Yesterday, on the eve of the Commonwealth Conference, the Nigerian Provisional Ruling Council confirmed the death sentences imposed on the writer and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists. In a move of breathtaking cynicism, the Nigerian authorities have cocked a snook at human rights activists who have condemned both the sentences and the deeply flawed trial. Amnesty International fears that their execution may be imminent.
Ken Saro-Wiwa is well known in the west for his animal fables allegorising political life. As a writer and environmentalist, he has campaigned peacefully against the environmental despoilation of Ogoniland by Shell International, aided by Nigerian Government forces.
At the end of last month a special court found the defendants guilty of murdering four Ogoni leaders and sentenced them to death. There are serious question marks over the conduct of the trial. The defendants were detained incommunicado for at least eight months before being charged and there have been allegations of ill-treatment and torture while in detention. The civil disturbances special tribunal which convicted these men falls outside the Nigerian judicial system, and was specially convened to try the cases of these men, who have long been thorns in the side of General Sani Abacha and his military dictatorship.
The defendants were denied the right to a fair trial and to appeal to a higher court. In effect, they were tried by a kangaroo court in contravention of both Nigerian and international judicial procedures. The Nigerian military junta has acted as judge and jury and — unless increased international pressure is brought to bear — may act as executioner.
The flawed trial of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other defendants, and the subsequent death sentences, are just the latest outrage in a human rights record which has steadily worsened since General Sani Abacha refused to accept the results of democratic elections. There are at least 43 people currently imprisoned in Nigeria after being tried by a special military tribunal headed, ironically, by a member of the military government. They have been accused of complicity in an alleged plot to overthrow the Government in March of this year — a plot whose existence is questioned by many. Also, there have been at least 180 executions since the military regime assumed power.
The Government is well placed to press the European Union to make formal representations to Nigeria calling for the immediate release of Ken Saro-Wiwa and Dr. Barimen Kiobel, the former president of the Nigerian Medical Association, both of whom Amnesty International believes to be prisoners of conscience, and to seek the commutation of the death sentence in all cases where it has been imposed. In the long-term, only sustained pressure by the international community will force Nigeria to clean up its human rights act. The softly-softly approach being adopted by the UK and other member states is unlikely to have any effect on a regime that has consistently defied international opinion.
Economic sanctions may be the only way to exert pressure on the Nigerian authorities. The European Union should impose an immediate arms embargo on the Nigerian regime which is using its military might to repress even its own people. I hope Ireland will play a leading role in the European Union in exerting maximum pressure on the Nigerian authorities and in demanding a review and commutation of the sentences of those on death row.