ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:95062202.POL
DATE:06/22/95
TITLE:STATE DEPARTMENT REPORT, THURSDAY, JUNE 22
TEXT:
(Nigeria, Colombia/missionaries) (640)
NEWS BRIEFING -- Spokesman Nicholas Burns discussed the following
topics:
U.S. CONCERNED ABOUT WELFARE OF FORMER NIGERIAN LEADER
The spokesman said the United States has "very great concerns about
the welfare" of the former president of Nigeria, General Olusegun
Obasanjo. "We understand he is under detention," he said.
Last week, the State Department said Obasanjo had been picked up June
13 by agents of the Directorate of Military Intelligence and taken to
an undisclosed destination. He has not been seen in public since then.
Obasanjo had been under house arrest for the previous two months, but
no specific charges against him had been made public.
Burns said he was not aware of reports that Obasanjo had been put on
trial June 22 in Lagos, but he emphasized that "if he has been brought
to trial today, it leads to further concern on our part about the
activities of the regime in Lagos."
The United States has made very clear its opposition to the Nigerian
regime's detention and arrest -- without trial in some cases and
without charges in some cases -- of leading members of former Nigerian
governments, the spokesman said.
"We call upon the government of Nigeria to take every step necessary
to release the people under detention who are clearly -- many of them
-- innocent of any wrongdoing," he said, "and to bring those that it
feels it has charges against to justice in a way that is consistent
with international norms.
"We've made our views clear about this in public because Nigeria is
one of Africa's most important countries, and we have a great concern
about the welfare of people who have been responsible leaders in the
past. We think the future ought to be based on reform and the rule of
law and not based on the current practices of the current regime."
The United States has repeatedly urged authorities in Lagos to return
Nigeria rapidly to democratic, civilian government.
TWO AMERICAN MISSIONARIES KILLED IN COLOMBIAN CLASH
Officials of the New Tribes Mission, a missionary group which has had
several of its members taken captive in Colombia, have positively
identified the two victims of a June 19 confrontation between
Colombian Army troops and guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia, the spokesman said.
"We deeply regret the deaths of Timothy Van Dyke and Steven Welsh, two
American citizens, and extend our deepest sympathy to their families
and to their colleagues in the New Tribes Mission," Burns said. "This
was a senseless killing of innocent civilians -- senseless and
uncivilized."
He noted that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia is a
terrorist group.
Colombian President Ernesto Samper called U.S. Ambassador Myles
Frechette on June 21 to express his condolences and to offer the
government of Colombia's assistance, the spokesman said.
"We are aware that five other Americans are being held captive in
Colombia and three of those being held are with the New Tribes
Mission," Burns said. "We certainly are asking the government of
Colombia to do everything in its power to find the American citizens
and to have them released," he said.
In the past, rebels from the National Army of Liberation as well as
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have conducted a series of
kidnappings of American citizens. "We can't confirm which group or
groups may be responsible for the kidnappings of these five other
Americans," Burns said. "It's our great hope that they are alive and
that they will be released."
"The killings that took place on June 19 were senseless and we condemn
them and we obviously hope that the Colombian government will bring
these killers to justice," he said. "We are working very closely with
the government of Colombia, and we believe we're getting good
cooperation."
NNNN
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