Mandela asked to help Nigerians

Mandela asked to help Nigerians

Earthlife Africa, at the request of the pro-democracy movement in Nigeria, is urging South African President Nelson Mandela to make representations to the Nigerian government for the release of Ken Saro-Wiwa.

Along with many other Nigerian human rights activists, Saro-Wiwa has been imprisoned and tortured for the last three months. Most recent reports confirm that he is about to enter the third week of a hunger strike in an attempt to force the government to release him and his comrades.

Saro-Wiwa's detention without trial stems from his work for the rights of the Ogoni people in the face of the social and ecological devastation which has been wrought upon them by the combined forces of the country's dictatorship and foreign multinational companies such as Shell.

From GLW issue 162