 |
| Gowon ranks sixth among worlds mass murderers well above Pol Pot of Cambodia and Kim Il Sung of North Korea |
Furthermore, Gowon is ranked well above Pol Pot of Cambodia and Kim II Sung of North Korea. Pol Pot (1925-1998) and his communist Khmer Rouge movement led Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. During that time, about 1.5 million Cambodians out of a total population of 7 to 8 million died of starvation, execution, disease or overwork. Some estimates place the death toll even higher. Although Pol Pot died in 1998 without being brought to justice, two of his associates were recently jailed over the war crimes the committed.
The 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.
How Gowon became a mass murderer
On 29 July, 1966, a group of Northern Nigerian Army personnel including Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Mohammed, Theophilius Danjuma, Mohammadu Buhari, and Hassan Katsina kidnapped and murdered Major-General J. T. U. Aguiyi-Ironsi, the Supreme Commander and Head of the Federal Military Government. At the same time they attempted to annihilate all Eastern Nigerian Army officers and men at Ibadan, Abeokuta and Ikeja in Western Nigeria and at Kaduna, Zaria and Kano in Northern Nigeria. Nearly 200 officers and men of Eastern Nigeria origin were slaughtered. Those who escaped but later returned to their posts following assurances of safety by Gowon after he assumed leadership were also murdered.
The pogrom was soon extended to Eastern Nigerian civilians resident in Northern Nigeria, Lagos and the West; and by September, 1966, the killings and molestations carried out by the combined forces of Northern Nigerian soldiers and civilians had assumed such large proportions that Easterners everywhere outside the East sought protection within their home region.
The pogrom was soon extended to Eastern Nigerian civilians resident in Northern Nigeria, Lagos and the West; and by September, 1966, the killings and molestations carried out by the combined forces of Northern Nigerian soldiers and civilians had assumed such large proportions that Easterners everywhere outside the East sought protection within their home region.
The massacres resulted in the deaths of over 100,000 Easterners and jolted the conscience and aroused the indignation of the world.
Efforts to prevent the looming war at Aburi was scuttled by Gowon, when he failed to implement the agreements reached at the meeting. He acted in utter disregard of the Aburi Accord.
Gowon's army had went after Biafrans soldiers and civilians alike. Evidence abound of Nigeria's military fighters bombing market places (Afor Umuohiagu for instance), primary and secondary schools as well as hospital. Some of his commanders such as Benjamin Adekunle openly boasted of how his division was shooting at civilians and anything that moves in Biafra. The most commonly acknowledged is the Asaba massacre. In October 1967, a few months into the Nigerian civil war, federal troops entered Asaba, a small town on the west bank of the River Niger, in pursuit of retreating Biafran army. Over the next few days, thousands of civilians were killed, house burnt and the town left in ruins. News of the atrocities was suppressed by the Nigerian government and subsequent histories of the war barely mention the massacre.
Gowon's most effective weapon was however the starvation of Biafrans. With the help of western governments Gowon was able to blockade Biafra.
Described as the first black-on-black genocide in postcolonial Africa, the war had a terrible impact on the Igbo people with its massive civilian death toll. By the end of the first year of the war it was “already responsible for more deaths than have occurred in Vietnam and was causing the death of thousands of people each day through starvation.”
Over 3 million civilians especially women and children were starved to death due to Gowon's direct command. At the end of the war according to some sources more than 4 million Biafrans were killed.
On December 15, 1968, the American Jewish Congress issued a memorandum titled “The Tragedy of Biafra.” Phil Baum, director of the Commission on International Affairs of Congress, called attention the humanitarian tragedy going on in Biafra: “For more than a year, a little noticed but nonetheless savage and tragic war has been going on between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the former Eastern Region of that country which, in May 1967, proclaimed its independence as the Republic of Biafra.”
Efforts to prevent the looming war at Aburi was scuttled by Gowon, when he failed to implement the agreements reached at the meeting. He acted in utter disregard of the Aburi Accord.
Related Stories:
- "I have to kill the Igbos. sorry!"- Adekunke: The infamous Adekunle's interview that revealed the true intent of Nigerian forces
- Revisionist History: Gowon alledges that Ojukwu lied about Aburi Accord
- Khmer Rouge Guilty Verdict: Time for Gowon, Obasanjo, Danjuma and others to face prosecution for genocide and war crimes
- Gowon's failure to implement Aburi Accord the cause of Biafra-Nigeria War
- Biafrans mobilise to stop Gowon from delivering lecture at Ojukwu Varsity
Gowon's army had went after Biafrans soldiers and civilians alike. Evidence abound of Nigeria's military fighters bombing market places (Afor Umuohiagu for instance), primary and secondary schools as well as hospital. Some of his commanders such as Benjamin Adekunle openly boasted of how his division was shooting at civilians and anything that moves in Biafra. The most commonly acknowledged is the Asaba massacre. In October 1967, a few months into the Nigerian civil war, federal troops entered Asaba, a small town on the west bank of the River Niger, in pursuit of retreating Biafran army. Over the next few days, thousands of civilians were killed, house burnt and the town left in ruins. News of the atrocities was suppressed by the Nigerian government and subsequent histories of the war barely mention the massacre.
