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Dozens killed in Miss World riots

Friday, November 22, 2002 Posted: 1:36 PM EST (1836 GMT)

KADUNA, Nigeria -- Dozens have been killed in northern Nigeria in rioting that erupted after a newspaper suggested the Prophet Mohammad would have approved of the Miss World beauty contest.

The death toll in the town of Kaduna was an estimated 105 with a further 521 injured taken to hospital, aid workers said on Friday.
Angry mobs in the mainly-Muslim city 600 kilometres (375 miles) northwest of Lagos burnt Christian churches and rampaged through the streets stabbing, bludgeoning and burning bystanders to death.

Shops were looted, cars were overturned and scorched while makeshift barricades were set alight. Fires also burned in mosques and windows were smashed.

Shehu Sani of the Kaduna-based Civil Rights Congress told The Associated Press he watched a crowd stab a young man, force a petrol-filled tyre around his neck and burn him alive. Sani said he saw three other bodies elsewhere in the city.

Alsa Hassan, founder of another human rights group, Alsa Care, told AP he saw a commuter being dragged out of his car and beaten to death by protesters.

Schools and shops hurriedly closed as hordes of young men, shouting "Allahu Akhbar," or "God is great," ignited makeshift street barricades made of tires and garbage, sending plumes of black smoke rising above the city. Others were heard chanting, "Down with beauty" and "Miss World is sin."

Hundreds of soldiers were sent to the town in an effort to help police restore order and a curfew, imposed on Thursday, was extended to round-the-clock cover on Friday.

Many were ignoring the order and sporadic gunshots and shouting could still be heard by residents cowering in their homes.

Other residents, of all denominations, ran to police stations and military facilities for safety.

"Everyone is here -- Muslims, Christians and pagan," said resident Habiba Ibrahim.

"We are all afraid of going home. Only God knows when this will end."

CNN's Jeff Koinange said the authorities were trying their best but were "overwhelmed" by the scale of the violence.

"People are doing their best but they are overwhelmed," he added. "It is a tough task, it is spread wide."

Other towns, especially in the mainly Muslim north of the country, were tense and on high alert.

"Right now, the military authorities are trying to contain the situation in Kaduna but we cannot rule out the spillover effect of this crisis to other parts of the north," Red Cross spokesman Patrick Bawa told Reuters.

The government of Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has appealed for calm.

Emmanuel Ijewere, in charge of the country's Red Cross, suggested the death toll could rise further, adding: "There are some houses that have not been entered. It is possible that there are injured in these houses."

The riots began after an article in the Lagos-based daily newspaper ThisDay on Wednesday questioned Muslim groups that have condemned the Miss World pageant.

The front-page article said: "What would (the prophet) Muhammad think? In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from among them (the contestants)."

The paper, whose Kaduna offices were burnt, has been forced to print three apologies and faces punishment by authorities. It said the story went out in error, Reuters reported.

The government condemned the article which it says "without doubt exceeded the bounds of responsible journalism by making (a) provocative publication on the Holy Prophet."

Islamic fundamentalist groups had for months warned of protests against the Miss World pageant.

The fundamentalist Nigerian Muslim Umma, an umbrella group of Islamic clerics and scholars, has declared a "serious religious emergency" and issued a statement calling on the government to stop the pageant, Reuters reported.

Organisers have postponed the finale until after the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The contest is due to start in Nigeria on December 7 in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

'Hugely popular'

The pageant has also drawn protests from other parts of the world.

Contestants from five countries -- Costa Rica, Denmark, Switzerland, South Africa and Panama -- are boycotting the event because Islamic courts in Nigeria have sentenced several unmarried women to death by stoning for conceiving babies outside wedlock. Nigeria's government insists none of the judgments will be carried out, although it has refused to intervene directly.
Winner of Miss World in 2000, India's Priyanka Chopra, defended the contest being held in Nigeria, saying it was hugely popular in developing countries.

"People want to see their citizens on an international level," she told CNN.

She added that it was being held in Nigeria because last year's winner had been Miss Nigeria, Agbani Darego.

She said Nigerians had been "excited and elated" at the prospect.

Miss World publicist Stella Din said pageant organisers hoped calm would quickly return to Kaduna.

"We are very, very sad that it has come to this -- even if there is a loss of one life, it makes us sad. We are appealing to all to please exercise restraint," Din told AP.

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