Wading in an Oil Slick: Human Rights Ten Years After the Death of Ken Saro-Wiwa

Ten years ago on this day, Ken Saro-Wiwa and nine other members of the Ogoni community were hanged by the regime of General Sani Abacha. Maja Daruwala, Director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative asks what progress there has been in institutionalizing human rights in the Commonwealth since his death. Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Malta between 25th and the 27th of November would do well to remember what Ken Saro-Wiwa stood for and prepare to turn their rhetoric into reality.

Today, November 10th, marks ten years since Ken Saro-Wiwa, writer and environmental activist, was killed on the order of General Sani Abacha, the then President of Nigeria. Despite international condemnation, collective hand wringing and the promise of change, ten years on, we still live in a Commonwealth that too readily tolerates human rights abuses from among its own.

In Auckland, in 1995, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting opened to the news that the Nigerian military regime had executed nine members of the Ogoni community, including Ken Saro-Wiwa. The Ogoni people are an ethnic minority living in Nigeria, whose lands have paid rich dividends from oil extraction since the 1950s. Saro-Wiwa had been involved in a non-violent campaign against environmental damage caused by multinational oil companies since, at 17 years old, he began writing letters to newspapers questioning the benefits that the discovery and extraction of oil would bring to the Ogoni people. Since that time, 900 million barrels of oil have been pumped from Ogoni lands and the Ogoni people remain poor and impoverished, even as oil flows through pipes strung across their farms and beside their homes.

In 1990, Saro-Wiwa founded the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). In 1994, following the death of four Ogoni elders who were believed to be sympathetic to the military, he was arrested, held without charge and eventually accused of incitement to murder. Saro-Wiwa denied the charges but was imprisoned for over a year before being found guilty and sentenced to death. His trial was held before a tribunal assembled by the military government, described by then Prime Minister of the UK, John Major, as a ‘fraudulent trial, a bad verdict and an unjust sentence’. In Auckland, the leaders of the Commonwealth condemned Saro-Wiwa’s trial and execution, suspended Nigeria from the Commonwealth, and set about putting into practice its core values of good governance, democracy and the protection of human rights, as contained in the 1991 Commonwealth Harare Declaration. The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, or CMAG, has sprung from this work, and is mandated to investigate serious or ongoing violations of the Harare Principles.

In the ten years since Saro-Wiwa’s death, and the development of this mechanism to monitor adherence to the principles of democracy and human rights in the Commonwealth, some good work has been done. Ministerial missions have, for instance, been sent to Fiji, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, the Solomon Islands and the Gambia. Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Pakistan have all been suspended from the Commonwealth after breaching basic standards of democracy and human rights. However, CMAG, and the Commonwealth, could have, can, and must do much more to protect democracy and human rights among its people. Slow, incremental and hesitant change is no answer for those people who are suffering and vulnerable, but is merely a euphemism for a lack of political will to call an immediate halt to human rights violations. The protection of democracy and human rights is at the heart of the Commonwealth. It is time that we remember this, shout it from our rooftops, and put it into action.

Every two years – in time for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting – the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) produces a report on an issue of human rights concern common across the Commonwealth. This year, in its report entitled ‘Police Accountability: Too Important to Neglect, Too Urgent to Delay’, CHRI has asked governments to take practical steps toward ensuring that human and democratic rights are promoted through better and more accountable policing. Some of the best policing in the world exists in the Commonwealth, and also some of the worst. Too many police forces across the Commonwealth are too often cited for corruption, bias, and poor performance. Too many are cited for human rights violations ranging from excessive violence, abuse of power and discrimination to curbing democratic practices like freedom of speech.

