Ogoni people's struggle honoured

The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has received the Chico Mendes Award for its defence of the environment in the Niger River delta in Nigeria. The award, named after the murdered Brazilian environmentalist, was presented by the Sierra Club, a leading US environmental organisation.

“MOSOP has inspired a community to oppose irresponsible operations of Royal Dutch Shell, and to fight the corruption of a brutal military dictatorship”, said the Sierra Club's Michael McClosky on September 22.

“More than 2000 Ogoni men, women and children have died in clashes with the military since the environmental group's campaign against Shell's pollution began”, he added.

More than 30 years of oil exploration in Ogoniland has polluted drinking water and caused fish to disappear from the rivers. Crops cannot grow along large stretches of now infertile land, and wildlife has all but disappeared.

Because of oil extraction, the Niger River delta -- home to coastal rainforest and mangrove habitats -- is the most endangered river delta in the world, according to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.

In 1995, the Nigerian government hanged Ken Saro-Wiwa, writer and internationally respected environmentalist and human rights activist, and eight other Ogoni activists. Saro-Wiwa was executed because of his grassroots campaign against the devastation caused by Shell's oil operations.

Another 19 Ogoni leaders are being held on politically motivated murder charges and face the death penalty.

In June, a bill tabled in the US House of Representatives sought US economic sanctions against Nigeria. “Because the US is the largest consumer of Nigerian oil, an embargo would quickly and effectively remove the funding General Sani Abacha's despotic regime uses to silence environmentalists”, the Sierra Club has pointed out.

The call for sanctions has been backed by South African President Nelson Mandela.

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