Bodies Pour in as Nigeria Hunts for Islamists

A load of corpses arrived at a Nigerian hospital morgue, though three of the corpses started moving after they arrived.  Bodies are deposited on a daily basis, but they are rarely still alive.  These three were finally gunned down by the JTF (military joint task force) once security officials realized these three were not properly shot.  The bodies were those of young men arrested by the Nigerian military during neighborhood sweeps.  Once arrested, they are taken to nearby barracks where they are beaten, starved, and shot according to officials, employees and witnesses. The flood of bodies to the hospital morgue is so consistent that the small morgue has no room.  Bodies are flung around the hospital grounds and residents are fleeing the neighborhood due the smell of rotting flesh.  This action has turned many residents against the military, driving them towards the insurgency. Officials are careful not to offend the Nigerian military, but many are uneasy by the military's tactics.  The bodies arrive daily even when there has been no bombings or battles, suggesting that they were not killed in combat.  They gather suspects and sympathizers of Boko Haram - an Islamist militant group. One hospital worker stated that most of the bodies are coming in from Giwa Barracks, and that they have all died from beatings or bullets.  He stressed that sometimes up to 120 corpses are brought in one day.  A security official added, "The numbers can be outrageous; they bring them in an ambulance, two or three ambulances, loaded.  Most of them are tortured." Sagir Musa, a spokesman for the JTF, has denied any widespread torture and / or killings.  "There cannot be multiple corpses.  We don't torture people." Both the military and Boko Haram have shown any signs on giving up the war, and it seems to have escalated over the past year, and that there has been "a very high increase in the number of corpses."


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/world/africa/body-count-soars-as-nigerian-military-hunts-islamists.html?ref=world