TRIBAL LEADER

The Iju leader died on the battlefields and his followers were plunged into despondency, but in 1970, when the Biafran War ended, the torch of protest against the actions of oil companies in the Niger Delta was passed to the leaders of the Ogoni tribe, which was soon to become known to the whole world.

The territory inhabited by the members of this tribe was very modest in size in comparison with the vast areas occupied by many other tribes in Nigeria, amounting to little more than 400 square miles with a population of about 500 thousand people. Ogoniland is located in the southeast of the Niger Delta, east of Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State and the largest city in the region. Since Shell began operating in Ogoniland, the company has managed to produce 634 million barrels of oil there, with a total value of about $30 billion. This is a huge sum from any point of view, but the prolonged suffering of the Ogoni people did not result in material reward for them. Instead, much of their previously fertile land was contaminated by crude oil, depriving the locals of their last source of food. Health care and education remained rudimentary here, with only a lucky few able to access basic services such as running water and electricity.

Although, under the leadership of constantly changing civilian and military governments (of the first forty years of Nigeria's independence from Britain, the military was in power for thirty of them), the state's share in the distribution of oil revenues increased from an initial 1.5% to 13%, The Ogoni were left on financial starvation and could not even dream of gaining access to public services or implementing development projects in the region. In short, neither government was going to honor the profit-sharing agreements. To be fair, it should be said that Shell, in turn, recognized these agreements, but, alas, did nothing to ensure that they were observed by all contracting parties. It was much more profitable for the company to be friends with the current government, since only it could protect its assets during civil unrest.

By 1970, Ogoni leaders were so alarmed by the rapidly deteriorating state of the oil-polluted lands and the extreme poverty of their tribesmen, while local resources made others fabulously rich, that they wrote a joint letter to the military governor of the River State, which, in part, said :

Would Your Excellency please give your fatherly attention and sympathetic consideration to the grievances of your people, whose suffering is a direct result of the discovery and exploitation of oil and gas fields in our region over the past decades.

The long letter was a request for a more equitable share of the revenue from oil pumped from the land on which the tribe lived to fund the tribe's needs. It also proposed requiring Shell to take immediate action to clean up the contamination and, taking into account the future of the region's environment, to address the causes of the contamination. It was a plaintive cry from the soul, to which the military governor of the River State did not bother to answer. However, the tribal elders at that time did not yet know what impression their letter made on the young man who served as a member of the educational commission in the River State. His name was Ken Saro-Wiwa.

The Ogoni, although a small people in a region inhabited by huge tribes, never lacked courage and courage. These natural qualities of their character had already caused a lot of problems for the British when in 1914 they had to send a military mission to subjugate the tribe to their rule. The events of that year acquired special significance for the country: it was then that Nigeria, being a colony, nevertheless received the makings of a sovereign nation.

According to the testimony of people from the Ogoni tribe, Ken Saro-Wiwa was short and did not have a strong figure, but had excellent oratorical abilities combined with enormous intellect. In addition, he was given strength by the love of a growing number of followers, who saw in this man a fiery fighter against a helpless government mired in corruption and an omnipotent business, which, in the pursuit of profit, continued to rape the land of their ancestors, increasing the scale of pollution with impunity.

From Shell's point of view, Saro-Wiwa was a troublemaker - a man whose actions were driven by a desire to gain political authority, who was not shy about exploiting the problems of the Ogoni tribe for his own personal gain. In fact, he was a civil servant, but, in addition, he was also a writer, journalist and political activist who managed to attract everyone's attention to the problems of his country; Ultimately, his tragic fate was reflected in newspaper headlines in the world press.

Saro-Wiwa never doubted that his people's problems began in 1914, when Nigeria fell into the close embrace of Britain. In his political biography “A Month and a Day: A Prisoner’s Diary” (A Month and a Day: A Detention Diary) he formulated an indictment of British administrative measures applied to the Ogoni people: “We were crushed by foreign administrative structures and driven into internal colonialism in Nigeria.”

