It is 50 days today since over 200 pupils of the Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS) in Chibok Local Government Area of Borno State were abducted by Boko Haram insurgents. The insurgents have offered to swap the girls with their members in detention. The Federal Government is not buying the idea, which the United States adopted some days ago to free its soldier in Talibans’s custody, writes TAJUDEEN ADEBANJO
When Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video of the girls his men kidnapped in a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State, their parents were a bit relieved. At least they were sure their children were alive. Shekau called for a swap of the girls with detained insurgents.
Shekau made the claim in a video obtained by AFP showing about 130 of the 276 girls, saying: “We will never release them (the girls) until after you release our brethren.”
Mrs Rachel Daniel, 35, mother of one of the abducted girls, Rose, 17, heaved a sigh of relief when the video was released.
Mrs Daniel, like other family members of the abducted girls, daily think about reuniting with their children.
Even Nigerians, especially the vanguards of #BringBackOurGirls campaign believed that the days of their protests on the streets are numbered.
But they were damned wrong! The Federal Government vowed not to bow to the insurgents’ demand.
Interior Minister Abba Moro told AFP that the government would not do Shekau’s bidding.
“The issue in question is not about Boko Haram… giving conditions,” Moro said.
A British newspaper reported that the girls would have regained their freedom a fortnight ago but President Goodluck Jonathan called off a prisoner swap deal with Boko Haram at the last minute.
The Mail said a Nigerian journalist, Ahmad Salkida – who reportedly fled to the United Arab Emirates last year following threats to his life on account of his closeness to the insurgents – was said to have been appointed by both the government and the extremists to broker an agreement for the release of the girls in exchange for Boko Haram members in detention.
“Sources in Abuja described how Shekau had agreed to bring the girls out of their forest camps in the remote northeast of the country in the early morning and take them to a safe location for the prisoner swap,” the paper wrote.
“They would have been dropped off in a village, one group at a time, and left there while their kidnappers disappeared. There was to be a signal to a mediator at another location to bring in the prisoners.”
The Federal Government was only expected to release 100 “non-combatant, low-level sympathisers” of Boko Haram, rather than commanders and foot soldiers, the newspaper reported.
About 2000 Boko Haram members are said to be in detention. Accused of being a Boko Haram sympathiser, the Borno-born journalist has always insisted he only maintains a “professional relationship” with certain members of the group whom he knew long before it became violent. However, he was reportedly persuaded by the president’s aides to embark on a “secretive and dangerous” trip home to meet Shekau, after the president “personally signed a letter of indemnity” protecting him from arrest by security agents. But while attending the May 17 summit in Paris, France with leaders of four African countries and representatives of the European Union, United Kingdom, and the United States, Jonathan called home to halt the deal, the paper said. The action, it is believed, angered Shekau, raising fears that the girls might now be endangered.
A government official, who pleaded for anonymity, later told The Nation that: “There was no time President Goodluck Jonathan agreed to the swapping of Boko Haram members with the girls. This position has not changed as I am talking to you.”
Nigerians too are divided on whether the government should accept the offer. Some argued that the swap deal would ridicule the government among the comity of nations.
Human rights lawyer Mike Ozekhome (SAN) described the controversy over the swap deal as “nauseating and demeaning of our humanity”.
Ozekhome said: “It is unthinkable that some people would want the lives of these innocent futures of Nigeria to be wasted on the altar of government grandstanding and engagement niceties. There are times when a government stoops to conquer,” he said.
He urged government to negotiate with Boko Haram if that would secure the release of the abducted girls.
“I dare say that the Federal Government should negotiate even with Satan, if that would bring back our girls. Even Satan would be humbled and diminished by such an unprecedented strategy,” Ozekhome said.
Senate President David Mark disagreed, saying government would not negotiate with ‘criminals’.
Mark, an ex-military chief, believes the Federal Government has the resources to deal with insurgency, criminals and those blackmailing it.
A renowned Lagos activist and lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) said the girls should not be exchanged for jailed insurgents.
Falana noted that by law the abducted girls, who were kidnapped from school, are not prisoners of war.
“They are not soldiers of the Nigerian Army, therefore, there is no lawful ground for such a demand,” he said.
But another human rights activist, Shehu Sani, urged the Federal Government to make a ‘swap’ deal with Boko Haram members.
Sani, who has a knowledge of sect’s tactics, said if the Federal Government used force, it would bring tragic consequences.
He told Tnewsmen that negotiations would get the girls out of Boko Haram’s captivity.
“We don’t need the bodies of these innocent girls; we need their bodies and souls. Let us save these girls now by swapping. The Federal Government is in a dilemma. Those in government see that negotiation will make the government to be weak. And if they use force, it may turn tragic with Nigerians blaming them. This is why swapping of the girls is an option the government should consider. By now, we would have forgotten this challenge,” Sani said.
