A more murderous harvest
LETTERS
From : W. C. I. G. Birch, George Knapp, Kenneth Al/sop, G. M. Lee, Kenneth Hayes, Commander Robin Bottsfield, RN, A. Danielian, T. P. Walters, the Rev Canon T. G. Platten, Irene Crawford, Gordon Evans, Leslie Pahnier; Dr L. Schwartz, John Francis.
Sir : The final answer to Mr Robert Horton's contention (21 June) that the minority peoples in Biafra hate the Ibos has been proposed on many occasions by the Biafran administration, namely a plebiscite under the protection of an international force. The refusal of the Lagos government to countenance such a recourse to the ultimate democratic process suggests it does not share Mr Horton's confidence that the majority of nbn-Ibos are hostile to the Biafran government.
The problem of friction between the various ethnic groups in the old Eastern Region of Nigeria was effectively dealt with by the Eastern government in August 1966 when the Provincial Administration Edict was drawn up by Dr Okoi Arikpo, Nigeria's present Com- missioner for External Affairs. As a result of Dr Arikpo's excellent work at that time the support which Colonel Ojukwu's government has received from the non-Ibo speaking peoples of Biafra has been impressive to all those who, unlike Mr Horton, have been privileged to see Biafrans fighting for their very lives. When Colonel Ojukwu recently went into Lenten re- treat he left the reins of government in the hands of a 'minorities' man, Major-General Philip Effiong; the head of the Biafran civil service. Mr N. U. Akpan, is a minorities man; the mandate to Ojukwu to proclaim the sovereign Republic of Biafra was moved by Dr Eyo Ita, a 'minorities' man; the holders of five out of eleven portfolios in the Biafran govern- ment are distinguished 'minorities' men. I have personally interviewed Biafrans from non-Ibo speaking areas in refugee camps and in hos- pitals (both civilians and soldiers) from all levels of society and I did not come across one who did not identify himself with Biafra.
There have been many indications that the Lagos government is puzzled in the extreme by the way in which the minorities have rallied to the Biafran flag. Early in the war Hassan Katsina, Chief of Staff of the Nigerian army, was quoted as complaining about 'security' in Ogoja, the first minorities area of Biafra to be invaded, and that the people there had been 'brain-washed' by Radio Biafra. Persistent reports of the press-ganging of minorities peoples into the Federal Nigerian Army are confirmed by Mr Horton, although less cre- dence may be given to his suggestion that they
make enthusiastic soldiers than to John Rid- ley's report in Monday's Daily Telegraph (24
June) that the 'desertion of these villagers is increasing at an alarming rate.' Mr Ridley describes how two deserters were 'handcuffed and their heads shaved. They are to be put on display and publicly flogged in eery town on their way to Lagos as a deterrent to other would-be deserters.'
The Federal military goverment clearly has no intention of permitting any plebiscite to
take place either in Biafra or in Nigeria. It is a
government which derives its 'legitimacy' from an army mutiny on 29 July 1966, when virtually all servicemen of East Nigerian (Biaf ran) origin were killed, incarcerated or driven from their
barracks in Northern and Western Nigeria. It is now estimated that 380 officers and men were
murdwed in the process; 214 of them were identified by number, rank and name as long ago as March 1967 and the list includes many soldiers from the East, Mid-West and West, apart from those of Ibo ethnic origin. It is a government, furthermore, which has persistently refused to accept the loose association of autonomous regions with a weak central government which was the only way that Nigeria could have been kept together by con- sent and which forced East Nigeria to secede by arbitrarily imposing by decree a twelve state structure necessitating a powerful central government. It has now for twelve months been trying to bludgeon Biafra into submitting to this constitution with the enthusiastic political and military, support of Her Majesty's Govern- ment. Rather than submit, a hundred thousand Biafrans have died and millions are likely to starve to death.
Meanwhile, Mr Horton reflects the night- marish sense of unreality which observers have noted amongst many people in Lagos and Ibadan, untouched by the genocide which is being committed in their name a few hundred miles way, ignorant even of their own casualty lists, and sustained in their nefarious policy by the British Government.
W.C.1.G.Birch Lecturer in Constitutional Law, Holborn Col- lege of Law, Languages and Commerce, Red Lion Square, London WC1
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