Monday 11 August 2014

Khmer Rouge Guilty Verdict: Time for Gowon, Obasanjo, Danjuma and others to face prosecution for genocide and war crimes

Two elderly former Khmer Rouge leaders convicted last week of crimes against humanity

Last week  two leaders of the infamous Khmer Rouge regime were jailed having been found guilty of crimes against humanity.  A UN-backed war crimes tribunal found the Khmer Rouge’s Brother No 2 Nuon Chea and former head of state Khieu Samphan guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced  to life imprisonment, in a move heralded by human rights groups as a “historic victory” for the nation.

The verdict came  nearly 40 years after the regime led by Pol Pot ended its murderous four-year reign over Cambodia, during which time nearly 2 million people – a quarter of the population –died from
starvation, exhaustion, execution or lack of medical care as a result of the communist “utopia” experiment. Khieu Samphan, 83, known as “Mr Clean” for his reported incorruptibility, and Nuon Chea, 88, the Khmer Rouge’s chief ideologue, were both charged with crimes against humanity, homicide, torture, genocide and religious persecution during a regime that forced Cambodia into “a state of terror”, according to the tribunal’s chief judge Nil Nonn.
Khmer Rouge victims

Few years before the Khmer Rouge regime between 1967 and 1970 a murderous Nigerian junta headed by Yakubu Gowon, with the support of  T.Y Danjuma, Murtala Muhammed, Olusegun Obasanjo and Obafemi Awolowo, plotted the total annihilation of Biafrans. They in conjunction with their footsoldiers such as Col. Benjamin Adenkule carried out a genocidal war, starved children and women, bombed market places and massacred unarmed civilians of Biafran extraction. 
Biafran Children deliberately
 starved by Gowon
However, despite mounting evidence of the atrocities committed by the infamous regime of Gowon, all of the perpetrators of the many recorded crimes against humanity and war crimes are still walking free in Nigeria (except of course those who are dead). Biafra has continued to remain a very sharp thorn on the conscience of the world. The world watched and supported murderous Nigerian regime massacre innocents. BBC reports captured many cases of massacre of civilians and unarmed Biafran soldiers by Nigerian forces. Adenkule boasted to many foreign journalists that he would kill every living thing in Biafra, when his forces eventually get into Biafra. Yet, no one has raised a finger to investigate all these recorded crimes of war. From Congo, Rwanda, and Liberia, many perpetrators of war crimes such as Charles Taylor have been hounded , tried and convicted for war crimes, but war criminals such as Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun Obasanjo , T.Y Danjuma, Adenkunle are still walking free, parading as statesmen. 
Why has the world not found it worthy to investigate and try all those involved with the 
Yakubu Gowon

massacre of  three and half million Biafrans? About two million Cambodians were killed through the various acts of the Khmer Rouge and the leaders were tried,  just a few thousands of people were killed in Liberia and Sierra Leone , yet Charles Taylor was  tried fro war crimes. The Rwanda Genocide was not as devastating as Biafran Genocide and yet  many Hutu warlords have been tried and still being tried.
The time has come for the world clear its conscience , by arresting and trying all those involved with the massacre of Biafrans for crimes against humanity.
Biafran children suffering from Kwashiokpor caused by Gowon's murderous regime


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