Niger
Niger returns to tranquillity after mutiny

afrol News, 11 August - Tranquillity and normalcy is returning to Niger after a ten-day military mutiny was crushed by forces loyal to the government on Friday. Local civil rights groups now appeal to the government not to try the rebelling soldiers by court martial. The political opposition agrees and says the government was the sole responsible behind the mutiny. 

Troops from three garrisons in the Diffa region in south-eastern Niger rebelled on 30 July, protesting low salaries and improper working conditions. On 3 August, loyal government troops recaptured the army barracks in Diffa town, but the mutiny had already spread, threatening the capital - Niamey - by 5 August. Little by little, however, loyal troops gained the upper hand and finally took the last camp held by mutineers - Ngourti in the far south-east - on Friday. 

Niger's Defence Ministry on Friday announced the military mission had "been able to achieve the restoration of order and discipline in all the barracks." 217 mutineers had been arrested during the mission, while another estimated 72 mutineers were able to flee into neighbouring Nigeria and Chad. The entire country has been calm during the weekend. 

The military situation being tranquillised, the storm is now turning political. Nigerien President, Mamadou Tandja, quickly announced "exemplary action" would be taken against those who had participated in the uprising. Niger's ruling party, the Mouvement National pour la Société de Développement (MNSD), even demanded the rebelling soldiers should be tried by court martial.

The country's political leadership reacted to the great damage made by the mutineers. The mutiny had jeopardised the fragile political stability and democratisation process experienced in the world's second poorest country, the government holds. President Tandja said the mutineers could have pushed Niger back into civil war and that they severely were undermining the country's international credibility. 

Local and international rights groups have however reacted to the government's handling of the mutiny and to the plans of trying the mutineers by court martial. Basic democratic rights had been infringed already during the mutiny, civil rights groups claim. 

On 5 August, President Tandja issued a decree banning "the propagation by any communication media of information or allegations that could jeopardise national defence operations". Any news media violating the measures would be suspended, closed or have its equipment confiscated, the decree said. The international media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) urged Tandja to repeal the decree, which "could threaten freedom of expression."

After the crush of the rebellion, the Nigerien human rights umbrella body Collectif des organisations de Defense des Droits de l'Homme au Niger (CODH) expressed its concern, more basic rights could be suspended as a reaction to the mutiny. 

CODH said it was "angered and scandalised" by the proposal to impose martial law, which it said was "reminiscent of an uncivilised state," according to a statement issued on 8 August. CODH said the government instead should set up an independent commission of inquiry to clarify the events surrounding the mutiny and called the international community "to mobilise so as to thwart the return to dictatorship in Niger."

Also the parliamentary opposition is "scandalised" by the way the mutiny was handled. The oppositional coalition, Coordination des Forces Démocratiques (CFD), today says the government only can blame itself for the mutiny among underpaid government troops. Soldiers are only paid about US$ 35 a month and salaries are several months overdue. 

The soldiers' miserable living conditions were however not the real reason behind the mutiny, the CFD coalition concludes; it was rather the "noxious environment" created in the army by interwoven relation between "a part of the army and certain political communities". This was in turn creating "corruption, favouritism, exclusion, non-independence of the judiciary and the wasting of the country's sparse resources," CFD holds. 

This situation was the background for the continuous "factor of instability" produced by the army. Niger's history presents an endless list of military mutinies and coups since independence in 1960. President Tandja himself came to power after a bloody coup d'état in March 1999 that prepared for elections in December in the same year. Since the election of Tandja, the military had however been defined to its barracks. 

The CFD opposition is supported by Nigerien civil rights groups in its demands to abstain from imposing martial law. The mutineers - which also were condemned by the opposition - should rather face an ordinary trial. The government should start a much needed reform of the military institution to assure future stability, civil rights groups and the opposition agree. 

Sources: Based on Nigerien govt, rights groups, press and afrol archives

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