West’s ignoring army killings in Nigeria, outrageous: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Massoud Shadjareh, a member of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, about a Nigerian official revealing that some 350 people killed by the Nigerian army during raids on Shia Muslims were buried in a single mass grave.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: So, we have one of the members of the army revealing that these people, 300 or so of them, have been buried in a mass grave. That in itself is a tragedy. Why is it then that Zakzaky is still held in detention even after this revelation?

Shadjareh: Well, it really is astonishing. I mean the fact of the matter is, from the beginning, when we investigated, we came up and highlighted 1,000 killed and atrocities being committed systematically and indeed we have got the location of these mass graves and it is really extremely good that an army officer has actually admitted to this.

But, despite all these revelations, the fact that all the arguments that the army was making really is hollow and now proven to be false, we still see that Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife are still being kept and without being charged and really is against the constitution and if anyone should be arrested, [they] should be the army officers and the army chiefs and those who supported them to massacre 1,000 innocent people in [a] matter of 29 hours systematically and then destroying the house of Sheikh Zakzaky, destroying the Masjid, destroying the graveyard, digging the bodies out of the graves; these are atrocities which one cannot believe taking place by anyone let alone army officers and army of a nation.

Press TV: When you put things into context, it does not seem like lives in certain areas of the world matter to the Western world when it comes to, for example, what happened in Pakistan with that terrorist I should say that in the park blew himself up and some of the 80 lives were lost there and you have this case happening and yet you have something like Brussels happening and the whole world focuses on that. Why is it that there is, I guess, a specific weight given to certain areas rather than this particular case of which we know 350 people to have been, well what some are calling are extrajudicial killings?

Shadjareh: Well, it really is outrageous. As you said we have got… on one side, the issue of human lives seem to be sort of vary and if they are Americans, are valued more, and if they are Europeans, is a next stage and then it goes down to sort of people in the East and on the bottom of the whole is actually the Muslims.

That is one thing but also when these atrocities that you mentioned, be it in Pakistan or France or Belgium or anywhere else committed, were committed by terrorists. Here, these atrocities were committed by the armed forces supported by the government and even indeed up to right now, despite all of these information and exposure by Amnesty International, by ourselves, Islamic Human Rights Commission, by all other sorts of credible human rights organizations, still these army officers are being supported by the government and by the state governor and this is what is so outrageous.

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