Congratulation to you all at Fahamu for winning the Highway Africa non-profit awards. I've been a keen reader of Pambazuka, it has been one of my important sources of information on social movements and development in Africa. Please please please continue with the good work.

Reuters on Thursday examined the challenges of tracking financial donations to nongovernmental organizations dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa. There are thousands of NGOs in the region, and it is "unclear" how much money they have received and how the money has been spent, according to Reuters. Some of the funding is misspent and never reaches those who need it most, but the "main concern" is that the amount of funding NGOs receive is insufficient, Reuters reports.

Several high-profile long-term review processes have occurred in recent months, reports the October edition of the Justice Africa/GAIN briefing. "The United Nations General Assembly made a four-year review of the Declaration of Commitment (DoC) made at the Special Session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS) in June 2001. UNGASS was proposed by several groups, notably the International Council of AIDS Services Association (ICASA), to encourage progress on the Millennium Goal of halting and starting to reverse the AIDS epidemic by 2015. The news is that since 2001, there has been regress on this goal, with larger numbers of people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, and with little indication that global growth will have slowed and declined in ten years."

ISIS-Women International Cross Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE) have launched a state of the art Information Unit for Teso Women Peace Activisits (TEWPA) in Soroti town in Eastern Uganda. The unit which is the fourth in the country comprises of a computer set with its printer, a television set, a video deck, a mobile telephone hand set, and a landline telephone system.

Corruption is on the rise in some rich countries as well as poorer ones, research by anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International suggests. The group's Corruption Perceptions Index labels Bangladesh and Chad as the most corrupt places on the planet. TI's survey asks businesspeople, academics and public officials about how countries they live in or do business with are perceived.

Kenya appears to be losing the war against corruption with the country’s perception index continuing on a downward trend, Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2005 report has indicated. In a survey conducted by TI in a total of 159 countries worldwide, Kenya is ranked 144th with an index score of 2.1, behind 36 African countries including Robert Mugabe’s debt-ridden Zimbabwe.

More than two years into the transition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the peace process remains at risk, states the International Crisis Group. "As many as 1,000 people a day still die from war-related causes - mainly disease and malnutrition, but also continuing violence." The ICG says while the main belligerent leaders are all in the transitional government, their corruption and mismanagement threaten stability during and after the forthcoming national elections, now postponed from June 2005 to March 2006.

The International Justice Tribune reports that it was an unusual week at the International Criminal Court (ICC), with The Hague strangely silent while in New York the UN envoy for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) revealed the ICC's first arrest warrant. Confusingly, the office of the prosecutor announced a press conference on Friday 7 October in The Hague, only to cancel it. On the same day, it was Kampala who finally made the official announcement. "The [ICC] investigation is complete and the court has taken a decision," the Ugandan defense minister told the news agency IRIN. He said that the ICC has issued arrest warrants against five leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), including its chief, Joseph Kony, vice-commander Vincent Otti, and three lieutenants, Raska Lukwiya, Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen.

Zimbabwean lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa is among the recipients of this year's International Press Freedom Awards by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The other recipients were journalists from Brazil, China and Uzbekistan. Zimbabwe has in recent years closed newspapers and introduced increasingly strict laws restricting the media.

Communique de presse conjoint: Action Contre l’Impunité pour les Droits Humains/Rights & Accountability in Development

Un an après la commission des crimes contre l’humanité par les troupes des Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC) commandées par le Colonel Adémar Ilunga à Kilwa en octobre 2004, les victimes et leurs familles n’ont toujours pas accès à la justice, ont constaté et condamné l’ACIDH et le RAID dans un rapport rendu public.

More than 500,000 women died from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth in 2000, but 99% of those maternal deaths were preventable, according to the U.N. Population Fund's "State of World Population 2005" report released on October 12, BBC News reports (BBC News, 10/12). Reproductive health problems, including HIV/AIDS, are the leading cause of death among women ages 15 to 44 and are responsible for approximately 250 million years of productive life lost annually, the report says (Lawless, AP/ABC News, 10/12). Experts said that most maternal deaths are preventable through family planning that provides access to contraceptives, skilled workers attending to births and improved access to emergency obstetric care when necessary (BBC News, 10/12).

