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In an alarming development, Mr Ilguilas Weila, the President of
Timidria, Niger's pioneering anti-slavery organisation and 2004
Anti-Slavery Award winner, was arrested with five others on Thursday
28 April. He is currently being arbitrarily detained, charged with
"propagating false information on slavery and attempting
to illegally raise funds".
Anti-Slavery International and Global Rights join Timidria and
over 30 local civil society organisations in calling for Ilguilas
Weila and his fellow activists to be immediately and unconditionally
released.
In a statement Timidria "categorically denies the fallacious
charges" brought against Ilguilas Weila. Timdria believes
this is part of a concerted campaign of harassment by the authorities
to muzzle Timidria to prevent its ground breaking work to end slavery
in the country. Timidria calls upon the Mamadou Tandja, Niger's
President, who is also the Chair of ECOWAS, "to guarantee
the respect of fundamental human rights and end the intimidation
and arbitrary arrest of its citizens".
These charges relate to the planned but failed attempt to release
7,000 slaves in Inatès, a remote area on the Niger-Malian
border in early March 2005. In a ceremony announcing slavery to
be a criminal offence, the authorities warned slave masters not
to release their slaves officially, stating that if they do, they
will be subject to up to 30 years in prison. Timidria and others
also reported government intimidation, preventing the slaves attending
the ceremony.
At a subsequent meeting, the government denied the existence of
slavery in Niger, despite at least 43,000 people living in slavery
across the country.
In May 2004, a new law came into effect making practising slavery
punishable by up to 30 years in prison. The Government's move was
in response to the publication of the first national survey of slavery,
which was jointly carried out by Timidria and Anti-Slavery International,
the world's oldest international human rights organisation. The
report established the extent and countrywide existence of slavery,
having interviewed over 11,000 people, of whom most were found to
be in slavery.
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