ICC Note:
The International Criminal Court is beginning to consider Boko Haram’s violence in Nigeria as Crimes Against Humanity. This consideration comes on the heels of another suicide bombing of a church in Nigeria. The court specifically cited Boko Haram’s attacks on Christians as evidence of Crimes Against Humanity. Is this the first step for the international community to take decisive action against Boko Haram? 
11/28/2012 Nigeria (AllAfrica) – A global groundswell against Boko Haram terrorists’ activities is building as the International Criminal Court has now decided through the Office of the Prosecutor, OTP, to probe what is suspected to be crimes against humanity committed by the terror organisation.
This is coming just as suicide bombers, suspected to be terrorists in a fashion similar to Boko Haram attacked a military church in Jaji, Kaduna State over the weekend.
Reacting to Sunday’s twin bombing of a military church in Jaji, Dr. James Fadele, Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans, CANAN said not only are the attacks condemnable, but added that the “world should take notice that even when the terrorists wanted to attack the military, they went to attack a church, not the mosque.”
While the ICC made this decision public at its just concluded States Parties Assembly meeting over the weekend in Netherlands, the US Congress which resumes work on Monday after an election break will also be reviewing a draft bill demanding that the US State Department designate Boko Haram a Foreign Terrorist Organization, FTO, or explain why it cannot.
Conversely, while the ICC has determined to continue its probe of Boko Haram violence and crime, the Court is turning down claims that the Nigerian security forces in their operations against Boko Haram may have also committed “serious human rights violations.”
Some human rights organization, like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International had alleged that the Nigerian military has been committing crimes against humanity just as Boko Haram too has been accused of by those human right groups.
But according to a release by the ICC at its meeting last week “information available at this stage does not permit a finding of a reasonable basis to believe that such acts were committed pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy to attack the civilian population.”
The ICC speaking through the Office of the Prosecutor observed that “there is also currently no reasonable basis to believe that the confrontations between the security forces and Boko Haram amount to an armed conflict.”
However the court’s Office of the Prosecutor added that “these initial assessments may be revisited in the light of new facts or evidence.”
Regarding Boko Haram, the ICC in its November 2012 report stated that the Prosecutor has decided “that the preliminary examination of the situation in Nigeria should advance to phase 3 (admissibility) with a view to assessing whether the national authorities are conducting genuine proceedings in relation to those who appear to bear the greatest responsibility for such crimes, and the gravity of such crimes.”
According to the report, the ICC prosecutor “considers that there is a reasonable basis to believe that since July 2009, Boko Haram has committed the following acts constituting crimes against humanity: (i) murder under article 7(1)(a) and (ii) persecution under article 7(1)(h) of the Statute.”
In addition, the report noted that “in particular, the information available provides a reasonable basis to believe that since July 2009 Boko Haram has launched a widespread and systematic attack that has resulted in the killing of more than 1,200 Christian and Muslims civilians in different locations throughout Nigeria, including Borno, Yobe, Katsina, Kaduna, Bauchi, Gombe and Kano States in the North as well as Abuja, Kaduna and Plateau States in Central Nigeria.”
Continuing the report from the prosecutor explained that “the consistent pattern of such incidents indicates that the group possesses the means to carry out a widespread and/or systematic attack, and displays internal coordination and organizational control required to that end.”
It was further stated that the Boko Haram attacks have “been committed pursuant to the policy defined at the leadership level of Boko Haram, which aims at imposing an exclusive Islamic system of government in northern Nigeria at the expense of Christians specifically.”
…
[Full Story]