This year, between the 25th and the 27th of November, the Commonwealth Heads of Government will once again meet to talk over the issues facing the Commonwealth, reach common ground, and form policy to direct its member states. Each Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is an opportunity to go beyond rhetoric to reality. However, in the past, too many opportunities to make this happen have been squandered. Ten years on from Saro-Wiwa’s death, and ten years on from a renewed recognition of the importance of democracy and human rights to the countries and people of the Commonwealth, the Commonwealth Heads of Government have an opportunity to turn their words into action. As the Commonwealth Heads of Government prepare to meet in Malta in 2005, and remember the events and words of Auckland a decade ago, they must not be content to take comfort in incremental and gradual change. This is the comfort of the privileged and the curse of the suffering.

Issues related to safety, security and policing are increasingly growing in importance for both governments and individuals, and pose some of the most significant human rights challenges in the Commonwealth. A recognition of this, and a push for police accountability, by the Commonwealth Heads of Government this year would honour the sentiments enshrined in the principles of the Commonwealth and expressed at Auckland in 1995 and would also be a fitting memorial to Ken Saro-Wiwa.

The tenth anniversary of Saro-Wiwa’s death will be marked with remembrances around the world. His final play, ‘On the Death of Ken Saro-Wiwa’, written a few days before his execution, will be read and performed across the globe. In Canada, there will be a celebration of music and readings by writers and musicians. In London the winner of the Living Memorial, an art competition launched to commemorate him, will be announced. It is crucial that as we remember Saro-Wiwa, we also look forward to the future of our Commonwealth, and resolve to work harder to protect democracy and human rights. Saro-Wiwa stood up for the values that, as a Commonwealth, we stand for. We must remember this. And as the Commonwealth Heads of Government prepare to meet in Malta in 2005, and remember the events and words of Auckland a decade ago, they must also remember this, and prepare to turn the rhetoric of ten years into reality.

* Maja Daruwala is the Director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, an independent, international NGO working for the practical realisation of human rights in the countries of the Commonwealth. For more information or to download the Police Accountability report, please visit:

* Please send comments to [email protected]

* For another recent Pambazuka News article about Ken Saro-Wiwa, please visit:
http://www.remembersarowiwa.com/lifeksw.htm

“Saro-Wiwa was born in October 1941, the eldest son of a prominent family in Ogoni, which is today in Rivers State, Nigeria. After leaving university he initially pursued an academic career. During the Biafran war (1967-1970) he was a Civilian Administrator for the Port of Bonny, near Ogoni in the Niger Delta. He went on to be a businessman, novelist and television producer. His long-running satirical TV series ‘Basi & Co’ was purported to be the most watched soap opera in Africa.

Two of his best known works were drawn from his observations and experiences of the Biafran war. His most famous work, ‘Sozaboy: a Novel in Rotten English’, is a harrowing tale of a naive village boy recruited into the army. ‘On a Darkling Plain’, is a diary of his experiences during the war.

Ken Saro-Wiwa was consistently concerned about the treatment of Ogoni within the Nigerian Federation and in 1973 was dismissed from his post as Regional Commissioner for Education in the Rivers State cabinet, for advocating greater Ogoni autonomy. Throughout his work he often made references to the exploitation he saw around him as the oil and gas industry took riches from the beneath the feet of the poor Ogoni farmers, and in return left them polluted and disenfranchised.”

For his full life history, please visit http://www.remembersarowiwa.com/lifeksw.htm

WEBSITES DEDICATED TO SARO-WIWA

http://www.november10th.com/
http://www.kensarowiwa.com/
http://www.remembersarowiwa.com

WEBSITES WITH INFORMATION ABOUT SARO-WIWA
http://www.seen.org/pages/rights.shtml
http://www.mosop.org/
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/70334/
http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/files/CCS_RREPORTS2_REPORT33.pdf

NEWS ABOUT SARO-WIWA
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=255721&area=/insight/insight__africa/
http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/1107-15.htm
http://www.tribune.com.ng/051105/news05.htm

BLOGGERS ON SARO-WIWA

http://yawandmog.wordpress.com/2003/09/28/what-would-have-saved-ken-saro-wiwa/
http://xxcommunicator.blogspot.com/2005/11/ken-saro-wiwa-presente.html
http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks/2005/11/remembering_ken.html