Ken Saro-Wiwa
Rhoda Gilman
This case may be well-known to some of you, but others may not have heard of
it.
Rhoda Gilman
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 31, 1995
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Stephen Mills (202) 675-6691
SIERRA CLUB REBUKES NIGERIAN'S DEATH SENTENCE
Washington, DC... The Sierra Club condemned the death sentence imposed
today on Nigerian environmentalist and writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa, as the vengeful
act of a brutal military dictatorship.
"If Ken Saro-Wiwa is guilty of anything, it is of being an
environmentalist," declared Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club.
"Today's ruling shows just how far a corrupt government will go to placate
the desires of a multinational corporation," he added, "in this case it was
Shell Oil's desire to continue exporting cheap gasoline to U.S. consumers."
"The Sierra Club is calling on President Clinton to demand
unconditional release of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other political prisoners," added
Pope.
Ken Saro-Wiwa is the leader of the Ogoni ethnic minority, and only one
of a number of distinguished human rights and environmental activists on
trial for their lives before a Special Military Tribunal for daring to speak
their minds.
On May 22, 1994 Saro-Wiwa was jailed, along with 15 others, in
connection with the murder of four Ogoni leaders during a mob riot.
Saro-Wiwa, who as been declared a Prisoner of Conscience by Amnesty
International, was held in leg irons, denied access to his family, doctor or
legal counsel for eight months before being charged and brought before a
military appointed Special Civil Disturbances Tribunal in February of 1995.
These arrests followed peaceful Ogoni protests against continued exploitation
and pollution of their land by multinational oil companies in conjunction
with the Nigerian military dictatorship.
"While royalties from oil sales fill the coffers of the Nigerian
government, the rich farmland of Ogoniland has been laid waste by oil spills
and the venting of toxic gases," said Pope. "Meanwhile the Ogoni lack
running water, electricity or adequate schools and healthcare. Resistance
has been met with repression," added Pope. In May 1994, the Nigerian
Internal Security Task Force attacked, and virtually destroyed, over 30 Ogoni
villages, killing more than 100 people and arresting hundreds more.
"Shell Oil has controlled Nigeria's purse strings for many years," said
Stephen Mills, Human Rights and Environment Campaign Director of the Sierra
Club. "It was their documented influence which spurred Saro-Wiwa's arrest,
and their inaction which will allow his death," he continued.
"Nigeria's human rights crisis exacerbates a grievous environmental
situation. Since 1958, Royal Dutch Shell has extracted US $30 billion in oil
from the lands of the Ogoni people. The United States consumes 70 percent of
the oil Nigeria produces.
"Nigeria's human rights and environmental crises can only be solved
together," said Mills. "Without respect for human rights, the Nigerian
government will continue to repress Ogoni demands for justice from Royal
Dutch Shell and other multinational oil companies. At the same time, the
powerful
democratic spirit unleashed in the Ogoni struggle for environmental justice
will contribute mightily to the broad campaign for democracy and human rights
in Nigeria."
****************
1 NOVEMBER 1995
NIGERIA: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNS DEATH SENTENCES IMPOSED ON KEN
SARO-WIWA AND OTHER OGONI DETAINEES AFTER BLATANTLY UNFAIR TRIALS
Amnesty International condemns the death sentences passed on Ogoni minority
rights leader, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and eight others who were found guilty of
murder this week, and is urgently calling on the Nigerian authorities to
commute these
sentences immediately.
"We are appalled that these death sentences were
imposed after politically motivated and unfair trials,"
Amnesty International said today. "At least two of these
people, Ken Saro-Wiwa and Dr Barinem Kiobel, are prisoners
of conscience and as such should be released immediately."
The nine prisoners were sentenced to death by hanging
on 30 and 31 October by a special court that found them
guilty of murder. Ledum Mitee and four other defendants in
the two trials were acquitted.
The defendants were convicted in connection with the
murder of four Ogoni leaders by an angry crowd in May 1994,
for which the leadership of the Movement for the Survival of
the Ogoni People (MOSOP) was pronounced responsible by the
authorities the day after the murders. MOSOP, a non-
governmental organization in Rivers State, southeast Nigeria,
has been targeted by the government in recent years for its
non-violent campaign against environmental damage by oil
companies and for more autonomy for the Ogoni ethnic group.
