Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-15-Speech-4-190"
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"en.20011115.10.4-190"2
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"Mr President, two years ago, following fair elections in the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic state of Nigeria, the military dictatorship was replaced by a parliamentary democracy. However, veteran President Olusugun Obasanjo is increasingly facing the difficult challenge of keeping riots under control between northern Muslims and Christian southerners, not infrequently culminating in gruesome blood baths.
For example, we were recently alarmed once again by a dubious military reprisal in the federal state of Benue. I notice with some discomposure that the army seems to be taking the law into its own hands in various cases. It is understandable that the Tivs, associated with the South, are very suspicious of the fact that the army was siding with the northern-oriented Jukuns, the population group to which the current Defence Minister belongs. It is of the utmost importance for the military forces to act within the constitutional mandate and ensure the safety of all citizens.
Increasing tension in the Middle Belt has at the same time illustrated my growing concern for the ever-widening chasm between religions that is fanning out towards the middle and south of the country. In a personal meeting with his American opposite number, President Bush less than two weeks ago, President Obasanja reassured President Bush once again of his support for the International Coalition against terrorism. On that same fateful Friday, 2 November, however, as the representative of the thirteenth federal state incorporating Islamic penal law, he was also faced with implementing the decree in Kaduna to introduce Islamic penal law, the shari'ah. This will do nothing to promote the peaceful coexistence of Muslims and the large Christian minority in that state.
Finally, I should like to express my emphatic support for the attempts by the Nigerian President and parliament to look into, and tackle, the causes of the continuing ethnic and religious conflicts, to which
Paragraph 4 of the resolution refers. I would ask the Council and Commission to contribute according to their means."@en1
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