What the super powers have done
While Federal Government still believes that the swap could mean weakness in the battle against the insurgents, it is pertinent to point out that the world super powers have at one time or another employed swapping to rescue their loved ones from war opponents.
Even the United Nations sees prisoner exchange or prisoner swap as a deal between opposing sides in a conflict to release prisoners. These may be prisoners of war, spies, hostages and others. Sometimes dead bodies are involved in an exchange.
Under the Geneva Convention (1929), it is covered by articles 68 to 74, and the Annex. One of the largest exchange programmes was run by the International Red Cross during the Second World War under these terms. Under the Third Geneva Convention of 1949, it is covered by articles 109-117.
According to Wikipedia, during the course of the Arab-Byzantine wars in the medieval period, exchanges of prisoners of war became a regular feature of the relations between the two powers, beginning in the late 8th century and continuing until the mid-10th century.
A truce was arranged beforehand, and both sides met on the river. The exchange was made man for man, as illustrated by al-Tabari in his report of the 845 exchange: “Two bridges were built over the river, one for the prisoners of each side. Each side released one prisoner, who walked across the bridge towards his co-religionists, simultaneously with his counterpart. After the exchange was complete, the surplus prisoners were either ransomed for money or exchanged for slaves.”
Isreali-Arab
Israel exchanged Prisoners of Wars (POWs) with its Arab neighbours, and released about 7,000 Palestinian prisoners to secure freedom for 19 Israelis.
The first exchanges took place after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, when Israel exchanged all its Palestinian prisoners and POWs from Arab armies in exchange for all Israeli soldiers and civilians taken captive during the war.
On December 8, 1954, a five-man Israel Defence Forces (IDF) patrol operating on the Syrian border was abducted by the Syrian Army. One of the soldiers, Uri Ilan, committed suicide while in captivity after being falsely informed by his captors that his fellow soldiers had been killed.
The four surviving POWs and Ilan’s body were returned on March 29, 1956, in exchange for 40 Syrian soldiers captured during various Israeli military operations.
Following the 1956 Suez crisis, Israel exchanged 5,500 Egyptian prisoners captured during the campaign and 77 others who were captured during military operations before the war, in exchange for an Israeli pilot taken prisoner during the war, and three soldiers taken captive in pre-war attacks.
On October 18, 2011, IDF tank gunner Gilad Shalit, captured by the Palestinian organisation Hamas in 2006, was released in exchange for 1027 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
Swap with rebels
The Humanitarian Exchange or Humanitarian Accord (Spanish: Acuerdo Humanitario, Intercambio Humanitario or Canje Humanitario) referred to a possible accord to exchange hostages for prisoners between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group and the Government of Colombia.
Syrian rebels freed 13 nuns and three maids in exchange for 150 women who were held in Syria’s jails early this year.
These were cases between governments and rebels as it is now between the Federal Government and the Boko Haram.
US and Taliban
Even the United States had to engage in Prisoner-Swap to free its soldier, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, from Idaho, held for nearly five years by the Taliban in Afghanistan last Saturday evening. America turned in over five Taliban detainees in Guantanamo to Qatari government custody.
The Taliban detainees were Mohammad Fazl, Mullah Norullah Noori, Mohammed Nabi, Khairullah Khairkhwa and Abdul Haq Wasiq.
They were high-ranking members of the Taliban government toppled by the U.S. in 2001. Fazl was the deputy defence minister. Noori was the governor of Balkh province.
Both parties (U.S. and Taliban) expressed joy seeing their loved ones returned.
The plea from the abducted girls
A heartbreaking new video by The Mail on Sunday showed eight girls, dressed in their home-made school uniforms of pale blue gingham, plead for release in front of the camera. They are clearly scared, upset and trying to be brave.
Four of them can be heard clearly, in their Hausa language, stating that they were taken by force and that they are hungry. A tall girl, aged about 18, said tearfully: “My family will be so worried.”
Another, speaking softly, said: “I never expected to suffer like this in my life.” A third girl said: “They have taken us away by force.” The fourth girl complained: “We are not getting enough food.”
Their parents are sure looking forward to when like the parents of the Bergdahl, they would say they were “joyful and relieved”.
“We cannot wait to wrap our arms around our only son… Five years is a seemingly endless long time, but you’ve made it. … You are free. Freedom is yours. I will see you soon, my beloved son,” Bob Bergdahl said.
Like the Bergdahls, when will Mrs Martha Mark, mother of Monica who is one of the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram, have opportunity to reunite with her daughter and make such emotional remarks?
Culled from The Nation, Photo Credits: AP Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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