| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"johac" |
| Date: |
14 May 2004 01:58:42 AM |
| Object: |
Religions doing what they do best in Nigeria. |
People fighting and killing over whose invisible imaginary sky-daddy is
better. And of course, both religions assert that they are religions of
'Peace'. When will they ever learn?
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=5137050
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Death Toll in Nigeria Riots 500-600 - Christians
Thu May 13, 2004 02:42 PM ET
By Tume Ahemba
KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) - Christian leaders said 500-600 people were
killed by Muslims in the northern Nigerian city of Kano in two days of
rioting this week to avenge the slaying of hundreds of Muslims.
Reverend Andrew Ubah, general secretary of the Christian Association of
Nigeria in Kano, said on Thursday he had records of almost 600 killed in
three days of riots, many times more than the official police toll of 30.
"Almost 600 people have been killed and 12 churches burned," Ubah told
Reuters, adding he was keeping a tally based on information from priests
across Nigeria's second-largest city.
Witnesses spoke of gangs of Muslim youths armed with cutlasses and clubs
hacking Christians and other outsiders to death in reprisal for the
slaying of hundreds of Muslims by Christians in central Nigeria last
week.
The violence subsided in many districts on Thursday although police
barred access to suburbs where fighting was still raging.
A dusk-to-dawn curfew has been in force since Tuesday and authorities
barred media access to hospitals and mortuaries.
David Emmanuel, a factory worker, said he saw two truck loads of bodies
being driven along Kano streets on Wednesday night and counted at least
30 corpses in the street.
Two Reuters correspondents have seen another 35 bodies, most of them
burned or mutilated with knives.
"Hundreds of people were killed," said Mark Amani, a leader of minority
Christians originating from nearby Kaduna state.
HEAVY SECURITY
"Some corpses were burned in wells. Even little children were killed.
The bodies of pregnant women were ripped open and their bodies burned."
Thousands of Christians who fled their homes across the city took refuge
in police barracks.
Nigerian authorities routinely underestimate death tolls from religious
violence in the belief the true figures could spark reprisal attacks.
Heavy security was visible in other main cities across the oil exporting
nation to prevent the violence spreading.
The government gave security forces in Kano the order to shoot rioters
on sight on Wednesday, and a group of Muslims complained that police had
shot innocent civilians.
The Kano riot erupted after hundreds of Muslims were killed by
Christians in the remote farming town of Yelwa in central Nigeria 10
days ago.
Rival tribes of Christians and Muslims have been fighting tit-for-tat
battles for control of the fertile farmland in Plateau state for three
months, killing at least 350 people. But the scale of the conflict
escalated last week when heavily armed Christians, who are in a majority
in Plateau state, invaded Yelwa. Local Muslim leaders said they buried
630 bodies after the attack, but police spoke only of hundreds dead.
President Olusegun Obasanjo went to central Nigeria on Thursday to
review the crisis. He argued in public with religious leaders in Plateau
state when they questioned the government's will to resolve the crisis.
(Additional reporting by Tom Ashby in Lagos)
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--
John Hachmann aa #1782
"Men become civilized not in their willingness to believe, but in
proportion to their readiness to doubt." - H. L. Mencken
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