The military regime in Nigeria hanged Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other men November 10. The nine, members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), said they had been framed up for their opposition to the dictatorship and to the pollution of their region by Shell Oil, which produces half of Nigeria's crude oil. A court had convicted them of the murder of four Ogoni politicians just 10 days earlier.
The executions sparked worldwide outrage at the regime of Gen. Sani Abacha. Human rights activists accused Shell Oil of using its influence to slander Saro-Wiwa, contributing to his arrest and execution.
Washington, London, and other governments reacted by withdrawing their ambassadors and issuing protests. Some governments and organizations have called for punitive measures, ranging from trade sanctions to lesser actions.
At their meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, the British Commonwealth governments voted to suspend Nigeria from the organization.
South African president Nelson Mandela, who attended the Auckland
meeting, called on the organization to expel Nigeria pending the
installation of a democratic government.
The South African
government subsequently recalled its ambassador from the country.
Most governments in the European Union and the United States pulled their envoys out of Nigeria. UK prime minister John Major announced that London would tighten an existing arms embargo and would not rule out other sanctions, including on oil.
Shell sticks with Nigerian military At the same time, nearly all the multinational corporations with investments in Nigeria, including the most prominent, Royal Dutch Shell, have announced that they have no plans to pull operations out of the country.
In many European and other countries, picket lines have been organized at Shell corporate offices demanding the company pull out of Nigeria.
The Nigerian government has defended the killings and denounced the international criticism of its actions. On November 13, Idris Kpaki, the Nigerian foreign minister, directed the country's ambassadors to return home. The government insisted that the executed activists were convicted solely for murder.
Saro-Wiwa and the others were given scant opportunity to appeal the October 31 convictions. The nine were hanged in Port Harcourt in the Niger River delta, and promptly buried in a cemetery in the town, which has since been sealed off by the police.
MOSOP had been formed to press for the rights of the Ogoni people, one of the national minorities who live the Niger delta region. Some 2 million barrels of oil a day are produced in that area by six major companies in joint ventures with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. The Ogoni people are among the most exploited and face poor living conditions.
The delta region is underdeveloped and exposed to significant pollution by the oil companies. Many the delta's 6 million people lack power, clean water, roads, and other basic amenities.
Meanwhile the oil companies, as they suck huge amounts of wealth from the ground and from the labor of Nigerian workers, burn unprofitable gases in the atmosphere. Spills and pipeline leaks make the water dangerous for residents. Earlier this year, a fire in a creek near Nembe burned for several days. Villagers complained that vegetation was destroyed and no fish were left in the creek, their main source of livelihood.
In recent years MOSOP became one of the most prominent organizations fighting for better conditions. The organization pressed demands for compensation from Royal Dutch Shell and the Nigerian government for environmental damage and community neglect.
Abacha, who took control of the government shortly after the military annulled the June 1993 elections, organized an aggressive campaign against the Ogonis. This included launching a series of raids on villages beginning in August 1993, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds.
In May 1994 four traditional Ogoni leaders who sought dialogue with the government and did not favor MOSOP's militancy were murdered. The government claimed that Saro- Wiwa and other MOSOP leaders organized the killings. The MOSOP leaders were tried and convicted before a civil disturbances tribunal. But witnesses said the trial was a mockery of justice, since government officials had announced the defendants' guilt before the tribunal was convened.
Critics of the military regime accuse Shell of complicity in the arrest and execution of Saro-Wiwa. They say the oil company, concerned about growing protests by Ogonis against its polluting plants, fingered the activist to the cops, who have a history of brutalizing anti-Shell demonstrators.
In a front-page feature titled Did Shell Oil help execute Ken
Saro-Wiwa?
the November 21 issue of the New York Village Voice
reports that affidavits signed by two key prosecution witnesses
against Saro-Wiwa state that Shell offered them bribes to testify
against the activist.
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