Despite the fact that this comment appears to be an ordinary statement of an African nationalist, it contains a completely fair condemnation of the practice of division and unification of tribes used by European colonists for their administrative purposes. However, ignoring the fact that the troubles of the Ogoni tribe began long before the arrival of the British is a sin against the truth. Even before the avalanche of imperialism hit the shores of West Africa, the outlawing of slavery led to clashes among local populations over land suitable for cultivation. It was the shortage of fertile land that forced the tribe to undertake a risky resettlement deep into the forests of the Delta. The main method of land clearing relied on the old African practice of "burning"; As a result of its use, the thin layer of soil on which it was still possible to grow something became unstable, and during the rainy season it was often simply washed away, revealing sandy soil, unsuitable for growing grain crops.

This ineffective technology was used here into the 20th century until its arrival in the country in the early 1950s. Shell employees. They greatly accelerated the degradation of local lands by creating terminals, pumping stations, pipelines and factories that too often released toxic substances, ultimately polluting local lands and streams. On top of the environmental misfortunes came economic distress, as local tribes were effectively excluded from participating in the division of the wealth extracted from their land.

The Ogoni, well aware that they were victims of an unholy alliance between a corrupt government located in distant Lagos and a multinational company that was shamelessly and calmly engaged in plundering their mineral resources, were looking for a leader who could make the protesting voice of their tribe finally heard . In Ken Saro-Wiwa they saw just such a person, a leader who was ready to start the fight.

A campaign initiated by Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1990 on behalf of a hitherto unknown national minority, and brought to the international level by this small, outwardly weak man (he was just over 5 feet tall if he was wearing boots) resembled the fight between David and Goliath.

However, he was able to attract such serious attention from the international community that just a few weeks after he founded the Movement for the Survuval of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), presidents, prime ministers and others learned about this movement and personally about Saro-Wiwa. ministers, crowned heads of Europe and a myriad of organizations dedicated to protecting the global environment.

But, despite the fact that the problems of the Ogoni were hotly discussed all over the world, nothing changed in Nigeria, and the representatives of the tribe still remained deprived of the distribution of profits brought by the oil pumped out and polluting their lands. Saro-Wiwa persevered in his struggle, and in 1990, the same year MOSOP was founded, his book On the Dark Ground (On a DarklingPlain) was published in the Nigerian capital, Lagos.

With this book, Saro-Wiwa has significantly expanded the scope of his fight for Ogoni rights against a government that refuses to implement agreements that provide for the distribution of at least some share of the income from the export of oil produced on their land to the tribe, and against Shell, which continues to cause irreparable damage to the lands on which they live his people. He challenged the Nigerian establishment, questioning the legitimacy of the country's founding and governance, and raising questions about national leaders' condonation of environmental damage caused to Nigeria by multinational companies.

This was a very effective challenge to the very essence of globalization processes, which found responses throughout the world. Addressing the difficulties that accompanied the formation of the Nigerian state, which, in his opinion, determined further inept management of national issues and large-scale corruption that engulfed all levels of government (“Corruption in Nigeria is so widespread for the reason that here it is one of the easiest things to do "), Saro-Wiwa informed his audience:

The existence of a country in the form of a federation, in which some ethnic groups are separated by administrative boundaries, while others are artificially united into a single administrative entity, creates the preconditions for future internal conflicts and wars.

But now Saro-Wiwa was especially outraged by the deprivation of the Ogoni people's legal property rights and the destructive impact on their lands of all oil companies, and Shell in particular:

An inequitable system of income distribution, consistently discriminatory policies by successive federal authorities, and the insensitivity of the Nigerian elite to the needs of citizens have turned the Niger Delta and its environs into an environmental disaster zone and brutalized its inhabitants...

If Ken Saro-Wiwa's book alarmed the military and enraged Shell management, then after writing just one article he had very serious enemies at the highest levels of government. This article written by him for a Nigerian newspaper Sunday Times in June 1990, contained accusations of corruption against the military governors of two states of the country, and as a result of pressure exerted on the owners of the newspaper, it was decided not to publish it. This decision angered Saro-Wiwa, but he could not do anything about it. In his latest article in Sunday Times, which he called “Premonition of War in the Delta,” he lashed out at his old enemy, Shell, and poured out all his anger on it. The article appeared in the first edition, but at official request it was removed from the final version of the issue.

