Reign of terror in Ogoniland
By Norm Dixon
The Nigerian military dictatorship has dramatically escalated its brutality in Ogoniland in the west African country's Niger River delta. The region remains under military occupation.
The crackdown began to prevent annual "Ogoni Day" demonstrations on January 4. Ogoni Day has been marked since 1993 when more than 300,000 Ogoni people were mobilised by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) to protest the environmentally devastating operations of the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell and its collaboration with the military regime.
During the crackdown, more than 50 Ogoni activists, human rights workers and journalists have been detained without charge. Dozens of villages have been raided and looted, and the homes of prominent activists vandalised by the occupying Rivers State Internal Security Task Force (RVISTF).
MOSOP charges that since the crackdown began "the occupying RVISTF has been carrying out a deliberate and systematic terror campaign against perceived MOSOP activists and ordinary Ogoni protesters alike. Arrests and detention without charge, beatings, acts of torture, rape, theft, vandalism against places of worship and armed assaults on peaceful Ogoni demonstrators have been carried out in order to intimidate the Ogoni people and quell legitimate acts of protest."
MOSOP has expressed serious concern for Batom Mitee, the younger brother of MOSOP acting president Ledum Mitee. Witnesses reported that Batom has been tortured and denied food, water and medical attention. He may be close to death.
Ledum Mitee, based in London, declared: "By these unprovoked acts of violence, the dictatorship has once again demonstrated to the world that it must resort to acts of terrorism to suppress our freedom campaign.
"This is not only meant as a warning to the Ogoni people. It is a warning to our compatriots in the Niger Delta and throughout Nigeria — minority peoples enduring the same iniquities we suffer at the hands of international oil companies such as Shell, acting in collusion with the military.
"The warning to Nigerian democrats everywhere is: 'In Nigeria, it is cheaper to bury the environmentalists and democrats than the oil pipelines. Civilised values, civil society and international standards of human rights and good government have no place in our Nigeria. Stay quiet.'."
MOSOP is calling on its supporters throughout the world to demand the Nigerian regime allow the United Nations' special rapporteur for human rights immediate access to Ogoniland to investigate these crimes.
The US State Department has reportedly urged the Nigerian regime to ensure "humane treatment and the right to due process of law for the detainees". In response, the Sierra Club, a major US environmental group, called on Washington to impose oil sanctions. "Because the US is the largest consumer of Nigerian oil, an embargo would quickly and effectively remove the funding from General Sani Abacha's regime", said Michael McClosky, the group's chairperson.
MOSOP has also called on Shell to act. "The time for fine sounding words and statements of principle is over. MOSOP calls for a public intervention by Shell to secure the release of all the Ogoni detainees and to openly call for the end of the military occupation of Ogoni.
"We remember the last words of our late president Ken Saro-Wiwa: 'Lord take my soul, but the struggle continues.' Our struggle for Ogoni survival, for a new Nigeria, continues undaunted."