The defendants were detained incommunicado for at least
eight months before being charged and several were alleged to
have been tortured or ill-treated in military custody. They
were convicted in two trials by a Civil Disturbances Special
Tribunal in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. This court, which
falls outside the normal judicial system, was appointed by
the military government especially to try these cases.
Amnesty International is concerned that the defendants
have been denied the right to a fair trial and have no right
of appeal to a higher or independent court. The trials
contravened Nigerian and international standards for fair
trial to which the Nigerian government is committed. The Tribunal has shown
itself to be neither independent
of government control nor impartial. The Federal Military
Government has controlled every aspect of the case: the
arrests, investigations, prosecution, appointment of the
tribunal and the progress of the trial itself. Two key
prosecution witnesses alleged that they were threatened and
bribed to give false evidence. The defence lawyers withdrew
from the trials in June and July 1995 in protest at continued
bias by the Tribunal in favour of the prosecution.
Amnesty International is calling for the release of Ken
Saro-Wiwa and other prisoners of conscience among the
defendants on the ground that it believes them to have been
imprisoned for their non-violent political activities. The organization is
also calling for the release of all other defendants unless their convictions
and sentences are
to be reviewed by a higher and independent judicial body.
Amnesty International is also urging the release of at
least 17 untried Ogoni detainees imprisoned in connection
with this case unless they are to be charged and tried
promptly and fairly with full rights of defence and without
imposition of the death penalty.
These detainees have been detained incommunicado and
without trial since mid-1994. One such detainee, Clement
Tusima, died in detention in August 1995, apparently after
months of serious illness and medical neglect. In June 1995,
these detainees were transferred from police detention to
prison custody on a "holding charge", but it is not clear
whether they too are to be tried by the Civil Disturbances
Special Tribunal in connection with the same murders.
ENDS\
**************
November 2, 1995
President Bill Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20504
Dear Mr. President:
We wish to make our earnest appeal for the Administration to take a
public stand against the death sentence imposed on Nigerian environmental
activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues.
As leaders of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni
People (MOSOP), these individuals have tirelessly fought for
environmental rights for the people of Ogoniland in the Niger
Delta. The Ogoni people have found themselves at the mercy of
environmental degradation as a result of oil expropriation
activities on their homeland. Although the Ogoni's have waged a peaceful
campaign to highlight such abuses, they have only been met by a repressive
response from the Nigerian military
dictatorship and the Shell Oil Company.
Because of Mr. Saro-Wiwa's participation in the struggle
for the rights of the Ogoni people, he was recently awarded the
Goldman Environmental Prize, and is a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. He
has been recognized and supported internationally for his courageous
struggle.
Mr. Saro-Wiwa was charged with and convicted of a crime
against the very people who he has devoted his life to protecting. Amnesty
International has called Mr. Saro- Wiwa a Prisoner of Conscience. He and his
colleagues were tried by a military appointed Special Tribune with solid ties
to the Abacha government, which breaks the spirit of independent and
impartial judgement as called for by international law.
If the MOSOP leaders are put to death, the forces that
oppose democracy and due process will have won a victory.
Therefore, we urgently call on you, Mr. President, to personally
contact General Abacha to condemn these recent events in Nigeria, to call for
Ken Saro-Wiwa's and his colleagues' immediate and unconditional release, and
to underscore the geo-political repercussions of such an action. As the U.S.
consumes 70% of Nigeria's oil products, we have a responsibility to speak out
strongly and defend the human and environmental rights of Ken Saro-Wiwa and
the Ogoni people.
Sincerely,
Margaret Morgan-Hubbard
Executive Director
Environmental Action Foundation
Fred D. Krupp
Executive Director
Environmental Defense Fund
Brent Blackwelder
President
Greenpeace, USA
John A. Adams
Executive Director
National Wildlife Federation
William W. Howard
Chief Executive Officer
Natural Resources Defense Council
Robert K. Musil
Executive Director
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Hugo Hoogenboom
President
Population Action International
Randall Hayes
President
Rainforest Action Network
Carl Pope
Executive Director
Sierra Club
Victor M. Sher
President
Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund
Jon Roush
President
Wilderness Society