*Expresses reservation on AI reports against Army
*Cites reasons international agency reports against Nigeria not reliable
*Says on-the-spot, not technology, internet assessment will ensure truth of situation
*As GAW visits Operation Lafiya Dole HQ
*It’s please to see credible organizations coming to crosscheck facts for themselves – Army
“One must commend the Army leadership for instilling the highest level of respect for rules of engagement and human rights in the course of fighting terrorists. Nigeria has done well in this fight. The kind of destabilization in other places with ISIS and al-Qaeda has been averted for Nigeria because the Army at some point did the right thing by adopting a Nigerian approach to a global problem that surfaced in your country. It is working, even though there are forces that prefer things turn out differently.”
Amnesty International (AI) and some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) writing reports of human rights violations against the Nigerian government and its military may have been exposed by another international human rights organistion, which says experts in conflict monitoring and resolution cannot remotely get the truth about situation in the anti-insurgency fight being currently prosecuted by the military in Nigeria from distance.
The body says much as advancement in technology with internet connectivity can help international organizations obtain facts about conflict area through remote monitor, conduct of interviews, the fact that those methods are fraught with shortcomings with the greatest minus being the ease with which they can be easily manipulated for mischievous purposes has necessitated that experts in conflict monitoring and resolution activities return to ‘on the ground assessment’ instead of remote monitory by mere internet and conduct of interviews.
This was the statement of Global Amnesty Watch (GAW), an international human rights organization, when it visited the headquarters of Operation Lafiya Dole as part of its ‘on the ground assessment’ of the activities of troops of the military currently fighting Boko Haram terrorists in North Eastern Nigeria.
This was captured in a video uploaded on Youtube with reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DopfzXoMLiQ.
During the visit, President of GAW, David Falt, while speaking at the Operation Lafiya Dole’s headquarters, called on other international bodies to come to the aid of the country.
According to Falt, GAW decided to visit Nigeria in order to witness activities of the troops and condition of the Internally Displaced Persons in the region.
It will be recalled that the Nigerian Government and the Army had recently raised the alarm that Amnesty International (AI), which incidentally is an international human rights organisation, and their affiliated civil society organizations (CSOs) in Nigeria had chosen to run down the country and its military by cooking up untrue human rights reports against them.
There were also protests by some concerned Nigerian groups against the AI tagging it “the greatest challenge to the nation’s democracy” due to its worrisome activities in Nigeria, which the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, noted was done by AI choosing to rely only misinformation by some civil societies within.
In a situation where opposition politicians – mostly at certain point supported by some religious leaders whose major activity is misrepresenting crisis situations – are known for sponsoring fake news, dangerous rumours and even killings like in Nigeria lately, Lai Mohammed and the armed forces had thought it would have been better for AI to liaise with the government and the military to get their sides of the activities before going to put up mischievous human rights violations reports against the country.
The latest position by Global Amnesty Watch (GAW), more reliable and factual considering its methods of information gathering, came in the Youtube video uploaded Friday June 1, 2018 on the heels of some civil society organizations trying to paint the government and the military bad calling their complaints against the Amnesty International as a way to blackmail the organization.
But the global human rights body said it decided to visit Nigeria in order to witness activities of the troops and condition of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the region by itself, even as it called on other international experts in the conflict monitoring and resolution business to move away from relying solely on remote monitoring by internet and conduct of interviews to physical monitoring.
It said this citing that information gathered through satellite images are easily doctored and that many interviews are conducted remotely with composite personalities that do not exist but were created to mislead researchers, adding that videos, picture and audios that have been edited to alter the contexts are more reason human rights organizations especially international should take caution by engaging more in ‘on the ground assessment’ as a way of proper checks in the course of their work.
The President of GAW, David Falt, said, “The Global Amnesty Watch has been in town for sometimes now and having worked extensively to examine the war against terror in Nigeria, it will be out of place not to visit the theatre of operations to pay our complement to the Nigerian troops.”
“The reality however is that I am here after an extended field trip of affected areas and attending the International Conference on Terrorism here in Nigeria. Participants and experts at the conference assessed the war on terrorism in the past three years, which incidentally covers the period the present administration has been in office.”
“This is a method of evaluation I recommend experts in conflict monitoring and resolution to return to, on the ground assessment. Advancement in technology has internet connectivity means that international organizations are able to remotely monitor conflicts, conduct interviews and exchange documents and other information.
“But these are fraught with downsides, with the greatest minus being the ease with which they can be easily manipulated for mischief – satellite images that have been doctored, interviews with composite personalities that do not exist but were created to mislead researchers, videos, pictures and audios that have been edited to alter the contexts are few of the pitfalls that have compromised the reports of organizations that otherwise see themselves as reputable.”
David Falt, while expressing his reservation on the recent reports against the Nigerian Military by an agency, stated that the limited number of staff deployed as human intervention to mediate technology used on the field have proven even less reliable than the process they are meant to moderate.
The Global Amnesty Watch President applauded the Nigerian Military saying “One must commend the Army leadership for instilling the highest level of respect for rules of engagement and human rights in the course of fighting terrorists.
“Nigeria has done well in this fight. The kind of destabilization in other places with ISIS and al-Qaeda has been averted for Nigeria because the Army at some point did the right thing by adopting a Nigerian approach to a global problem that surfaced in your country. It is working, even though there are forces that prefer things turn out differently.”
Falt charged the Army not to relent or else things will degenerate again, especially in the case of groups in their formative stages of becoming terrorist organizations.
“The world is looking up the Nigerian military. This is why the Nigerian military must shun every form of distraction when carrying out their duties.
“You must continue to ensure that troops comply with rules of engagement and respect human rights so that those working to place obstacle in the way of the war on terrorism would not have substantiation for their allegations. This much is owed to the civilian populations that have come to rightly depend on the military for protection from terrorists. We commend your protection and appeal that you do not let them down for any reason.”
In his response, Commodore Aminu Hassan, the Deputy Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, said it was their pleasure to see credible organisations to always come and cross check facts for themselves in the theatre.
