Human Rights Nigeria

A 17-year-old Muslim girl in Nigeria who rights groups say was forced by her father to have sex with three men will be flogged Jan. 27 for breaking a law against premarital sex, a judge said. The sentence--180 lashes with a cane--will be carried out despite an appeal by the federal government to suspend the punishment, said Judge Idris Usman Gusau. The sentence has prompted an outcry from human rights groups, which fear that the girl, Bariya Ibrahim Magazu, might die during the lashing.

A pregnant teenager has been sentenced to 180 strokes of the cane by an Islamic Sharia court in northern Nigeria, officials said. Human rights activists have reacted angrily to the sentencing of 17-year-old Bariya Magazu after a trial likely to fuel controversy over the introduction of the strict Sharia penal code in parts of northern Nigeria.

Commonwealth leaders ended a four-day summit in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, by vowing to crack down on Nigeria unless it improves its human rights record and by stressing the need to improve economic ties between members. Human rights activists have criticized the 54-nation grouping of mainly former British possessions for not expelling Nigeria over its failure to introduce democratic reforms, but the leaders made clear that they wanted to adopt a carrot-and-stick approach.

The abrupt death Monday of Nigerian leader Gen. Sani Abacha, one of Africa's most notorious and reclusive dictators, leaves the continent's most populous nation at a critical crossroads, U.S. officials and Africa experts said. The Clinton administration and international human rights groups immediately called on the military-led Provisional Ruling Council in Nigeria to seize the opportunity to launch a long-delayed transition to civilian rule.

Despite promises last week by this country's new military leader to promote democracy and respect civil liberties, many local and foreign human rights advocates say his failure to repeal laws that allow the violation of individual rights will undercut pledges to bring true justice to Nigeria's penal system. Nor are activists confident that the reforms announced by Gen.

Five leading Nigerian political exiles have returned to Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, from Britain to demand checks on police power and an inquiry into late dictator Gen. Sani Abacha's fortune, a newspaper reported. However, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, Nigeria's most influential and best-known exile, was not among the returnees. Many believe that Soyinka will return soon.

Newspaper editor Dele Alake left a cocktail party one recent evening, jumped into his car and did something he hadn't done for years. He drove straight home. "Now I can drive home without looking through my rear window to see if I'm being followed," said Alake, whose popular National Concord newspaper was a fervent critic of the oppressive military regime of former dictator Gen. Sani Abacha. "The psychological pressure is off."

Human rights activists Tuesday accused multinational oil companies of complicity in human rights abuses carried out by this country's military regime in the oil-rich Niger Delta, charging that the firms have made no effort to condemn or intervene in the atrocities. A report issued by the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch placed responsibility for abuses committed in the tumultuous region equally with the government of Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar and the oil firms.

Under international pressure for its human rights policies, Nigeria has promised to amend the law under which writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others acting on behalf of the Ogoni people were convicted and hanged in November. The West African nation has also agreed to immediately review all cases of detention without trial under a 1984 decree and to examine whether ecological and environmental problems affect the Ogoni area, an oil-producing region of southeastern Nigeria.

Foreign governments and human rights activists increased pressure on Nigeria's military rulers to quash sentences against alleged coup plotters and stop death sentences from being carried out. Newspapers say former deputy head of state Maj. Gen. Shehu Musa Yar'Adua and 13 others were sentenced to death in a trial shrouded in secrecy since the military government said it had uncovered a coup plot in March. Ex-head of state Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo and 11 others reportedly received life sentences.