Gowon's most effective weapon was however the starvation of Biafrans. With the help of western governments Gowon was able to blockade Biafra.
Described as the first black-on-black genocide in postcolonial Africa, the war had a terrible impact on the Igbo people with its massive civilian death toll. By the end of the first year of the war it was “already responsible for more deaths than have occurred in Vietnam and was causing the death of thousands of people each day through starvation.”
Over 3 million civilians especially women and children were starved to death due to Gowon's direct command. At the end of the war according to some sources more than 4 million Biafrans were killed.
On December 15, 1968, the American Jewish Congress issued a memorandum titled “The Tragedy of Biafra.” Phil Baum, director of the Commission on International Affairs of Congress, called attention the humanitarian tragedy going on in Biafra: “For more than a year, a little noticed but nonetheless savage and tragic war has been going on between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the former Eastern Region of that country which, in May 1967, proclaimed its independence as the Republic of Biafra.”
Despite the evidence that there were meticulously planned and implemented political project of exterminating the Igbo ethnic group in Northern Nigeria before the war and in other parts of Nigeria during the war, the genocide has been mischaracterized as a civil war. In what can be called “an invisible genocide,” the Igbo genocide was masked by the attempts by both federal Nigeria and major western nations to downplay the evidence of the genocide perpetrated against the Igbo ethnic group as well as its deeper roots in the pre-civil war period.
As could be seen from the list below most of Gowon's partners of renowned mass murderers have one way or the other paid the price for their crimes. However, Gowon is still roaming freely in Nigeria and across the world. The so far non trial of Gowon for war crimes is the greatest injustice the world has meted out to Biafrans.
As could be seen from the list below most of Gowon's partners of renowned mass murderers have one way or the other paid the price for their crimes. However, Gowon is still roaming freely in Nigeria and across the world. The so far non trial of Gowon for war crimes is the greatest injustice the world has meted out to Biafrans.
| Ze-Dong Mao (China, 1958-61 and 1966-69, Tibet 1949-50) | (see note 2) |
| Adolf Hitler (Germany, 1939-1945) | 12,000,000 (concentration camps and civilians deliberately killed in WWII plus 3 million Russian POWs left to die) |
| Leopold II of Belgium (Congo, 1886-1908) | 8,000,000 |
| Jozef Stalin (USSR, 1932-39) | 7,000,000 (the gulags plus the purges plus Ukraine's famine) |
| Hideki Tojo (Japan, 1941-44) | 5,000,000 (civilians in WWII) |
| Yakubu Gowon (Biafra, 1967-1970) | Over 3,500,000 |
| Pol Pot (Cambodia, 1975-79) | 1,700,000 |
| Kim Il Sung (North Korea, 1948-94) | 1.6 million (purges and concentration camps) |
| Menghistu (Ethiopia, 1975-78) | 1,500,000 |
| Ismail Enver (Ottoman Turkey, 1915-20) | 1,200,000 Armenians (1915) + 350,000 Greek Pontians and 480,000 Anatolian Greeks (1916-22) + 500,000 Assyrians (1915-20) |
| Leonid Brezhnev (Afghanistan, 1979-1982) | 900,000 |
| Jean Kambanda (Rwanda, 1994) | 800,000 |
| Saddam Hussein (Iran 1980-1990 and Kurdistan 1987-88) | 600,000 |
| Tito (Yugoslavia, 1945-1980) | 570,000 |
| Suharto/Soeharto (Indonesian communists 1965-66) | 500,000 |
| Fumimaro Konoe (Japan, 1937-39) | 500,000? (Chinese civilians) |
| Jonas Savimbi - but disputed by recent studies (Angola, 1975-2002) | 400,000 |
| Mullah Omar - Taliban (Afghanistan, 1986-2001) | 400,000 |
| Idi Amin (Uganda, 1969-1979) | 300,000 |
| Yahya Khan (Pakistan, 1970-71) | 300,000 (Bangladesh) |
| Ante Pavelic (Croatia, 1941-45) | 359,000 (30,000 Jews, 29,000 Gipsies, 300,000 Serbs) |
| Benito Mussolini (Ethiopia, 1936; Libya, 1934-45; Yugoslavia, WWII) | 300,000 |
| Mobutu Sese Seko (Zaire, 1965-97) | ? |
| Charles Taylor (Liberia, 1989-1996) | 220,000 |
| Foday Sankoh (Sierra Leone, 1991-2000) | 200,000 |
| Suharto (Aceh, East Timor, New Guinea, 1975-98) | 200,000 |
| Ho Chi Min (Vietnam, 1953-56) | 200,000 |
| Michel Micombero (Burundi, 1972) | 150,000 |
| Slobodan Milosevic (Yugoslavia, 1992-99) | 100,000 |
| Hassan Turabi (Sudan, 1989-1999) | 100,000 |
| Syngman Rhee (South Korea, 1948-50) | 80,000 (various massacres of civilians) |
| Richard Nixon (Vietnam, 1969-1974) | 70,000 (Vietnamese and Cambodian civilians) |
