[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 167 (Tuesday, November 10, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S7909]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF KEN SARO-WIWA

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, today marks a dark milestone on the 
long road to environmental justice. Twenty years ago, Nigerian 
environmental and human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged, along 
with eight fellow defendants, following an internationally denounced 
military tribunal.
  Saro-Wiwa was a well-known author and television producer in his 
native Nigeria before he chose to devote himself full time to the 
causes of the Ogoni, a minority ethnic group of about 500,000 farmers 
and fishermen who hail from the Niger Delta. As president of the 
Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People--MOSOP--he fought against the 
exploitation of Ogoni lands and the Ogoni people themselves by the oil 
drilling operations of Royal Dutch Shell.
  As the oil industry grew to represent the main source of revenue for 
the Nigerian Government, the delta landscape was ravaged by oil spills 
and acid rain. Fertile farmland turned to oil-soaked wasteland. The 
region's fish and wildlife were wiped out--along with the livelihood of 
the Ogoni. Out of the entire 5,000-person workforce employed by Shell 
in Nigeria, less than 100 were Ogoni.
  Under Ken Saro-Wiwa's leadership, MOSOP organized hundreds of 
thousands of Ogoni to demand environmental remediation, compensation 
for past damages, and a share in oil revenues. The regime of dictator 
General Sani Abacha responded with a brutal campaign of occupation, 
mass arrest, rape, execution, and the burning of Ogoni villages. In May 
1994, Saro-Wiwa was abducted from his home and brought up on charges in 
connection with the murder of four Ogoni leaders. He was tried and 
convicted by a military tribunal that governments and human rights 
organizations worldwide condemned as fraudulent.
  On November 10, 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa was put to death.
  ``The only crime he and his colleagues had committed,'' reads Saro-
Wiwa's citation for the prestigious Godman Environmental Prize, ``was 
to demand sound environmental practices and to ask for compensation for 
the devastation of Ogoni territories.''
  A human rights lawsuit brought by Saro-Wiwa's son and other victims' 
families in U.S. Federal court alleged that Shell bribed at least two 
witnesses in the 1995 tribunal and that Shell's manager in Nigeria 
offered Saro-Wiwa's brother, another jailed activist, release from 
captivity in exchange for abandoning the movement. That suit was 
settled by Shell for $15.5 million, just days before going to trial in 
2009, following a protracted legal battle.
  The Ogoni cause has been taken up by other Ogoni, both within Nigeria 
and living in exile, including Saro-Wiwa's sons. The struggle and death 
of Ken Saro-Wiwa serve as a lasting inspiration to people of all 
nations who seek relief from corporate abuse, government corruption, 
and environmental ruin. We will remember his noble fight for the basic 
right of a people to live in harmony with the Earth.

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