Amnesty International has learnt that the Sudanese Government has launched legal proceedings against one of the country's leading human rights groups Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT) in an apparent attempt to silence the organisation. According to local press reports, Sudan's Bureau of Crimes Against the State began proceedings against SOAT for spreading false information at the end of August but did not inform the organisation. If found guilty, members of the organisation could face more than 5 years in prison.

Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) is pleased to announce that we are looking for qualified candidates to fill eleven new positions, one in our head office in Toronto and ten in our office in Ghana. These positions are a result of recent funding from Canada Corps, a new initiative of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

A Zimbabwean failed asylum seeker has won his battle against deportation in a ruling that was seen as a crucial test case on this issue. The tribunal found that although the claim for asylum was unfounded, there was evidence that failed asylum seekers returning to Zimbabwe faced persecution. The Zimbabwean, who cannot be named, won his appeal on the basis that as a result of having claimed asylum in the UK in the first place, he had a "well-founded fear of persecution" if he returned to Zimbabwe.

This article argues that Liberia owes a duty under both international humanitarian and human rights law to investigate and prosecute the heinous crimes, including torture, rape and extra-judicial killings of innocent civilians, committed in that country by the warring parties in the course of 14 years of brutal conflict. It then evaluates the options for prosecution, and finally suggests that because the Special Court for Sierra Leone has already started the accountability process for Liberia with the indictment of Charles Taylor in 2003, and given the close links between the Liberian and Sierra Leonean conflicts, the Special Court would be a more appropriate forum for international prosecutions of those who perpetrated gross humanitarian and human rights law violations in Liberia.

The rational behind this study was to focus on what was perceived to be the most marginalised of the refugee groups, those whose claims to asylum had been rejected, by examining their livelihood strategies. The research questions the prevailing view of refugees as a burden to the host society and attempts to study them as active agents. In this way, it examines the ways refugees contribute to the economy of the host society.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has expressed shock and condemnation of a heavy-handed police crackdown that saw all Sud FM radio affiliates throughout the country shuttered on 17 October 2005. The stations' employees have also been arrested. At around 8:40 a.m. (local time) on 17 October, Sud FM's Dakar station was forcefully shut down by police, who proceeded to arrest all employees on site at the time. When reached by RSF, authorities at Dakar's central police headquarters refused comment.

The African Editors Forum (TAEF) was formally launched in Kempton Park, Johannesburg, at the weekend, writes Bate Felix on www.journalism.co.za In a speech to mark the occasion, UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, said editors had a crucial responsibility "in shaping both how Africa is portrayed to the world, and how world events are understood by Africans," adding that by coming together, the editors have shown utmost seriousness in tackling these questions.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned police harassment of the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists' Association (EFJA), which criticized a government crackdown on the press after the opposition disputed the outcome of this year's elections. Four EFJA leaders reported this week to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in the capital, Addis Ababa, where they were questioned about the organization's activities when it was officially banned from late 2003 to the end of 2004. The Federal High Court has since ruled the ban illegal.

During early September an appeal to Botswana's President Mogae had been circulated. It requested support for the initiative to approach the President with the intention that he revokes his declaration of Prof. Kenneth Good as a Prohibited Immigrant (PI). Within seven days more than 150 members of the academic community in 20 countries (incl. Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa) from four continents signed up. The list included prominent scholars of international standing and on good terms with Botswana's authorities. It hence reflected and testified to the honest concern the appeal tried to articulate. The appeal was submitted with all names attached on 15 September. In the absence of any response it was re-submitted on 3 October. Since President Mogae was the guest speaker at this year's Oxford Union, a third effort was made on 10 October with the intention to receive a favourable response to the suggestion that this might be an excellent opportunity to announce in midst a gathering of renowned scholars committed to the virtues of academic freedom that the PI status declared on Prof. Good would be revoked.

The local daily "Mmegi" published on 14 October a big story offering a fair account of the efforts - but interestingly enough under the heading "European (sic!) academics plead with Mogae on Good" (http://www.mmegi.bw/2005/October/Friday14/1027315029819.html). It quoted Jeff Ramsay, the Press Secretary to the President, who confirmed to the paper receipt of the letters but commented that "the state has no plans to allow Good back into the country" and "that as far as the government is concerned, the case is over".

