When
you are crying because you were hurt in a fight, it is meaningful to see what
your opponent also suffered.
When you insist that you alone suffered, you might need to be informed you are not alone in suffering.
When you use your belief that you alone suffer to try to compel people to behave as you want, those other people need to go out of their way to educate you.
Propaganda driven by some Igbos who have not recovered from the defeat of Biafra wants to compel Nigeria into a position of sole or central responsibility for the horrors of the Nigerian Civil War of 1967 -1970.
This effort at compulsion is accompanied by threats of violence, vengeance and prophecies of doom for Nigeria.
One of these efforts at forcing others to behave as these people want is the loud cry that did not commit any war crimes.
Biafra is thus depicted as a saintly enterprise and Nigeria as the absolute villain.
I have made it my business to investigate and bring these war crimes to light.
I am collecting both published documents and eyewitness accounts from various sources.
As I discover them, I will make them available to the public and address any questions and challenges that arise.
All findings will also be posted at the
When you insist that you alone suffered, you might need to be informed you are not alone in suffering.
When you use your belief that you alone suffer to try to compel people to behave as you want, those other people need to go out of their way to educate you.
Propaganda driven by some Igbos who have not recovered from the defeat of Biafra wants to compel Nigeria into a position of sole or central responsibility for the horrors of the Nigerian Civil War of 1967 -1970.
This effort at compulsion is accompanied by threats of violence, vengeance and prophecies of doom for Nigeria.
One of these efforts at forcing others to behave as these people want is the loud cry that did not commit any war crimes.
Biafra is thus depicted as a saintly enterprise and Nigeria as the absolute villain.
I have made it my business to investigate and bring these war crimes to light.
I am collecting both published documents and eyewitness accounts from various sources.
As I discover them, I will make them available to the public and address any questions and challenges that arise.
All findings will also be posted at the
All findings will be distributed through the following
platforms:
1. Various African and Nigerian centred liserves
I
have already distributed two reports on Biafran war crimes, one from the Oputa
Panel of Inquiry and another from an academic paper on rapes in
Midwestern Nigeria during the war, the Midwest being a zone invaded
by Biafra.
I
will respond to any critiques of these documents as soon as I am free.
I
present here a moving account on Biafran atrocities in the Midwest, by
historian S.E Orobator.
Orobator's
essay is attached to this mail and posted at the Rethinking
Biafra Scribd account and my Scribd
account.
Orobator
was in Benin, the capital of the Midwest, at the time of the Biafran
invasion, and describes himself as keenly aware of
developments during the period . He later conducted research
on the invasion and went on to become a professor of
history, specializing in international relations.
The
essay is "The Biafran Crisis and
the Midwest".
Published in African Affairs, Vol. 86, No. 344 (Jul., 1987), pp. 367-383.
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal African Society.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/722748 .
The entire essay on the Biafran misadventure in the Midwest is moving in its analysis of what the Biafrans lost through the invasion in terms of goodwill as well as in creating a situation that united the Midwest with the Federal forces against Biafra in the subsequent events that marked the turning point of the war.
I will present Orobator's summation of the cost of the invasion to Biafra in another mail .
I post below an extract from the essay.
The most relevant sections on Biafran war crimes are highlighted:
Published in African Affairs, Vol. 86, No. 344 (Jul., 1987), pp. 367-383.
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal African Society.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/722748 .
The entire essay on the Biafran misadventure in the Midwest is moving in its analysis of what the Biafrans lost through the invasion in terms of goodwill as well as in creating a situation that united the Midwest with the Federal forces against Biafra in the subsequent events that marked the turning point of the war.
I will present Orobator's summation of the cost of the invasion to Biafra in another mail .
I post below an extract from the essay.
The most relevant sections on Biafran war crimes are highlighted:
"The relationship between the two sides
deteriorated progressively and the Biafran efforts to secure the people's
support failed.
The
battle front reports were equally unfavourable to the Biafrans who then
resorted to extensive witch-hunting against suspected saboteurs.
The Biafran forces, who were relatively calm
during the first one month of the occupationperiod, became progressively edgy,
tightening the various governmental gadgets of societal control.
As the Biafran hostility developed to
crisis proportions, the dusk to dawn curfew was further enforced, the Vigilance
and Security Councils given additional powers, and the Biafran Army and Militia
became more ruthless in their dealings with the civilians.
The civilian collaborators doubled their spying activities to callous
dimensions. [45]
The situation drifted for the worse.
Taking the MidWestern refusal to
support the secessionist movement as a
demonstration of an anti-Ibo and pro-Hausa stance, the Biafrans
intensified their search for suspected saboteurs as every set-back on the
battle front was invariably blamed on sabotage.
Heavier reprisals followed.
At Abudu, over 300 bodies, including those of
children, were found in the Ossiomo river as the Biafrans withdrew. [46]
Similarly, on 20 September 1967, 'there was a
mass killing of non-Ibo MidWesterners at Boji-Boji Agbor', and on 23 September,
'non-Ibo speaking MidWesterners were apprehended by rebel soldiers at Asaba,
Ibusa and Agbor and taken [in two lorries] to a rubber plantation along
Uromi-Agbor road and massacred'.[47]
The
more minor cases of rape, extortion,
seizure of properties, and other
punishments featured abundantly.
For
instance, a Warri-based lawyer, E. K. Iseru, testified at the Tribunal that he was stripped naked and detained for three days
without food for agitating for the Rivers State, and, when he complained of
hunger, he was promptly told: 'there is no food for Hausa friends'. [48]
45.
Author's personal file. Also see
Press Release No. MW 215 of 1/2/68, p.
5.
46.
This disclosure was made at the
Tribunal[ Rebel Activities Tribunal
of Inquiry (Ministry of
Information, Benin City)] by Chief D. N. Oronsaye, formerly Principal
of the Provincial Teacher
Training College, Abudu.
See also Press Release No. MW 157
24/1 /68, p. 4.
47.
Press Release No. MW 410
23/2/68, pp. 6-7.
48.
Press Release No. MW 157 of
24/1/68, pp. 2-3.
Saturday, 27 October 2012 22: 30 "
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