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U.N. Says Boko Haram Attacks May be Crimes against Humanity
 [An Nahar] The Islamist krazed killer group Boko Haram... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... could be responsible for crimes against humanity in Nigeria, the U.N. said on Friday. The High Commissioner for Human Rights is "extremely concerned" by the recent attacks on churches in Kaduna province and "tit-for-tat" reprisals by Christians which since June 17 have left more than 100 people dead, said Rupert Colville, front man for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) told news hounds. Boko Haram has said it was behind the attacks. "Members of Boko Haram ... if judged to have committed widespread or systematic attacks against a civilian population -- including on grounds such as religion or ethnicity -- are likely to be found guilty of crimes against humanity," said Colville. "Deliberate acts leading to population 'cleansing' on grounds of religion or ethnicity could also amount to a crime against humanity," he said. The group is also blamed for bomb and gun attacks, mainly in Nigeria's northeast, that have claimed more than 1,000 lives since mid-2009. The sect's attacks have grown increasingly sophisticated and have spread from the group's base in the northeast across the wider north and down to the capital Abuja, in the centre of the country. It grabbed credit for a suicide kaboom of U.N. headquarters in Abuja in August that killed at least 25 people and a suicide kaboom on the Abuja office of one of the country's most prominent newspapers. Its deadliest attack yet occurred in the northern city of Kano in January, when at least 185 people died in coordinated bombings and shootings. Posted by: Fred 2012-06-23 |
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