The same evening of October 14, President Mogae delivered his address at the Oxford Union on "Globalisation and Good Governance", which he opened as follows: "It is a pleasure to return to these hallowed halls. Every time I come back I am again reminded of when, I first came here as a student straight out of the then Bechuanaland Protectorate. In the four decades since, my homeland has changed in many ways besides its name. I suspect I may have as well." And in the course of his speech, which made not a single direct reference to either the ongoing controversies around the Bushmen, nor to the case of Prof. Good, President Mogae stated: "Let me firmly state my own conviction that good governance based on what are now commonly accepted as international standards is an absolute prerequisite for sustainable development in today's world. I further believe that governance must in the end be about maintaining an evolving institutional framework by which people at the local and national levels continue to have a meaningful say about the domestic policies that shape their lives."

Many thanks to all, who by reacting affirmatively to the appeal supported the case not only of Prof. Good but of demanding academic freedom in general. Independent of the outcome, it is a testimony to our desire to uphold and protect minimum values and norms in respect of our scholarly endeavours. Any further individual views concerning President Mogae's position could be directly articulated to the Office of the President ([email protected]) and in copy to the President's Press Secretary Dr. Jeff Ramsay ([email protected]).

Thousands of "forgotten refugees" who fled banditry in Central African Republic are running out of food in camps in neighbouring Chad, the World Food Programme (WFP) said. Some 11,000 refugees have poured into arid southern Chad since armed gangs began storming villages across the border in Central African Republic in June, shooting randomly, looting homes and terrorising their inhabitants.

A November forum will focus on the growing global phenomena of cities self-providing broadband networks for municipal and residential use. Major stakeholders including local governments and private enterprise will assemble to grapple with the many issues associated with metropolitan broadband.

Through this Programme, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) aims to give persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, particularly young minority women and men, an opportunity to gain knowledge in the field of international human rights in general, and on minority rights in particular. The Fellowship Programme is intended to assist organizations and communities in protecting and promoting human rights. Five Fellows will be chosen to participate in this Programme to be held from the early February to end of April 2006.

Thank you so very much for this special issue (Pambazuka News 222: Women's Rights Protocol: Challenges of Domestication)....keep up the good work.

South African society has changed from a predominantly rural society to an urban one. Thus the need to change and rethink the approach to land reform. The Centre for Development and Enterprise did a three year study and review of the South African land reform programme and makes a few suggestions on what new land reform policies should consist of.

A pioneering group of nearly 300 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has gone home from Tanzania in the first convoy organised by the UN refugee agency. This is expected to chart the way for thousands of Congolese going back to their war-battered country.The refugees went through training in landmine and HIV/AIDS awareness, at Baraka centre before setting out for their villages, where they were to receive a repatriation package, including mattresses, kitchen sets and farming and building tools, UNHCR said.

The most immediate form of assistance to the poorest and most vulnerable people is food aid. Yet, while this may be an effective short-term measure, questions are being raised about long-term sustainability, and about the role of donor countries in promoting local food security. This week the Eldis (a development, policy, practice and research website) Aid and Debt Resource Guide features papers that consider various aspects of the debate over food aid. A paper from the OECD considers the phenomenon of tying food aid, restricting its sources to a few donor countries. A paper from the All Parliamentary Group for Debt, Aid and Trade argues for the need to build agricultural capacity in Africa, so that responses to food insecurity cease to be reactive.

Liberia is far from having the diamond controls required to prevent diamonds from fuelling conflict and instability, says a Global Witness paper, which demonstrates how insufficient reform of Liberia's diamond and timber industries and failure to adequately control areas rich in natural resources have resulted in their continued exploitation and threat to regional peace and security. "Despite the terms of his exile arrangements with Nigeria that forbade Charles Taylor from engaging in active communication with anyone engaged in political, illegal or governmental activities in Liberia, he continues to do so," said Global Witness.

