A/HRC/16/53/Add.1
military were absent from Yelwa until the late morning of 3 May 2004. Credible estimates
are that overall 660 Muslims were killed in Yelwa on 2 and 3 May 2004. There were also
an unknown number of Christian dead. These events were the subject matter of a
communication to your Excellency’s Government by the then Special Rapporteur on
freedom of religion or belief on 7 May 2004 (see E/CN.4/2005/61/Add.1, para. 174), to
which no response was received. On 18 May 2004, the President of Nigeria declared a state
of emergency in Plateau State, which remained in force until 18 November 2004. The
interim Administrator appointed by the President launched a Plateau Peace Program, which
included a peace conference. The peace conference began on 18 August 2004 and lasted
about one month. The Plateau Peace Program also included plans for a truth and
reconciliation commission. In October 2004, the President submitted a bill for the
establishment of the commission to the National Assembly. It was never adopted.
253. As to criminal justice, the interim Administrator set up special courts to try persons
suspected of involvement in the violence in Plateau State since 2001. As of May 2005, the
special courts were still functioning and the trials of 78 defendants were ongoing, but all
but six of the accused had been released on bail. The final outcome of the trials before the
special courts is not known. On 3 June 2004, the police issued a public statement which
reported that a total of 1,284 suspects “have, or are being prosecuted in court”. The
accuracy of this figure has been challenged and, in any event, the outcome of the police
prosecutions is not known.
254. Following disputed local government elections in Jos North on 27 November 2008,
two days of violence between Muslim and Christian mobs, as well as by the security forces,
resulted in the death of hundreds of persons. Groups of young men from Muslim and
Christian communities defended their neighbourhoods from attack and attacked the homes,
businesses, places of worship and religious establishments of the opposing side. These
mobs were armed with machetes, knives, petrol bombs, rocks, sticks, and in some cases
firearms, including locally made hunting rifles and pistols. Mobs of Christians reportedly
destroyed 22 mosques, 15 Islamic schools, and hundreds of Hausa-Fulani businesses and
homes. For instance, on the morning of 28 November 2008, five children attending the Al
Bayan Islamic boarding school were killed in or near their dormitory by a mob of
Christians. Muslim authorities in Jos reportedly registered 632 dead, including several
hundred victims buried in three mass burials on 30 November and 1 December 2008.
Likewise, mobs of Muslim youth beat and burned to death Christians. Church officials
reported that seven Christian pastors and church leaders were killed in the violence and that
46 churches were burned. 133 houses in a predominately Christian area of the Ali Kazaure
neighbourhood were allegedly burned. Christian authorities allegedly documented 129
deaths.
255. While the majority of the deaths appear to have been the result of mob violence, the
police and the military allegedly killed at least 133 persons, mostly young Muslim men
from the Hausa-Fulani ethnic group. The vast majority of police killings were perpetrated
by a specially trained anti-riot unit called the Police Mobile Force (MOPOL). Most of the
inter-communal mob violence took place on 28 November 2008, but the majority of the
killings by the police and military occurred on 29 November 2008.
256. More than a year after these incidents, no criminal prosecution is known to have
been initiated. Six different authorities, however, set up inquiries into the clashes and their
causes, with a view to making recommendations to prevent the re-occurrence of intercommunal violence. They include inquiries set up by the President of Nigeria (the “Abisoye
Panel”), the Nigerian Senate and House of Representatives, the Defense Headquarters, the
Plateau State House of Assembly, and the Plateau State Government. The latter inquiry, the
Plateau State Judicial Commission of Inquiry, submitted its report to the Plateau State
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