Nigeria killing of Shias, unjustified’: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Kevin Barrett, editor of Veterans Today in Madison, to discuss 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: What part of the massacre that took place last month with so many people being killed at the hands of the Nigerian army, what part of it do you think was appropriate as the Nigerian army chief put it?

Barrett: Well obviously it was not appropriate. In fact it is rather hard to understand why this happened. It is of course possible that it was just a gross overreaction on the part of the army for some unexplainable reason but it is more likely that there may have been some kind of organization behind this. That is, Nigeria has a lot of various international forces looking at a huge oil industry, there is a big Zionist presence and it seems that Sheikh Zakzaky and his group may have been seen as a threat to the imperialist powers that want to stay in control of Nigeria and this may have been arranged as a kind of demonstration of force majeure to try to intimidate that movement and any other movements that would rise up and try to work for justice in Nigeria.   

If that is the case, it is going to be very hard to prove and all we know though is that this massacre was absolutely unjustified. We know that there was an unprovoked attack on a compound and when the people trying to defend the compound barricaded the roads, the army just went into complete fanatical kind of attack and slaughtered this huge number of people for no real reason.

So it was obviously an inexcusable massacre and I think we need an impartial international investigation. Of course the odds that we will ever see such a thing are very slim because the world powers have their own interests in Nigeria which unfortunately coincide with the perpetrators of this atrocity.  

Press TV: Well speaking of which Mr. Barrett, there is this panel of inquiry that is taking place to get to the bottom of what happened on that morning in Zaria. However, as you have just mentioned there have been those criticisms being leveled against the army and the government for not doing enough, for being part of the massacre. So what is going to be the result of this inquiry, in your opinion?

Barrett: Well I would be unpleasantly surprised if it led to any kind of justice. Typically in these kinds of situations the inquiries are set up to basically excuse the people who are responsible for the atrocities. We have seen this kind of thing over and over and over in so many different countries and I do not think that this commission has any real interest in getting to the truth.

So again, I think that we most likely would need some form of international investigation to get to the truth of this as in so many other cases, so many other similar atrocities all over the world but I do not think that will happen just because the international powers that be again are siding with the oppressor in this case rather than the victims.

Press TV: As we have just also mentioned over here is that a lot of international rights groups have also come out and condemned the army’s atrocities. However, what is to keep this from happening again when it comes to Nigeria? What did the army hope to achieve from the first crackdown?

Barrett: Well I guess they are sending a signal that they do not want to tolerate the kind of peaceful opposition movement led by Sheikh Zakzaky and that kind of activity, this kind of harsh, extreme, brutal kind of crackdown in the form of an unjustifiable massacre is the kind of act that it is very, very difficult to prevent unless the people of Nigeria make their wishes known.

There are of course people in Nigeria who care about human rights and there are people in Nigeria who would like to get a more responsive and honest government and if enough of those people are outraged enough and work long and hard, they might eventually if not get justice for the people killed in this at least try to prevent it from happening again.

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