NIGERIA: USCIRF DELEGATION DISCUSSES JOS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 ABUJA 000745 SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/W, INR/AA BAGHDAD FOR DMCCULLOUGH E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/29/2019 TAGS: PHUM PGOV KIRF KISL NI SUBJECT: NIGERIA: USCIRF DELEGATION DISCUSSES JOS REF: A. ABUJA 0714 ¶B. ABUJA 0332 ¶C. ABUJA 0148 ¶D. 07 ABUJA 2494 ¶E. 07 ABUJA 2377 ¶F. 07 ABUJA 2363 ¶G. 07 ABUJA 2358 AND PREVIOUS Classified By: Political Counselor Walter N.S. Pflaumer for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Summary: A delegation from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) visited Nigeria March 19-April 3 to analyze the situation of religious tolerance in Nigeria, with particular emphasis on recent incidents of religious tension and violence. Accompanied by Poloffs, members of the delegation held meetings in Abuja, Bauchi, Kaduna and Kano which touched on the November 27-29, 2008 violence that erupted in Jos (ref G). Most of their interlocutors agreed that the conflict was more political than religious. The Anglican Church of Nigeria, however, maintained the crisis was religious and perpetrated by people from outside Nigeria -- a claim that many, including post (ref D) have refuted. Festus Okoye, a human rights attorney and member of the Federal Administrative Panel of Inquiry established by President Yar'Adua to investigate the Jos violence (ref C) suggested that the "indigene" verse "settler" issue was the driving force behind the conflict. Okoye lamented that the investigations underway were unlikely to bring about change and that violence would continue to be a problem throughout Nigeria until the root causes are addressed. Providing an eye-witness account, Adamu Abubakar, the Secretary of the Bauchi Chapter of the Red Cross, refuted claims of "outsiders" instigating violence, and described a scenario that put the death toll at closer to 2,000 than the 600 reported by government officials. Abubakar also reported that 70% of the bodies collected had bullet wounds, corroborating previous reports that the Nigeria Police Force or Army were responsible for a majority of deaths (ref F). Despite public criticism of Governor Jonah Jang's handling of the crisis, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) announced its endorsement for Jang's re-election in 2011. With little expected from the Investigative Panels and given this endorsement of Jang's continued rule, prospects for addressing the underlying causes of the violence are not good, leaving a real risk of future trouble. End Summary. �A; CHURCH OF NIGERIA INSISTS JOS CRISIS WAS RELIGIOUS -------------- -------------- ¶2. (C) During a March 19-April 3 visit to Nigeria, members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) delegation, accompanied by Abuja Poloffs, met with numerous interlocutors to discuss religious tension and conflict, including the November 27-29, 2008 violence that erupted in Jos due to alleged rigging of the Jos North Local Government Area elections (ref G). During a March 21 meeting with representatives of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, General Secretary Emmanuel Adeunle insisted that the Jos incident was religious rather than political, citing Anglican Primate Peter Akinola's widely reported argument that only "religious buildings" were destroyed. He claimed that the crisis started before the election results were announced and that militants were brought in to Jos from outside Plateau State. (Note: This has been a recurring accusation that began when the Plateau State Governor issued a statement in the wake of the violence placing blame on "outsiders" from Chad and Niger (ref E). Subsequent investigation and reporting refuted such claims (ref D),yet there are many who continue to deflect blame away from Nigeria. End Note.) Although he could not identify who planned the attacks, he maintained that they were premeditated. He noted that the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) has not been effective in its efforts to defuse religious tension, and alleged that the government does not allocate the same resources to Christian schools as it does Muslim ones. He also expressed frustration over the difficulty Christians have trying to live alongside Muslims. He even went so far as to allege that Christians were forced into marriage with ABUJA 00000745 002 OF 004 Muslims, kicked out of school, and prevented from buying land in the North. MAJORITY CITE POWER OVER RELIGION -------------- ¶3. (C) Throughout the USCIRF's meetings, most interlocutors concurred that the Jos crisis, along with other communal clashes, was rooted in politics rather than religion. On March 22, Sheikh Abubakar Siddeeq, Deputy Imam of the National Mosque, told members of the USCIRF delegation that there was "no hindrance or compulsion by Christians or Muslims" to practice one religion or another, suggesting that religion was not a root cause of the conflict. In response to the delegation's questions about the role of Shari'a in the Jos conflict, Siddeeq noted that Jos had been at a "boiling point" for many years, long before Shari'a was implemented in neighboring states. During a March 24 roundtable, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Abuja and President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN),John Onaiyekan, told the USCIRF delegation that, in general, Muslims and Christians "lived happily together." He maintained that it was extremists on both sides and political aggravation that caused most conflicts. The Archbishop added that "Nigerians have never fought about whether or not Jesus Christ is the Savior." Imam Fuad of the Al-Habibiyah Mosque in Abuja, also at the roundtable, stated that he had never seen a crisis that was purely religious, noting that in most cases, including Jos, the conflict was over political power. On April 2, Plateau State Senator John Shagaya (PDP-Plateau South) told USCIRF representatives that the crisis in Jos was "self inflicted" and a "failure of leadership" which had nothing to do with religion. He added that, in Nigeria, violence like that which occurred in Jos was most often political in nature. Sharing the same sentiment during an April 3 meeting, representatives from the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) said that such disputes were always over resources; but that it was easier to motivate people by calling it a religious conflict. "INDIGENE" VS. "SETTLER" -------------- ¶4. (C) During