“The Ogoni people,” he wrote, “come face to face with Shell, which pursues a ruthlessly racist policy, developing and encouraging Nigerian ethnocentrism through its actions.” He then made an appeal to the country's military leaders:

The fees paid to landowners for the right to develop oil on their territory and the revenue distribution schemes should be reviewed. Citizens living in oil-bearing areas should be represented on the boards of directors of oil companies conducting exploration on their lands, and national associations should own some share of the shares of oil companies operating on their territory. Finally, the people of the Niger Delta must be allowed to participate in the profitable sale of crude oil. Only this way Can avoid the disaster that is brewing here.

Such a loud call ended with a plaintive cry: “Can anyone even hear me?”

This was the last article Saro-Wiwa was allowed to publish by outraged military officials and oil company executives, but subsequent events proved that people listened to more than just their official leaders. Conservative Ogoni leaders were prepared to publicly declare that some action should be taken to calm the growing public unrest. This was a significant boost to the movement to which Saro-Wiwa was now completely committed.

On August 26, 1990, local leaders met in a council in the village of Bori, the capital of Ogoniland. After a lengthy discussion, with Ken Saro-Wiwa as the keynote speaker, the Ogoni Bill of Rights was proclaimed, further infuriating the country's military leaders in Lagos and alarming Shell executives in The Hague and London. The document adopted at the council could not leave these people indifferent: it contained demands such as the establishment of executive autonomy for Ogoniland, the exercise of direct political power, the automatic right to manage all natural resources and the immediate adoption of measures aimed at protecting human health and preventing further environmental degradation of the land .

Shell's worst fears soon came true. On October 30, a public demonstration against the company's activities took place in Delta for the first time. Shell, which was informed in advance of the protesters' intentions, asked River State police authorities to provide protection for company employees and Shell-owned equipment. Such an appeal could not be left without an immediate response, and a special mobile police unit bearing the threatening name “Kill and Go” was sent against the demonstrators. As a result, the detachment killed 80 people and destroyed many houses. It was a crackdown that attracted shocked attention around the world, and the police actions were strongly condemned by London-based Amnesty International.

In the face of such unwanted international attention, the government's governing military council created a commission of inquiry to investigate the events, and it quickly concluded that the River State Special Forces had demonstrated "contempt for the lives and property of citizens." The whole incident not only shocked Saro-Wiwa, but also led him to the conclusion that the response of organizations such as Amnesty International had considerable weight, and these public institutions could play an important role in attracting international attention to the problems of the Ogoni tribe. This was very relevant, given that in his homeland Saro-Wiwa was completely deprived of the opportunity to publish his articles in the media, and pressure from the official authorities denied him access to the country’s radio stations. As a result, the Nigerian human rights activist had to resort to external assistance to provide information support for his campaign, as well as to publish speeches against the military elite, who became rich from the country's oil revenues, and the international commercial giant, Shell. He believed that Shell was not only complicit in the corruption that plagued the command staff of the Nigerian army, but also became one of its main culprits.

Saro-Wiwa wrote an addendum to the Ogoni Bill of Rights: “Without the intervention of the international community, the government of the federal republic of Nigeria and the ethnic majority will continue its harmful policies until the Ogoni people are completely exterminated.”

Developing activity outside the country in the interests of his struggle, he established formal relations with the environmental organization Greenpeace, held negotiations with the secretariat of Amnesty International in London, and met in Geneva with representatives of the public organization UNPO, which defends the rights of national minorities. But, without a doubt, Saro-Wiwa's most significant achievement should be considered to be attracting the attention of the Western press, radio and television. In the fall of 1992, as a result of well-organized publicity, a documentary film was released on television, which clearly emphasized that the plight of the Ogoni was a consequence of the devastating activities of the oil companies (especially Shell), and indicated that discussion of the current situation should be placed on the international agenda .

