VZCZCXRO5130
PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHNM #1432/01 3400908
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 060908Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY NIAMEY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3949
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 0621
RUEHTRO/AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI PRIORITY
RHMFISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NIAMEY 001432 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM MOPS PGOV NG
SUBJECT: NIGER: HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE CONFLICT IN THE NORTH 
 
REF: (A) NIAMEY 1430 (B) NIAMEY 1250 (C) NIAMEY 531 
 
NIAMEY 00001432  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Corinne Dufka, Human Rights Watch senior researcher 
for West Africa on December 5 briefed DCM and Development 
Coordinator on her visit to Niamey to look into human rights 
issues associated with the current conflict in northern 
Niger. Dufka had met with a number of GON officials, 
including the High Commissioner for Peace Restoration (who is 
responsible for implementing the peace accords that ended the 
last rebellion), a member of the National Assembly and a 
senior Gendarme Officer. Nigerien Armed Forces (FAN) 
officers, senior Justice Ministry officials and the head of 
the government's human rights office declined requests for 
meetings.  Dufka met with about ten Tuaregs who had recently 
returned from the north, most of whom were actually MNJ 
combatants.  She also met with the head of Niger's leading 
independent human rights organization, the Association 
Nigerienne pour las Defense des droits d'Homme (ANDDH). 
 
¶3. (SBU) Dufka said that overall the human rights situation 
was not as bad as she had feared.  Her major concerns were 
the use of child soldiers by the MNJ, extrajudicial killings 
by the FAN, and the use of landmines.  She said that Human 
Rights Watch may put out a statement expressing concern about 
these issues.  The MNJ uses children, some as young as 14 or 
15, to gather intelligence.  The boys are sent out with herds 
of goats as cover to observe GON security forces. Dufka found 
credible reports that GON security forces have executed 
civilians, usually following attacks on security forces. 
There is no evidence that these killings are part of a GON 
policy, but there is also no indication that the GON punishes 
those responsible.  While it does not appear that either the 
GON or the MNJ use anti-personnel mines, Dufka is concerned 
about civilian casualties from anti-tank mines. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Dufka visited predominately Tuareg neighborhoods in 
Niamey to find Tuaregs who had recently been in the north. 
Most of the ten or so she interviewed admitted to being MNJ 
combatants.  It appears that the MNJ allows combatants to 
take leave.  The issue is not that it can't feed them, but 
that the combatants need to earn money to support their 
families.  The Tuaregs were generally not reluctant to tell 
their stories, most of which Dufka found credible. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Following are some of Dufka's findings: 
 
-- Libya. Most of the MNJ combatants interviewed said that 
Libya supports the MNJ.  Several combatants reported training 
in camps in Libya in the last couple of years.  They also 
reported receiving weapons that were flown to Agadez in 
conjunction with Khaddafi's visit there last March (ref C). 
(The gendarme officer also expressed the belief, widely held 
among GON security forces, that Khaddafi brought weapons for 
the MNJ.)  One MNJ combatant said that Khaddafi visited a 
camp where MNJ fighters were being trained. 
 
-- Ethnic issues. One of Dufka's interlocutors provided a 
second-hand report of the incident in which the MNJ claims 
that GON security forces separated Tuareg and non-Tuareg 
passengers on a bus, and killed the latter.  Another 
interlocutor, an ethnic Hausa, reported an incident in which 
MNJ fighters stopped a bus and separated Tuaregs from 
non-Tuaregs (based on the ability to speak Tamashek).  They 
robbed the non-Tuaregs, beating some of them, but did not 
bother the Tuaregs. 
 
-- Rape. One of Dufka's Tuareg interlocutors claimed that GON 
soldiers had raped a Tuareg woman. 
 
-- Detention. Dufka said that conditions for Tuaregs detained 
by the GON were not that bad, and many were detained only 
briefly.  MNJ combatants claimed that the GON security forces 
they held were all implicated in crimes. 
 
-- MNJ claims to have killed a FAN colonel.  Dufka said the 
gendarmerie officer flatly denied the MNJ's claim that it had 
killed the colonel in charge of the convoy that recently 
relieved the besieged town of Iferouane (ref A).  He said 
that he had just spoken on the phone to the colonel. 
 
-- MNJ oath.  MNJ combatants reported signing an oath when 
they joined the organization.  The oath includes language 
about not engaging in banditry. 
 
-- Nigerien human rights groups.  Dufka was not impressed 
with domestic human rights organization, none of which seem 
 
NIAMEY 00001432  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
to seek to verify claims of human rights abuses. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Comment: Dufka's visit provided a useful and 
objective look at the claims made by both sides in the 
conflict.  She is an experienced human rights researcher with 
extensive experience in the conflict countries of West Africa 
and elsewhere.  She was methodical in her research, and 
careful to characterize the credibility of the statements she 
recounted.    We are disappointed that local human rights 
groups do not do the same. 
 
¶7. (U) Tripoli minimize considered. 
ALLEN