America Refuses To Sell Weapons To Buhari – Reports

After a four-day official visit to the United States of America,
President Muhammadu Buhari will be returning to Nigeria today with no
pledge of concrete military assistance against Boko Haram terrorists
from his hosts.



The US government told the Nigerian leader that its arms are tied by
an American law, the Leahy Act, which prevents it from selling arms to
countries with human rights abuse records.

President Buhari, who is returning home displeased, told the US
government that the refusal by America to arm Nigerian troops because
of "so-called human rights violations" and "unproven allegations,"
would only help Boko Haram.

A global human rights watch group, Amnesty International, had recently
accused the Nigerian military under former President Goodluck Jonathan
of gross human rights abuses in the prosecution of the war on
terrorists.

The Nigerian military forces had denied the allegation which President
Buhari pledged to investigate.

Buhari "departs with little practical military assistance in his
battle against the Islamist militants who have turned the northeast of
his country into a bloody war zone," the Associated Press (AP)
reported on Wednesday.

The US government has vowed to help Nigeria defeat the insurgency but
it is prohibited under law from sending weapons to countries that fail
to tackle human rights abuses.

"Regretably, the blanket application of the Leahy Law by the United
States on the grounds of unproven allegations of human rights
violations levelled against our forces has denied us access to
appropriate strategic weapons to prosecute the war," Buhari said.

Addressing an audience of policy-makers, activists and academics in
Washington, Buhari complained that Nigerian forces had been left
"largely impotent" in the face of Boko Haram's campaign of kidnapping
and bombings.

"They do not possess the appropriate weapons and technology which we
could have had if the so-called human rights violations had not been
an obstacle," he said.

"Unwittingly, and I dare say unintentionally, the application of the
Leahy Law Amendment by the United States government has aided and
abetted the Boko Haram terrorists."

He appealed to both the White House and the US Congress to find a way
around the law — introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy in 1997 — and to
supply Nigerian troops with high-tech weapons under a deal "with
minimal strings."

Since 2009, Boko Haram has been trying to establish an Islamist
breakaway state in a conflict that has seen 15,000 people killed and
1.5 million displaced.

The group's brutality and in particular the mass kidnapping and
enslavement of schoolgirls has shocked world opinion.

In June, rights watchdog Amnesty International said there was
sufficient evidence to launch an investigation into senior Nigerian
officers for war crimes.

In a 133-page report, the group blamed the army for the extrajudicial
execution of 1,200 people and the torture or arbitrary detention of
thousands more.

Buhari insists that the charges are not proven, but he has replaced
his senior military commanders and has promised to investigate the
allegations.
--Daily Times