The year 1992 was of particular significance for the ongoing protest campaign, in which in December of that year Saro-Wiwa sent a written ultimatum to the oil companies. It contained a requirement, no later than 30 days, to pay reparations for environmental damage caused to Ogoniland, which was previously estimated at $4 billion. In addition, companies had to pay an additional $6 billion in taxes and royalties on oil produced in the region. While the appeal received wide publicity in Nigeria and beyond, it was ignored by both oil companies and the country's military leaders.

But Saro-Wiwa's initiatives and undaunted courage aroused increasing sympathy among conservative Ogoni leaders, even those who had previously viewed his anti-government activities with alarm and distrust.

One of these new supporters was an influential member of the Ogoni power elite, Dr. Garrick Letton. At a public meeting on Ogoni issues, which attracted the attention of hundreds of thousands of people, he delivered an indictment. Addressing the meeting in January 1993, Letton said:

We have awakened to find our country devastated by agents of death who call themselves oil companies. Our air and lands are completely polluted, our water is poisoned, and our flora and fauna are virtually exterminated. We ask for the restoration of our nature and the provision of basic life needs such as water, electricity, education. But above all, we ask for our right to self-determination to be respected so that we can gain control over our natural resources and environment.

Following the symbolic takeover of one of Shell's production sites by young supporters of Saro-Wiwa, he took the opportunity to declare the company persona non grata throughout Ogoni territory. Such a provocative declaration and seizure of company property provoked a negative reaction from senior Ogoni leaders, especially those whose conservatism tended to make them cautious. Many of them believed that the growing support that Saro-Wiwa's calls had received could lead to serious trouble.

Signs of contradictions within the movement began to appear more and more clearly. Indeed, within days of the signing of the Ogoni Bill of Rights, the six signatories sent a message of complete loyalty to the military governor of the River State and, even more remarkably, to Shell officials. To the dismay of Saro-Wiwa and his followers, these leaders gave both the governor and Shell assurances that any protest demonstrations would not be repeated.

But this could no longer stop the further politicization of the problem. Journalists and television crews continued to pour into the Delta, where Saro-Wiwa and his growing number of supporters showed them vivid examples of oil pollution. Environmentalists visiting the region examined the local oil fields. Their reports confirmed extensive pollution caused by oil companies and the virtual destruction of much of the traditional Ogoni livelihoods of agriculture and fishing. In addition, like their fellow victims living in the town of Port Arthur in the distant state of Texas, local residents complained to guests that the air they breathed was poisoned as a result of round-the-clock burning of toxic raw materials. They also pointed out examples of how oil leaking from oil pipelines in many cases flowed into local streams and rivers, killing all life there.

Such intense international attention has raised alarm among the top ranks of the country's military government and within Shell's long, labyrinthine corridors of power. The company now understood only too well that the situation was rapidly deteriorating, and it would have to respond somehow... As a result, it offered its services to the ruling military junta in the country to organize secret surveillance of Ken Saro-Wiwa, his main followers and the MOSOP organization. This was an offer the military leaders in Lagos could not refuse, and, as Shell management expected, they accepted it.

But then what the Ogoni leaders were so afraid of happened. On April 30, 1993, while on-site work was being done to plan the route of a new pipeline that Shell had ruthlessly planned to run through the gardens of the village of Biara, Shell workers were confronted by a violent crowd of demonstrators.

The company immediately turned to the military with a request to restore public order. As a result of the subsequent confrontation, which lasted for three days, the local residents were pacified. One person was shot dead by security forces and eleven others were seriously injured. This incident once again aggravated the issue of the presence of oil companies in the Niger Delta, and the Ogoni chiefs again rushed to demonstrate their loyalty to the government and Shell management, again promising that such demonstrations would not be repeated in the future, and asking for appropriate measures to be taken to pacify MOSOP and its supporters.

This request was part of Shell's covert surveillance operation of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his movement, the results of which were shared with the country's military leaders. Their actions have now been supported by the official Ogoni leadership, who stated that “the lawless actions of some MOSOP-linked elements are met with widespread anger and absolute disapproval.” According to the newspaper Nigerian Tide, The Ogoni chiefs, in their written appeal, assured the authorities that they would support “any government action aimed at protecting the lives and property of innocent civilians.”

