AFP: China thanks Nigeria for "support on human rights"

ABUJA, April 15 (AFP) - China's President Jiang Zemin on Monday thanked Nigeria for defending it against critics of its human rights record and urged stronger cooperation between the two countries. Authorities in both China and Nigeria are regularly criticised by human rights activists for trampling on the rights of their citizens.

A recent report by the New York-based group Human Rights Watch accused the "highest authorities" in Nigeria of being responsible for a massacre of more than 200 unarmed civilians by soldiers in central Nigeria last year and a massacre in southern Nigeria in 1999 in which "up to 2000" people died.

In remarks after a meeting with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, Jiang declared: "We appreciate and feel grateful to Nigeria for the valuable support you have given us on such issues as human rights." He added: "We hope that in the future the two countries will continue to strengthen consultation and coordinate positions in the international arena ... to better safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the developing world."

Nigeria has supported China on several occasions in votes at the United Nations' Commission on Human Rights. "China and Nigeria are both major developing countries and, at present, both are faced with the task of safeguarding national stability and achieving social and economic development," Jiang declared.