THISDAYonline

The Human Rights Violation and Investigations Commission (HRVIC) has recommended compensations to victims of human rights abuses in Nigeria. Those to benefit include individuals, institutions and governments that suffered any form of abuses "under draconian years of military rule."

These were the high points of the presentation of the interim report of HRVIC to President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday.

The interim report made of eight volumes and described as an "appetiser" yesterday by the chairman of the commission, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa was presented to Obasanjo at the State House, Abuja. Oputa said the main report would be submitted on May 28.

"Compensations may not necessarily be in cash," Oputa said, "but compensating for such abuses would serve as a soothing balm for the achievement of genuine reconcilliation and healing of past wounds."

Oputa said that the commission drew vital lessons from similar commissions in South Africa and had made recommendations on appropriate compensations to victims of human right abuses.

He said that during the assignment, the commission found that some government institutions and individuals were denied their rights because of their belief, noting that such deliberate denials from despotic military dictatorships must be redressed.

"It will be a form of compensation if for instance, government rewarded a community that suffered neglect in the past with a development project," he said.

The chairman, who was accompanied by other members of the commission, said that a detailed report on victims of abuses that needed to be rehabilitated by government, was contained in volume one of the submission.

Oputa said that the commission received 1,750 exhibits and listened to evidence from about 2,000 witnesses, including its members who were allowed time to air their views, during the hearing which lasted for about a year.

Breaking down the report, Oputa explained that volume one establishes the theoritical basis for setting up the commission; volume two alligns the work of the commission with the context of the human rights experience; volume three deals with the public hearing; volume four provides a compendium of research material by the panel on agitations of the various parts of the country and volume five which Oputa considers the most i mportant, deals with findings and recommendations.

In volume six, the issue of rehabilitation and compensation is examined; volume seven contains the summary of everything in the report, capturing the Nigerian experience while volume eight serves as the conclusions.

Oputa said the commission defined compensation 'to mean wider implication including financial but not limited to it."

Responding, Obasanjo commended members of the HRVIC for their sense of duty, noting that the commission's public hearings in particular was intriguing and should spur Nigerians "never again to allow such misdeeds to occur.

"Your public hearing was most intriguing, some people enjoyed it, while some did not find it funny," Obasanjo said, stressing that Nigerians must show remorse for past misdeeds.

On compensations, Obasanjo said that "money is not all the answer," and that Nigerians must resolve never again to repeat the kind of mistakes that were perpetrated by the past military dictatorships.

The HRVIC was constituted by the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration to examine all cases of human rights abuses in Nigeria between 1966 to 1998 especially the long years under despotic military rule and recommend appropriate measures for genuine reconcilliation among aggrieved parties.