The incident in Biara revealed the existence of sharp contradictions between the traditional “fathers of the people” and the radicals, many of whom were very young and therefore were regarded by influential Ogoni circles as hotheads capable of unleashing violence. In addition, the leaders’ suspicions regarding the intelligentsia in the person of Saro-Wiwa also received new life.

All these fears received practical confirmation when, following their appeal to the country's military leaders to reason with MOSOP, their own homes were attacked by rampaging youths. As a result, many leaders representing the older generation of the tribe, fearing for their lives, fled to the safer Port Harcourt.

The further consequences of the incident in the village of Biara, which is generally recognized as the starting point of the tragedy, led Ken Saro-Wiwa to the scaffold.

In his absence (he had traveled to Europe to try to secure further support for his movement), the MOSOP executive board began negotiations with the government and Shell to resolve the issue of financial compensation for the family of the murdered villager, the injured and all those whose homes were destroyed during the incident. damage has been caused. Shell promised that it would pay a one-time compensation of 1 million naira (approximately £4,000) to the family of the dead man and those injured, and would also consider making compensation payments to those residents whose land the company's pipeline would pass through. This proposal, however, would only go into effect if the villagers approved the construction of the pipeline.

Saro-Wiwa, who learned of the negotiations, sent home an urgent message that the agreement should not be signed until an expert opinion was received on the environmental impact of the pipeline. While his message was on the way, the negotiations ended and the MOSOP participants returned from Port Harcourt to Biara. The unity of MOSOP was dealt another blow. The announcement of the agreement was greeted with intense hostility by the people of Biara, and its details were met with numerous objections indicating that the sum of N1 million was a wholly inadequate payment for the death, injury and destruction to which the locals had been victims. But the MOSOP negotiating team was not prepared to return to the negotiating table with new demands: they believed, not without reason, that the government and Shell would view this as a sign of weakness and further evidence of a lack of unity within the opposition.

The fears were not unfounded, and the government, immediately taking advantage of the opportunity to develop its advantage, as well as the information that Shell agents were providing it with the results of their surveillance of Saro-Wiwa, increased personal pressure on this leader of the ungoverned territory, constantly detaining him at Lagos airport, from where he made his flights abroad. One such incident occurred during his flight to Vienna, where he was planning to take part in a human rights conference under the auspices of the UN. In this case, his passport was simply taken away.

This happened in June 1993, on the eve of the presidential elections, with the help of which the country's military leaders wanted to legally retain power in their hands and improve their reputation in the eyes of the international community. Preventing Saro-Wiwa from attending the UN conference was considered a bad move, so he was allowed to leave the country. However, the very fact of the arrest was a clear hint of what was to come in the near future, and further evidence, if any were needed, that the government and, of course, Shell intend to clip Saro-Wiwa's wings.

As a result, the presidential elections led not only to his arrest, but also to a complete division within MOSOP. The Executive Committee decided to boycott them long before the elections; such a resolution was proposed by Saro-Wiwa, but met with fierce resistance within the movement. However, the resolution was passed by a majority vote and the country's June 12 elections were ignored in Ogoniland. But this protest action cost MOSOP and its founder dearly...

Aggressively minded youth again took radical measures, which was so feared by many conservative members and leaders of the movement. Roadblocks were set up on the way to the polling stations, where citizens wishing to participate in the elections were detained and subjected to physical threats. Once again, conservative Ogoni leaders who tried to encourage the population to participate in the elections faced threats from more radical members of the movement, especially its youth wing. The actions of the Conservatives, according to the assessment of Saro-Wiwa and his supporters, were dictated by the desire to “bend in before the election organizers, which should be considered as a provocation and a direct challenge to the existence of MOSOP.”

All this contributed to the development of instability of the situation, which, in turn, led to a further escalation of violence and the spread of unrest among local residents. At the same time, the country's military leaders were very determined and took radical measures, including the decision to arrest Ken Saro-Wiwa, ten days after the closing of the polling stations. It sparked public protests throughout Ogoniland and split MOSOP into two opposing factions.

