DATE=2/24/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=NIGERIA VIOLENCE (L)
NUMBER=2-259515
BYLINE=JOHN PITMAN
DATELINE=ABIDJAN
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Health officials in Nigeria say three days of
violence in the northern city of Kaduna have left
hundreds of people dead. V-O-A's John Pitman reports
from our West Africa Bureau.
TEXT: The death toll continues to rise in Kaduna,
with some health officials saying at least 300 bodies
have been recovered from the city's streets.
Many were burned or hacked to death in three days of
rioting between Christians and Muslims. The violence
began Monday when thousands of Christians demonstrated
to protest the possible introduction of Islamic law,
or Sharia, in Kaduna State.
Police and army units intervened to restore order, and
some of the dead are believed to have been shot by the
security forces.
Soldiers and police officers are now reportedly in
full control of Kaduna, and have begun helping to
collect bodies and bury them in mass graves.
/// OPT /// A French news agency report says a
total curfew has also been partially lifted, to allow
residents a chance to move around the city during the
day.
/// OPT /// Nigerian army troops also were used to
reinforce police in three other towns in northern
Nigeria where similar religious violence claimed eight
lives. /// END OPT ///
Leaders from both religions, as well as Nigeria's
president, Olusegun Obasanjo, have appeared on
national television to appeal for calm. On Wednesday,
President Obasanjo said the violence -- or, as he put
it, "the horror" -- in Kaduna had not achieved
anything. And he said Nigerians risked losing the
goodwill they gained during last year's democratic
transition if the violence continued.
Since President Obasanjo and the rest of the civilian
government was sworn in last May, at least one-
thousand Nigerians have been killed in ethnic and
religious violence nationwide.
/// REST OPT ///
This week's violence in Kaduna stems from a growing
sense of worry among Nigerian Christians in the
northern part of the country, where one state has
already introduced Islamic law and three others are
set to do so in May.
Muslims who support the use of Islamic law say the
code will apply only to Muslims in the areas where it
is approved. However, Christians say they fear the
code is too broad and could infringe on their
constitutional and civil rights.
On Wednesday, the Nigerian House of Representatives
ordered its judiciary committee to study the
constitutionality of Sharia law, which includes strict
admonitions against drinking, smoking, and
prostitution, as well as rules barring certain public
interactions between men and women. (Signed)
NEB/JP/JWH
24-Feb-2000 09:34 AM EDT (24-Feb-2000 1434 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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