allows combatants to take leave. The issue is not that it can't feed them, but that the combatants need to earn money to support their families. The Tuaregs were generally not reluctant to tell their stories, most of which Dufka found credible. ¶5. (SBU) Following are some of Dufka's findings: -- Libya. Most of the MNJ combatants interviewed said that Libya supports the MNJ. Several combatants reported training in camps in Libya in the last couple of years. They also reported receiving weapons that were flown to Agadez in conjunction with Khaddafi's visit there last March (ref C). (The gendarme officer also expressed the belief, widely held among GON security forces, that Khaddafi brought weapons for the MNJ.) One MNJ combatant said that Khaddafi visited a camp where MNJ fighters were being trained. -- Ethnic issues. One of Dufka's interlocutors provided a second-hand report of the incident in which the MNJ claims that GON security forces separated Tuareg and non-Tuareg passengers on a bus, and killed the latter. Another interlocutor, an ethnic Hausa, reported an incident in which MNJ fighters stopped a bus and separated Tuaregs from non-Tuaregs (based on the ability to speak Tamashek). They robbed the non-Tuaregs, beating some of them, but did not bother the Tuaregs. -- Rape. One of Dufka's Tuareg interlocutors claimed that GON soldiers had raped a Tuareg woman. -- Detention. Dufka said that conditions for Tuaregs detained by the GON were not that bad, and many were detained only briefly. MNJ combatants claimed that the GON security forces they held were all implicated in crimes. -- MNJ claims to have killed a FAN colonel. Dufka said the gendarmerie officer flatly denied the MNJ's claim that it had killed the colonel in charge of the convoy that recently relieved the besieged town of Iferouane (ref A). He said that he had just spoken on the phone to the colonel. -- MNJ oath. MNJ combatants reported signing an oath when they joined the organization. The oath includes language about not engaging in banditry. -- Nigerien human rights groups. Dufka was not impressed with domestic human rights organization, none of which seem NIAMEY 00001432 002.2 OF 002 to seek to verify claims of human rights abuses. ¶6. (SBU) Comment: Dufka's visit provided a useful and objective look at the claims made by both sides in the conflict. She is an experienced human rights researcher with extensive experience in the conflict countries of West Africa and elsewhere. She was methodical in her research, and careful to characterize the credibility of the statements she recounted. We are disappointed that local human rights groups do not do the same. ¶7. (U) Tripoli minimize considered. ALLEN