| Efrain Rios Montt - but disputed by recent studies (Guatemala, 1982-83) | 70,000 |
| Papa Doc Duvalier (Haiti, 1957-71) | 60,000 |
| Rafael Trujillo (Dominican Republic, 1930-61) | 50,000 |
| Bashir Assad (Syria, 2012-13) | 50,000 |
| Francisco Macias Nguema (Equatorial Guinea, 1969-79) | 50,000 |
| Hissene Habre (Chad, 1982-1990) | 40,000 |
| Chiang Kai-shek (Taiwan, 1947) | 30,000 (popular uprising) |
| Vladimir Ilich Lenin (USSR, 1917-20) | 30,000 (dissidents executed) |
| Francisco Franco (Spain) | 30,000 (dissidents executed after the civil war) |
| Fidel Castro (Cuba, 1959-1999) | 30,000 |
| Lyndon Johnson (Vietnam, 1963-1968) | 30,000 |
| Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez (El Salvador, 1932) | 30,000 |
| Hafez Al-Assad (Syria, 1980-2000) | 25,000 |
| Khomeini (Iran, 1979-89) | 20,000 |
| Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe, 1982-87, Ndebele minority) | 20,000 |
| Rafael Videla (Argentina, 1976-83) | 13,000 |
| Guy Mollet (France, 1956-1957) | 10,000 (war in Algeria) |
| Harold McMillans (Britain, 1952-56, Kenya's Mau-Mau rebellion) | 10,000 |
| Jean-Bedel Bokassa (Centrafrica, 1966-79) | ? |
| Paul Koroma (Sierra Leone, 1997) | 6,000 |
| Osama Bin Laden (worldwide, 1993-2001) | 3,500 |
| Augusto Pinochet (Chile, 1973) | 3,000 |
Related Stories:
- "I have to kill the Igbos. sorry!"- Adekunke: The infamous Adekunle's interview that revealed the true intent of Nigerian forces
- Revisionist History: Gowon alledges that Ojukwu lied about Aburi Accord
- Khmer Rouge Guilty Verdict: Time for Gowon, Obasanjo, Danjuma and others to face prosecution for genocide and war crimes
- Gowon's failure to implement Aburi Accord the cause of Biafra-Nigeria War
- Biafrans mobilise to stop Gowon from delivering lecture at Ojukwu Varsity
Main sources:
The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War by Alexander Madiebo
There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra by Chinua Achebe
The Nigeria-Biafra War: Genocide and the Politics of MemoryWar Crimes Trial of General Yakubu Gowon By Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo
Israel Charny (1988) Genocide: A Critical Bibliographic Review
Stephane Courtois: Black Book on Communism (1995)
Micheal Clodfelter: Warfare and Armed Conflicts (1992)
Gil Elliot: Twentieth Century Book of the Dead (1972)
Gaston Bouthoul and Reue Carrere: A List of the 366 Major Armed Conflicts of the period 1740-1974, Peace Research (1978)
Rudolph Rummel: Death by Government - Genocide and Mass Murder (1994)
Rudolph Rummel: Statistics of Democide (1997)
James Payne: "A History of Force" (2004)
Matt White's website
Matt White: "The Great Big Book of Horrible Things" (2011)
Daniel Goldhagen: "Worse Than War" (2009)
Ben Kiernan: Blood and Soil - A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur (2007)
Ben Valentino: Final Solutions - Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century (2004)
Several general textbooks of 20th century history
- Mao is widely credited in the West with tens of millions of killings (49-78,000,000) but the sources are generally vague and contradictory. It is particularly difficult to pin down the deaths of the Cultural Revolution on him. Even assuming that the numbers are correct (and living witnesses saw very few people die during those years), Mao certainly started it, but after a few months he had lost control over the events, and there is no evidence whatsoever that he ordered or approved the many killings committed in the name of the Cultural Revolution: they were not carried out by the army or the police but by radicals. Crimes committed by the "red guards" cannot be automatically blamed on him. His wife Jiang Qing is widely despised in China and considered to have exerted an evil influence on those events (and was eventually arrested). In 1968 Mao called for "Big Unity" between the radical and conservative factions that were fighting all over China (not for more blood but for less blood). Before dying he appointed Hua Guofeng, a provincial governor, as his successor bypassing all the senior officials who were responsible for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution indirectly caused starvation, but the number of people who died of that starvation is probably lower than Westerners thought (again, judging from living witnesses) and he can only be considered indirectly responsible for them. A failed policy does not constitute "genocide" (otherwise this list of genociders would be much longer).
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