The rapidly deteriorating situation posed a clear threat to public order and became the subject of heated debate between Saro-Wiwa's divided opponents and supporters, the latter of whom claimed that those who supported the election were Shell mercenaries. As a result, the country's military leaders sent security forces to Bori, where the home of the MOSOP founder and his support center was located.

Ken Saro-Wiwa's world began to crumble. The movement to which he devoted so much time and energy weakened with the passing of each senior member of MOSOP. Some of them argued that Saro-Wiwa should be held personally responsible for violent acts carried out on behalf of the organization, and especially for instances of physical intimidation carried out by its youth wing. All this served as a signal for the beginning of a power struggle within MOSOP, but the worst was yet to come...

Just two months after Saro-Wiwa's arrest, his fears that the massive plunder of Ogoniland's natural resources, accompanied by Shell's destructive actions causing so much grief to local people, would sooner or later lead to violence in the Niger Delta, have come to fruition. It was these concerns that he so eloquently expressed in Lagos at the reception for the release of his book On a Dark Land.

Even now, 11 years later, it is still unknown who the people were who carried out the barbaric attack on the Ogoni settlement. However, there is ample evidence that they arrived in Ogoniland along the Andoni River in landing craft very similar to those used by security forces in their attack on Saro-Wiwa's home village of Bori just two months earlier. This time the attackers' target was the coastal village of Kaa, where they brought death and destruction.

This was not the first time that the Ogoni people were attacked by unknown armed gangs. A similar attack occurred just a month earlier in July, when about 100 civilians were killed. The fact that in both incidents the attackers were armed with sophisticated weapons, including mortars and hand grenades, suggests that the men were members of the country's security forces. The military government attributed both attacks to tribal conflict, which was categorically denied by both the Ogoni people directly affected and other tribes living in the region.

Throughout 1994, the government continued to blame the conflict on the Ogoni and use the situation to justify police and military incursions into the tribe's territory. All this indicated that at the top level of power, and not only the military, a political decision was made that was intended to incite inter-tribal conflict, making it possible to justify the use of force to restore law and order in the region, responsibility for which could be placed on the Ogoni. A clear sign of this decision was that before the security forces began conducting military operations in Ogoni territory, all military personnel native to the region were transferred to other duty stations. This was done so that during cleansing operations in their homeland, these soldiers would not turn their weapons against their commanders. There is no doubt that the real target of these law enforcement operations was Ken Saro-Wiwa and the MOSOP members.

It is almost certain that Shell, whose operations in Ogoniland were seriously hampered by the situation, told the government that it needed security guarantees to continue operating in the region. This is confirmed by Shell's subsequent decision to cease its activities in the rebellious region until law and order is fully restored there. The authorities were very concerned about this development of events, and on May 12, 1994, the military governor of the River State, Lieutenant Colonel Daud Musa Koma, received an official order that put everything in its place. This order stated in part: “Shell’s activities in the region are not possible without a ruthless military operation to ensure the company has favorable operating conditions.” The same order required the establishment of enhanced surveillance of “Ogoni leaders” and illegal visits to the region by activists of foreign environmental and human rights organizations. This was followed by instructions from which it followed that appeals to oil companies for financial support for these operational activities would be supported. It was about financing, the fact of which Shell initially vigorously denied, but was later forced to confirm.

Events developed rapidly, and soon the denouement followed for Ken Saro-Wiwa. Just a few days after receiving the order, Lieutenant Colonel Comeau took very effective measures to create intolerable conditions for MOSOP activities. Saro-Wiwa, who had only recently been released from detention, went to attend a meeting in Ogoniland, but on the way his car was stopped by security forces. He was ordered to turn around and return home. Saro-Wiwa could only obey. However, he did not know that very close to where he was going, another meeting took place, in which those Ogoni leaders who did not share the views of the radical members of MOSOP and Saro-Wiwa himself took part. Those gathered included Saro-Wiwa's longtime political opponent Edward Kobani and his brother Mohammed, Samuel Orage, a former member of the River State Select Committee, his brother Theophilus Orage, and another conservative activist, Albert Badie, who had also consistently opposed radical action. But this meeting became known to members of the youth wing of MOSOP, who arrived at the site of the meeting of their opponents and demanded that they come out to the angry crowd. It is no longer possible to establish the exact sequence of events; all that is known is that four of the men died as a result of the attack.

