Violation Of The Geneva Conventions: Gowon Still Unpunished

Violation Of The Geneva Conventions Gowon Still Unpunished
General Yakubu Gowon
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Nigeria’s post-colonial history is very dark, there is no doubt about that. Perhaps, her very ugly past is the reason why she seems not to be making any progress or developmental stride despite her enormous wealth and natural endowments. Nigeria has refused to discuss the Nigerian genocidal attacks on Biafrans, in fact, they are considered a taboo, but then again, it is not unexpected that it is that way, there has to be very active official cover-ups and denials; and yes! the man who coordinated the atrocities therein, General Yakubu Gowon is not only a free man today but is also a well-celebrated Nigerian statesman! No wonder Nigeria is a crime scene today.

Popular American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat in the past once said; ‘Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide in the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or the evil side’. The truth is that Nigeria cannot afford to continue staying quiet about this ugly past, indeed, recent happenings have not only sparked historical digging about the wartime occurrences but also intellectual discussions and comparisons of facts.

The first truth is that the issue of the pogrom that was carried out in Biafran territory during the so-called civil war, calls for probe and truth establishment and that is what we intend to summarise with this contribution.

A quick journey down the memory lane would reveal that following the haphazard amalgamation of 1914 by the British colonial overlords for economic reasons, the newly enthroned geographical expression remained largely incompatible and almost unworkable. Battling with a lopsided structure created by the British to ensure that the endowed South remained slaves to the feudal North, the country remained largely disunited from independence. A group of soldiers mostly Easterners tried to correct the obvious anomaly in Jan 1966 when they plotted and carried out an unsuccessful coup that saw the violent overthrow of the government of the day which was at that time led by Prime Minister, Tafawa Balawa.

Read Also: What Every Biafran Must Know – Lady Bianca Ojukwu

In response to the coup, a group of Northern soldiers mostly from the Middle-Belt staged an even bloodier coup almost seven months later, this time, they did not only kill soldiers but they also killed innocent civilians as a response to what was purely a military affair.

By the end of 1966 when more than 30,000 Easterners including women and children were killed by these blood-thirsty soldiers from the Nigerian Military. To give his people a lifeline, the then Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, announced his region’s intention to secede from the Nigerian State to create its own government. Long story cut short, when a last-minute meeting at Aburi in Ghana between the two leaders failed to establish a compromise following Gowon’s decision to renege on the agreements reached in Ghana, tensions heightened and it was obvious the eastern region was losing patience.

With Gowon’s decision to declare a State of Emergency, dividing Nigeria into 12 new States with two of these States being the Eastern region just to divide the Igbo people and ultimately undermine Ojukwu’s support, it was only going to be a matter of time before the inevitable happens and it sure did because, on May 30, 1967 Colonel Ojukwu declared the Sovereign State of Biafra which pushed Gowon to send his troops eastwards to ‘crush the rebels’

A more cursory look at that ugly war would show how Gowon, with the support of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, isolated Biafra diplomatically while the very gruesome Nigerian Army and Navy isolated her physically.  The needless war was so ruthlessly executed that when resistance by the Igbo stiffened, Gowon on June 30 of 1968 banned all Red Cross aid to Biafra and he didn’t even stop there two weeks later, he restricted food supplies using an official embargo. What remained of secessionist Biafra was eventually starved into submission.

This contribution would not go into more graphic details of that ‘genocide’, this contribution would rather stay with facts and the atrocities that were committed therein wittingly or unwittingly.

It is not wrong to say that the Nigerian civil war was the world’s first properly televised and documented arms conflict, and millions all over the world were dismayed by the horrors flickering on their screens, magazines, newspapers, etc. The repugnance and awfulness of the war crimes that were perpetrated by the Nigerian government against the Biafrans galvanised international responses with the likes of Joan Baez, John Lennon, Martin Luther King, and Karl Vonnegut calling for an end to the war crimes by the Nigerian government led by the then General Yakubu Gowon. With the support of the British Government led by Sir Harold Wilson, Gowon was able to diplomatically downplay the situation.

It is a well-known fact that majority of the deaths recorded on the Biafran side were not casualties of the war but casualties of calculated and well-executed genocide by the then Nigerian government. This is something the Nigerian government has been considering as too ugly to be admitted. But then, facts are facts and facts are sacred. Although the government’s policy of ‘no victor, no vanquished’ (which birthed and died on paper with no implementation) may have led to a lack of official reflection, However, many Nigerians of Igbo origin grew up on stories from people who lived through the war.

To put those events in proper perspective, it could be said that Gowon desperately needed to win the ‘war’ at all costs and thus accepted every policy and tactic proposed to him by supposedly erudite, patriotic, and more civilised individuals hiding under service to the country to vent out their frustrations for having failed to break frontiers beyond regional, sectional and tribal politics. But then again, the decisions were all Gowon’s, and the implications of those decisions have to be solely vested on him.

It is pertinent to at this juncture reiterate that the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their additional protocols are at the core of international humanitarian law, to be more succinct, it is the body of international law that regulates the conduct of armed conflict and seeks to limit its effects. These conventions specifically protect people who are not taking part in the hostilities (civilians, health workers, and aid workers) and those who are no longer participating in the hostilities, such as wounded, sick, and shipwrecked soldiers as well as prisoners of war. The Conventions and their Protocols call for measures to be taken to prevent or put an end to all breaches. They contain stringent rules that deal with what are known as ‘grave breaches’.

Read Also: The Truth About The Modern-Day Biafran Agitation

Those responsible for grave breaches must be sought, tried, or extradited as the case regardless of their nationality. Now the first question is; did the policy of aid blockade by Gowon against the Biafran non-combatants not a gross violation of these conventions? secondly who ordered General Haruna to massacre civilians in Asaba, Owerri, and Ameke-Item if not the supreme commander of the armed forces who was Gowon? If he did? then was that not a violation of the Geneva conventions? Of course, rules of engagement are part of a general recognition that procedures and standards are essential to the conduct and effectiveness of civilised warfare. Now is raping women, looting villages, and committing all manners of atrocities against women and children not a violation of these conventions? Who supervised all of these acts of inhumanity and barbarity if not Gowon? If he did, then why is he not in jail or standing trial in the Hague?

It is important to remind the reader that, yes! Adolf Hitler was an idol to millions of Germans and beyond, that did not mean they would ever exonerate him from the death of over six million Jews. Again non of the Italian extremists also revered Benito Amilcare, Andrea Mussolini would even excuse him of the catastrophic deaths recorded under his authoritarian leadership. A lot of people worldwide had before now been convicted for war crimes which space would not allow here, so why has Gowon not had his day in court? Why did Nigeria move on as if nothing happened? Why has Nigeria refused to unmask those that collaborated with General Gowon(Rtd) to carry out the near extermination of defenseless and non-combatant individuals in Eastern Nigeria (Biafra)?

Finally, as we excavate and resurrect many of the untold and hidden truths about the civil war, is not out of place to call on the international community to demand justice. Gowon should not be moving around a free man after sending millions to their early graves. He should not be a Nigerian Statesman after terminating millions of destinies. How can an entity like Nigeria thrive without justice? It has never worked, it would never work, not today, not forever.

 

AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK

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