NIGER: Leading anti-slavery activist imprisoned

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

NIAMEY, 5 May 2005 (IRIN) - Niger's leading anti-slavery campaigner, Ilguilas Weila, has been put in a civilian prison, a member of his family announced on Thursday.

Judicial sources said Weila and five of his colleagues had been accused of "propagating false information on slavery and attempting to raise funds illegally" by seeking money from London-based aid group Anti-Slavery International for the rehabilitation of thousands of slaves due to be released in March.

Weila, the head of prominent anti-slavery organisation Timidria, was arrested with his colleagues last week. They were held at a police station in the Niger capital Niamey until Wednesday when four were released. Weila and one colleague were transferred to prison.

"We condemn the Niger Government's treatment of Ilguilas Weila and demand his immediate and unconditional release," Mary Cunneen, the director of Anti-Slavery International, in a statement.

"Slavery is a significant problem in Niger and we call on the government to work in cooperation with Timidria to achieve an end to this abuse," she said.

Rights groups estimate that there are at least 43,000 people enslaved in Niger, a landlocked West African country with a population of 12 million and rated as the second poorest country in the world by the UN.

Slaves, who are generally inherited but can also be given as gifts, are made to undertake all kinds of menial work for their masters without pay. A child born of a slave mother automatically enters the slave cast, even if he or she is fathered by the slave owner.

Anti-Slavery International have been working with Timidria to fight the practice, and in 2004 after years of lobbying, the government made slavery a crime punishable by a 30-year jail term.

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