The next day, May 22, 1994, Ken Saro-Wiwa was arrested again. At a press conference held on the same day, according to the American human rights organization, Lieutenant Colonel Comeau made it very clear who exactly he blamed for these murders, and added that he had ordered the arrest of all those who were implicated in the attack: "The MOSOP leadership that was part of this game should be arrested."

The country's military leaders have long been waiting for such a suitable occasion to carry out truly brutal repressions. In the two months following the killing of the four leaders, some 60 villages were attacked and approximately 50 people were killed. Human rights activists' reports of these attacks were replete with gory details:

Squads poured into towns and villages, firing at random as villagers ran for cover in the nearby forest. Soldiers and mobile police stormed buildings, breaking down doors and windows. Villagers who got in their way, including children and the elderly, were severely beaten, they were required to pay certain “fees” (bribes), and some were immediately shot. Many women were raped. Before leaving the settlements, the soldiers collected all the money and food they could find.

Eight long months passed before Saro-Wiwa was formally charged, during which time he was prevented from seeing his lawyers. But the worst events were still ahead.

The country's military government decreed that the Ogoni leader should not be tried before a civilian court, but before a special tribunal with the power to impose a death sentence that could not be appealed. Saro-Wiwa was finally formally charged on January 28, 1995, and only then was he allowed to consult with his lawyers. Often present at these meetings was Colonel Paul Okuntimo, commander of Special Forces in the River State, a man prone to brutality and intimidation.

Saro-Wiwa and other MOSOP leaders who were arrested claimed that they were beaten by guards during their detention and that they were kept chained most of the time, not to mention little food and denial of medical care. The conduct of the tribunal, composed of two judges and an army officer, was so inconsistent and had so little resemblance to a fair trial that Saro-Wiwa's defenders were horrified. Renowned human rights lawyer Gani Foehinmi, who led the legal team, was so outraged by the way the trial was conducted over the course of six months that he resigned in protest. Indeed, some of the prosecution witnesses later swore affidavits to the effect that they had received rewards from officials for perjury against Saro-Wiwa. In fact, no credible evidence was presented to the tribunal that Saro-Wiwa was involved in the murders of his opponents.

In his report on the trial entitled "Ogoni: the fight continues" (Ogoni: The Struggle Continues) The World Council of Churches has immortalized for posterity Saro-Wiwa's last words to the tribunal: “I have no doubt about the ultimate success of the work I have begun, no matter what trials and tribulations I and those who go with me may have to go through. Neither imprisonment nor death can hinder our final victory."

The manner in which this tribunal was organized and conducted caused condemnation throughout the world. In June 1995, the eminent lawyer, member of the Royal Guild of Lawyers, Michael Birnbaum, delivered his verdict to this court. “I believe that the violations of fundamental human rights that I have identified are so serious that any verdict handed down by this tribunal must be considered biased and unfair.”

When the tribunal announced its verdict on October 31, finding Ken Saro-Wiwa guilty and sentencing him to death by hanging, Birnbaum was no less categorical:

The tribunal's verdict cannot be said to be simply incorrect, illogical or erroneous. He is dishonest and shameful. The Tribunal has time and again accepted evidence that no experienced lawyer could take seriously. I believe that the tribunal first made its verdict, and only then provided the evidence base for it.

Others, however, were not so sure. Former MOSOP President, Dr Garrick Letton, told the tribunal:

Saro-Wiwa must be judged for his wrongdoings. A common liar, a man who uses the suffering of his people to achieve his own selfish desires and ambitions. A person who is ready to eliminate people he does not like. A man who should not escape punishment for his complicity in the murder of four prominent Ogoni leaders.

On November 8, Nigeria's military leaders confirmed through their Provisional Council that the death sentence would be carried out. The international community raised its voice in protest. The Nigerian government was threatened with sanctions, but all was in vain. On the morning of November 10, 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa was chained and, along with eight other members of the movement, taken to Port Harcourt prison, where they were hanged.

