Ogoni leader sentenced to death

By Norm Dixon Ken Saro-Wiwa, president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), and 14 other opponents of the brutal Nigerian regime was sentenced to death by a military tribunal on October 31. Saro-Wiwa has led the battle against the oil multinational Shell's environmental vandalism of the Niger Delta region in southern Nigeria — home to 500,000 Ogoni people. Nigeria's military rulers have tried to crush the movement for compensation and autonomy. Shell produces 50% of Nigeria's daily oil production. Oil accounts for 95% of the country's foreign earnings. Shell's oil fields have yielded an estimated US$30 billion since 1958, yet the 6 million people who live there remain desperately poor, and the region is environmentally devastated. Saro-Wiwa and 14 other Ogoni leaders were on trial on bogus murder charges relating to the deaths of four people in May last year. They have been denied access to civilian courts, denied legal defence and kept in leg irons. They have no right of appeal. Nigerian opposition, human rights and environmental groups are calling on the international community to help in their campaigns against the Nigerian regime.