Shell/Nigeria: Intl. day of action & rememberence Ken Saro-Wiwa

by Kevin Mannerings Tue Oct 11, 2005 11:48 kevin.mannerings at vr-web dot de

On Tuesday 4.Oct, Kevin Myers wrote the following in the Irish Times:

"Moreover, the very name "Shell" seems to cause reason to fly out of the window. Shell corrupts governments all over the world, Shell poisons democracy, Shell buys politicians, and judicially executes those it cannot buy, most famously such as Ken Saro Wiwa - or so Conchaphobes would have you believe. Yet Wiwa was executed not for his opposition to Shell operations in Nigeria, but for his part in the brutal murder of rival Ogoni elders.

And though Shell actually tried to stop the execution..."

When it comes to putting a spin on things, Myers is up there with the best. What is the truth of the allegation he makes against Ken Saro-Wiwa?

by wikipedia Tue Oct 11, 2005 11:59

Wikipedia is not always the best for the final say on controversial matters, but it is a good start for getting basic info....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Saro-Wiwa

"In May 1994, he was arrested and accused of incitement to murder following the deaths of four Ogoni elders, believed to be sympathetic to the military. Saro-Wiwa denied the charges, but was imprisoned for over a year before being found guilty and sentenced to death by a specially convened tribunal. The trial was widely criticised by human rights organisations."

Kevin Myers said:

"Yet Wiwa was executed not for his opposition to Shell operations in Nigeria, but for his part in the brutal murder of rival Ogoni elders."

funny how Kevin Myers seems to a) believe that the 'specially convened tribunal' was a fair and just one, but offers no evidence of such, nor does he offer much background of how fair trials generally are in that McDowell Paradise of Nigeria. and b) Wikipedia says he was charged with the 'incitement to murder' where as Kevin Myers leads the reader to think Saro-Wiwa was involved directly in those murders.

Kevin Myers has some explaining to do or else it seems he's just rewriting Shell Oil talking points - nothing surprising about that

by DV8 Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:01

In January 1993, MOSOP organised peaceful marches of around 300,000 Ogoni people - more than half of the Ogoni population - through four Ogoni centres, drawing international attention to his people's plight. The same year, Shell ceased operations in the Ogoni region.

Saro-Wiwa was arrested again and detained by Nigerian authorities in June 1993, but was released after a month. In May 1994, he was arrested and accused of incitement to murder following the deaths of four Ogoni elders, believed to be sympathetic to the military. Saro-Wiwa denied the charges, but was imprisoned for over a year before being found guilty and sentenced to death by a specially convened tribunal. The trial was widely criticised by human rights organisations.

On November 10, 1995, Saro-Wiwa and eight other MOSOP leaders were executed (hanged) by the Nigerian military government of General Sani Abacha, provoking the immediate suspension of Nigeria from the Commonwealth of Nations, which was meeting in New Zealand at the time.

A biography, In the Shadow of a Saint, was written by his son, journalist Ken Wiwa. Ken Saro-Wiwa's daugher Zina Saro-Wiwa is a filmmaker and arts journalist.

by Kevin Mannerings Tue Oct 11, 2005 13:38 kevin.mannerings at vr-web dot de

There is a thorough documentation of the case here: http://www.remembersarowiwa.com/pdfs/Life_death_KSW.pdf.

The then British Prime Minister, one John Major, had this to say about the case,"a fraudulent trial, a bad verdict, an unjust sentence. It has now been followed by judicial murder." There is a wealth of evidence presented from dependable sources to support this view.

Two prosecution witnesses signed affidavits claiming that they had been bribed, apparently by Shell, to incriminate Ken Saro-Wiwa.

I cannot find any evidence that Ken Saro-Wiwa "took part" in any killings, on the contrary, he was widely recognised as a prisoner of conscience, a journalist devoted to non-violence, but perhaps The Irish Times can provide something to back up the views it has published. After all, the editor of that paper has assured readers she regards Kevin Myers as a good journalist.

by andy Mon Oct 24, 2005 00:33

Shell and Haliburton engage in Nigerian Oil Corruption

At the heart of the matter is a $6 billion gas liquification factory built in Nigeria on behalf of oil mammoth Shell by Halliburton--the company Cheney headed before becoming Vice President--in partnership with a large French petroengineering company, Technip. Nigeria has been rated by the anticorruption watchdog Transparency International as the second-most corrupt country in the world, surpassed only by Bangladesh.

The Paris daily Le Figaro front-paged the news that Judge van Ruymbeke had notified the Justice Ministry that Cheney might be among those eventually indicted as a result of his investigation.

According to accounts in the French press, Judge van Ruymbeke believes that some or all of $180 million in so-called secret "retrocommissions" paid by Halliburton and Technip were, in fact, bribes given to Nigerian officials and others to grease the wheels for the refinery's construction.


Judge van Ruymbeke's authority for his transnational investigation comes from a law France passed in 2000 against "bribing foreign officials," following its ratification of a convention adopted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development prohibiting bribe-giving in the course of commercial transactions.