The execution of the sentence sparked a wave of protests around the world. In distant Auckland, New Zealand, on the very day of the execution, a meeting of the Commonwealth of Nations conference was held. Nigeria's membership in this organization was immediately suspended. Western governments, where some of the most angry demonstrations have taken place, have imposed sanctions on Nigeria's military administration, including bans on arms sales and restrictions on freedom of movement for key junta leaders. However, the sanction that could have caused maximum damage to this regime - the oil embargo, of course, was not applied.

Throughout Ogoni territory, the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his comrades raised a new wave of protests. Once again, as Saro-Wiwa had foreseen, the Delta experienced a new round of violence bordering on civil war as another uprising broke out there, this time among the Iju tribe, the largest in the region, spreading with the speed and ferocity of a forest fire.

Although Shell tried to resort to a method, common among corporations operating in third world countries and occasionally faced with national crises, to convince public opinion that the arrest, torture and subsequent judicial murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa was an internal matter of Nigeria, the company was clearly shocked and deeply disturbed by the unrest that began immediately after the execution. By Shell's own estimate, violence in the Delta doubled over the next two years. The vulnerable position the company found itself in played into the hands of its opponents. They became increasingly vocal in their grievances and held Shell responsible for the country's pollution and environmental devastation, and for preventing local residents from receiving any income from the sale of oil they truly believed was rightfully theirs.

The development of the situation clearly indicated that Shell must answer for its actions. However, her answer was that the financing of the regions of the country is the prerogative of the government, and that it alone is responsible for ensuring that the revenues coming from the production and sale of oil are directed to where the oil is being produced. In relation to oil pipeline leaks, Shell said that they were constructed using all possible technical precautions to prevent such leaks, but even when they did occur, the company's workers immediately made every effort to eliminate the causes of the accident as quickly as possible. Thus, Shell representatives concluded that critics had greatly exaggerated the scale of the problem. Then the company went even further.

On November 14, 1995, just four days after Saro-Wiwa's execution, Shell Nigeria manager Brian Anderson issued a worldwide press release that stated, in part:

We completely reject the accusations against us of having a destructive impact on Ogoniland or the Niger Delta. In reality, the situation was overdramatized. The total area of ​​land we have acquired for the construction of our oil facilities, pipelines and roads is only 0.3% of the entire Niger Delta. In Ogoniland, we have acquired only 0.7% of the land area. These very small numbers reflect the scale of our activities in this region.

Apparently influenced by the belief that the best defense is to attack, this tactic was used again in 1998 when Shell issued an Environmental Brief in London, the main idea of ​​which was to blame local residents for everything that happened in the Niger Delta. This document pointed to "the rapid growth of the region's population, which is not supported by agricultural, forestry and industrial resources." Given the company's requirements to remain prepared to respond to pipeline leaks, Shell blamed local residents for being primarily responsible for land contamination caused by raw materials leaking from pipes.

Later that year, the company's London headquarters released another summary entitled "Oil Slicks", which developed the idea that pollution in the Niger Delta in general and Ogoniland in particular was a direct result of local vandalism:

Sabotage remains a significant problem, despite the widespread understanding that no compensation is paid in such cases. Typically, the reason for sabotage is the desire to demand large sums of compensation from the company and/or the creation of conditions to attract temporary workers from among local residents to carry out cleanup activities.

These defensive tactics were based on some truth: vandalism had indeed been a problem for a long time. Yet the company's claims attempted to ignore the fact that official warnings about the social and political consequences of pollution caused by oil companies in the Delta had first been issued twelve years earlier.

Indeed, Greenpeace Amsterdam titled one of its newsletters published in 1994: “Environmental and social implications of Shell's actions for Nigeria.” It stated that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which was producing oil in Ogoniland in partnership with Shell, had concerns as early as 1983. NNPC inspectors wrote in their report at the time:

Since the advent of the oil industry in Nigeria, more than 25 years ago, the Nigerian government has shown no concern or taken any effective measures, leaving it to the oil operators to resolve the environmental problems that accompany the oil production process. We have witnessed the slow poisoning of the waters of this country, as well as the destruction of vegetation and arable land by oil spills resulting from these activities.