President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday said the perceived human rights abuses by the military and other security agencies were being exaggerated and should be properly investigated.
Jonathan said this while declaring open the three-day International Workshop on Civil-Military Cooperation at the National Defence College, Abuja.
The workshop was organised by the office of the National Security Adviser and the European Union.
“We have taken very serious reports from some international organisations about perceived human rights abuses by our security forces during military operations.
“Findings have generally shown that these reports are indeed exaggerated, we know that there are issues but the reports sometimes exaggerate the issues.
“For me, may be standing as a president of a country where we are fighting terror, if you make certain statements people will begin to interpret that the president is trying to defend the Armed Forces or trying to protect himself from being dragged to the Hague.
“ Some of these reports need to be properly investigated.
“This is why we are trying to see and we have discussed that we must review the use of military camouflage and fatigue dresses by military and paramilitary agencies; these are being abused and people who are not supposed to use them are using them.
Jonathan said the Government would do its best to ensure that troops involved in internal and external operations do that in line with the nation’s laws.
He appealed to the Human Rights Communities for broader cooperation and deeper understanding of the circumstances the country was facing.
“Our commitment to continue to investigate and bring to a just and fair closure any suspected or reported case of human rights abuse shall go on unhindered.
“This workshop will no doubt serve as a veritable platform for the Nigerian armed forces and relevant security agencies to key into international best practices for the conduct of successful counter-terrorism operations and other emerging military operations,” the president said.
The Chairman of the occasion and former Head of State, Gen. Abudulsalam Abubarkar (rtd), said the Nigerian Armed Forces and other security agencies faced the issue of human rights, hence the training curriculum in the country’s military training establishments included a component of human rights .
Abubakar said it was imperative that the deliberations at the workshop should proffer modalities for integrating human rights and best practices across the globe for institutionalising respect for the rule of law via internal security operations.
The Head of EU delegation, Mr Michel Arrion, said the workshop should be considered as a landmark in support of EU to Nigeria on soft approach to counter-terrorism.
Represented by Mr Alen Mondy, First Secretary and Head of Section, National-Regional Development Cooperation, Political Governance and Democracy, Arrion said the project was one of the projects the EU was implementing in Africa .
Earlier, the National Security Adviser, Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd), said the workshop was intended to support the Armed Forces, the Police Force and the department of State Services in internal security operations .
Dasuki said the workshop would raise the security agencies’ level of compliance with provisions of international humanitarian and human rights laws in accordance with international best practices.
“This is considered timely especially now that there are various allegations levelled against security agencies in the ongoing counter terrorism operations,” he said.(NAN)
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