a March 21 meeting, Festus Okoye, a human rights attorney and member of the Federal Administrative Panel of Inquiry established by President Yar'Adua to investigate the November 2008 violence in Jos (ref C),told the USCIRF delegation that although religious tension had always been present in Jos, it was the "indigene" versus "settler" issue that truly exacerbated the situation. (Note: According to the Federal Character Commission's definitions, the Christian Berom people are considered the "indigenes" of Plateau State, thus entitling them to certain benefits, such as access to government jobs. The Muslim Hausa and Fulani people, who make up the majority of the Jos North population, are considered "settlers" despite having lived there for decades, and in some cases, generations. End Note.) Okoye said poverty and competition over employment played a key role as well, and he lamented that as long as the Muslims in Jos are considered "settlers" by their Christian neighbors, and denied access to resources, the possibility of conflict remains. Okoye suggested that an amendment to the constitution specifically defining "indigeneship" and the criteria needed to become one might ease tensions. For instance, Okoye proposed that if a person could demonstrate they lived someplace for ten years and could then qualify for indigene status, tension over resources and political power might decrease. Noting the lack of results from previous panels of investigation into similar incidents of violence, however, Okoye lamented that the results from the current panel, of which he is a member, were unlikely to lead to any substantive results or change. ¶5. (C) On April 2, Senator John Shagaya, a Christian representing Plateau State, arranged for the delegation to meet with a group of senior Muslim leaders who traveled to Abuja from Jos. In concurrence with the argument that indigeneship was a root cause of many communal conflicts, the group described in detail the problems that the issue of indigeneship posed. According to the interlocuters, the ABUJA 00000745 003 OF 004 social and economic discrimination created by "indigeneship" status, particularly in the north where ethnic lines tend to correspond to religious divides, often led to violence with religious overtones. TRUTH ABOUT CASUALTIES -------------- ¶6. (C) On March 31, Poloff, PolAsst, and the USCIRF delegation met with Adamu Abubakar, Secretary of the Bauchi Chapter of the Nigerian Red Cross, who maintained that while the recent violence in Bauchi was rooted in traditional leader conflict (ref B),the Jos crisis was purely political. Abubakar said he ran the Bauchi Red Cross response in Jos, arriving the evening of November 28 after the violence had started. Abubakar claimed there were more than 600 bodies in the central mosque, a scenario the press was allowed to photograph and which formed the basis for the "official" estimates of deaths. Abubakar insisted, however, that the actual number of those killed was over 2,000. The Red Cross was given the use of Army trucks to collect dead bodies from the streets, and according to Abubakar, all the bodies were taken directly to the military barracks and buried in mass graves. As the mass graves were located on the Army compound, no press, photographers, or family members were allowed access, and the bodies were not included in the official count. Abubakar claimed this was a political decision to prevent the spread of violence by "preventing the irritation of relatives." He added that about 70 percent of the dead collected by the Red Cross and buried in the barracks died from bullet wounds. (Note: This corroborates other reports that many deaths were likely caused by the Nigeria Police Force or Army due to the fact that most rioters only had machetes, knives, or make-shift weapons such as shovels (ref F). End Note.) Abubakar also directly refuted the claim that the Jos violence was perpetrated by non-Nigerians. He said he collected bodies from one compound where young men from Niger were killed, but they were migrant workers who travel to Nigeria in the dry season looking for work -- they generally all live together and Abubakar confirmed that the group of bodies he collected were mainly water sellers. RECENT EVENTS IN PLATEAU STATE -------------- ¶7. (C) On March 31, Governor Jang dropped a federal law suit against President Yar'Adua for convening a federal level investigation into the Jos crisis (ref C). Press reports highlighted that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) pressured Jang to withdraw the suit so as to end what was becoming a dividing line within the party. Although Jang dropped the case, he did not disband the state level Judicial Panel he established to investigate the crisis. None of the panels at any level, however, have released their findings to date. Despite the public's criticism of Jang's handling of the crisis, on April 14, the Plateau State PDP announced its support for Jang's re-election in 2011 (ref A). To date, a 9pm to 6am curfew remains in effect in Jos sustaining an uneasy calm. There have been no additional reports of violence since November; but on April 13, Governor Jang announced that his security agents intercepted a cache of arms allegedly being smuggled into Plateau State to reignite the violence in Jos. This report, however, has not been confirmed, nor has Jang elaborated on his original claim. ¶8. (C) Comment: While tension between different religious communities certainly exists in Nigeria, we concur with many of our interlocutors that a majority of such conflicts, like the one in Jos, are primarily driven by politics or economic resources, using religion as an easy scapegoat. As the global economic situation continues to deteriorate, competition for resources will increase, as will the likelihood of more communal violence. Although many things can and will change prior to 2011, the state-level PDP's enthusiastic and public endorsement of Jang for re-election is disappointing, especially considering credible reports of his involvement in the November violence. Most observers believe that the several investigative panels appointed to look into the Jos riots are unlikely to lead to meaningful ABUJA 00000745 004 OF 004 reforms, or address the underlying causes of the conflict, such as indigene/settler politics. Future sectarian conflicts in Plateau State are thus all too likely. End Comment. ¶9. (U) This cable was coordinated with Consulate Lagos. SANDERS