Nigeria Hangs Playwright, Eight Activists

NAIROBI, KENYA, NOV. 10 -- Nigeria's military government today hanged nine political activists, including a well-known playwright, ignoring pleas from foreign governments and human rights groups that their lives be spared.

The executions marked the latest incident to bring international opprobrium raining down on black Africa's most populous country, a potentially rich oil power whose military dictatorship of Gen. Sani Abacha has come under repeated criticism for human rights abuses. Reacting with dismay, the Clinton administration announced the recall of the American ambassador to Nigeria and a ban on U.S. military sales to the country.

Most prominent among those executed was writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, 54, president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni Peoples, who was accused of involvement in the killings of four pro-government traditional chiefs during disturbances against the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell in May 1994.

Throughout his trial, Saro-Wiwa was not permitted to see his attorneys outside the court. The chairman of the special army-appointed tribunal conducting the trial found that Saro-Wiwa was not at the crime scene but was liable because his activism had allegedly fostered an environment for such violent acts. He and eight other Ogoni tribal members were sentenced last week, and the government ratified their death penalties Wednesday.

The Ogonis, an ethnic minority concentrated in southeastern Nigeria near Port Harcourt, have accused the government of allowing the oil-rich community's farms and fisheries to be destroyed for lack of environmental safeguards.

Seventy percent of Nigeria's oil exports is pumped from Rivers State, where Ogoni lands are located. Shell was forced by the Ogoni opposition to suspend operations in the area two years ago, after protesters sabotaged $30 million worth of equipment. The oil company expressed regret at today's hangings, saying the cost in human lives has been too high.

The writer's execution is the latest in a string of episodes in Nigeria igniting international outrage. In 1993, the military government annulled a presidential election and subsequently arrested the contest's reported winner, Moshood Abiola. Earlier this year, about 40 Nigerians, including former military ruler Olusegun Obasanjo, were arrested and imprisoned for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government. Some of the accused coup plotters were sentenced to death but, under intense pressure, Abacha commuted those sentences Oct. 1.

According to the few details made available to news services, the condemned men's wives tried to bring them meals late Thursday but were turned away. The prisoners were executed at about 11:30 a.m. after priests prayed for them, and their corpses were buried four hours later at the city cemetery, which was ringed by soldiers and tanks. Hundreds of people who had lined the streets in anticipation of the executions wept when they saw the corpses being removed from the prison.

"Oh God, what am I going to do? He is the only thing I have in the whole world," sobbed Hauwa Saro-Wiwa, the playwright's wife.

A recent nominee for a Nobel Peace Prize, Saro-Wiwa wrote plays, children's books and two novels critical of the military government: "Sozaboy," the story of a cab driver who finds himself in the army, and "Prisoner of Jebs," which pokes fun at the ruling elite. Saro-Wiwa also wrote and produced a popular television series, "Basi and Co.," which satirized the rich and famous, as well as the government.

According to the human rights group Amnesty International, the other eight executed men were Barinem Kiobel, Saturday Dobee, Paul Levura, Nordu Eawo, Felix Nuate, Daniel Gbokoo, John Kpuinen and Baribor Bera.

In a 1993 interview in Washington, Saro-Wiwa described the damage to done to the 500,000 Ogonis and their land by the oil companies: Oil wells had been sunk on people's property, roads were cut through forests, natural gas was burned off and fouled the air, and acid raid fell with regularity.

"What Shell has done is to wage ecological war against the Ogoni people," he said.

Oil is Nigeria's principal source of income, he noted, but "people in oil-bearing regions get nothing. . . . The oil the U.S. government is buying from Nigeria is stolen property."

Protests by the Ogonis have prompted what human rights groups have characterized as an extremely harsh crackdown by Nigerian troops during the last two years. Ogoni representatives have said recently that the troop presence was stepped up during Saro-Wiwa's trial to handle any possible turmoil.

"You can send all the troops in the world," Saro-Wiwa said in the Washington interview. "The Ogoni people are ready to die. . . . We've lost all fear of death." Staff writer Andy Mosher contributed to this report in Washington.