Nigeria must come clean on killing Shias: Activist

Press TV has interviewed Massoud Shadjareh, head of Islamic Human Rights Commission in London, about Amnesty International calling for a full investigation into the deadly attacks by Nigerian forces against Shia Muslims in the northern city of Zaria last month.  

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Certainly a lot of what Amnesty International has asked for seems quite reasonable. How do you think the government will respond?

Shadjareh: Well we have to wait and see but the fact of the matter is that we have been asking and indeed other international human rights organizations have been asking for clarity and the fact is that what has unleashed, we now know that approximately 1,000 people were killed, massacred [and they were] … unarmed people and footage very clearly shows that this took place but also what it took place there is no excuse whatsoever because the Hussainiyyah was attacked, the home of the Sheikh Zakzaky was attacked, then the graveyard was attacked, the graves were mass attacked and bodies were exhumed from the graves.

This is not a work of an army. This is actually thugs and [they] would not even do this sort of destruction and Nigerian government really needs to stand and be accounted for.

But I also want to say something that we now know that both Sheikh and his wife are actually alive and they are recovering. We had a delegation visiting them two days ago and we have got this good news that both he and his wife are alive. He has been shot four times and his wife has been shot twice.

Press TV: This time obviously we know that how the Nigerian government has acted and the many statements that have come out against Sheikh Zakzaky ever since this incident occurred and obviously this has been something that has happened last year as well during the al-Quds rally. So I am wondering looking at the track record, how are things going to be able to be peacefully resolved?

Shadjareh: Well there has to be transparency. I recently wrote to a number of politicians in Nigeria and I said that what has happened is quite clearly a total abuse and massacre and Nigerian government needs to come clean and we need to make sure that those who perpetrated these atrocities are held accountable for us to move forward.

And the other reality is that from the leaks that we have seen in WikiLeaks and elsewhere, we saw how Saudi Arabian government has been involved in pushing the Nigerian government for this sort of action since June and again that is extremely worrying and we are very concerned that this sort of conflict which has been produced by the army, it will have really great consequences for Nigeria if indeed we do not have an independent inquiry and get to the bottom of it and bring those who committed these atrocities and massacre to account.

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