In a letter sent to UN chief Kofi Annan on Wednesday, Cote d’Ivoire’s rebels say it should fall to them, not President Laurent Gbagbo, to select a new prime minister to steer the war-torn country towards delayed elections. “In a few days time, when [Gbabgo] is no longer an elected president … the New Forces should have the right to select the new Prime Minister,” wrote New Forces rebel leader Guillaume Soro in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by IRIN. The letter comes on the eve of crucial talks on Cote d’Ivoire by the United Nations Security Council in New York.

Journalists, human rights activists and opposition leaders took to the streets of the Togolese capital, Lome, on Wednesday to protest the recent beating of an editor of an opposition newspaper. “The government must open a serious investigation into this attack, to identify, try and punish those responsible,” Carlos Ketohou, president of Togo’s Journalists for Human Rights, said during the demonstration.

Uganda Women's Network (UWONET) is looking for dynamic, self-motivated, organised, innovative and outgoing individual to work for its focal point, the Secretariat, which is the nerve centre of the Network.

IFES' current program in Nigeria builds upon work that began with transitional elections of 1998-99, under which a newly established Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ushered in a civilian administration and a new era in Nigerian politics. Over the coming 3 years, the program will seek to leverage gains in the transparency, credibility, and efficiency of the electoral process, and to extend development of the process into new areas.

Looking for credible, consistent and informative news on Rwanda? Subscribe to the monthly Rwanda National Portal newsletter for the latest news articles about and on Rwanda straight from the newsrooms of the country's major media houses.

Global efforts to "make poverty history" will fail unless world leaders act now to end gender discrimination, according to The State of World Population 2005 report, released October 12 by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. The report, The Promise of Equality: Gender Equity, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals, calls upon world leaders to fulfil promises made to the world's women and young people in order to meet poverty reduction goals agreed to at the 2000 Millennium Summit and reaffirmed by last month's World Summit in New York. Investing in women and young people-who constitute the majority of the world's population-will accelerate long-term development. Failure to do so may entrench poverty for generations to come.

This year's Nobel Peace Prize goes to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its Director General, Mohamed El Baradei. The initiators of the project 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005 congratulate the recipient of the prize. "Of course we are disappointed, as we had hoped very much that the 1000 women would be recognized for their untiring and courageous work in the cause of peace," said the initiator and Swiss politician Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold, "but we are also proud that within less than three years we have brought attention to the outstanding work done by these women in the cause of promoting peace." In January 2005, 1000 women (representative of many thousands of such women) from more than 150 countries were nominated all together for the Nobel Peace Prize.

It’s nearly ten years after Nigerian activist and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other members of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) were hanged on the morning of 10 November, 1995. Present day Nigeria faces fresh protests in Saro-Wiwa’s stomping ground of the Niger Delta over authoritarian rule and the plunder of the environment by big oil companies. Ike Okonta writes that despite a strategy of state intimidation to suppress the demands of the Ogoni people, the words of Ken Saro-Wiwa live on and are firmly embedded in the political soil of the Niger Delta. (See below for French version).

In life, Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Nigerian writer and minority rights activist, was an elemental force. Like the sun that illuminates all that it touches, Saro-Wiwa’s work beamed a powerful searchlight on the crummy corners of the Nigerian state, illuminating the sordid acts of injustice and oppression that have been visited on the poor and the powerless in the country since it was cobbled together by imperial Britain in 1914.

It was a light that the wealthy and powerful found discomforting, and they resolved to extinguish it. Ken Saro-Wiwa was saying things they did not want to hear, even if all of it was true. Even more worrying, he had mobilized his people, the Ogoni, a small ethnic group in Nigeria’s Niger Delta where Royal/Dutch Shell and several other transnational companies had been producing oil for four decades without giving them any of the proceeds, to stand up and insist that enough was enough.

This was in the early 1990s. Ken Saro-Wiwa had written a small pamphlet in 1990 in which he spelled out the grievances of the Ogoni against the Nigerian state and Shell that was exploiting several oil fields in the area and had subjected the farmlands and fishing rivers of local people to devastation. Saro-Wiwa also spelled out how these grievances might be ameliorated, informed by a regime of rights that have been observed only in the breach since the turn of the 20th century. The Ogoni had been reduced to subjects by the British with the advent of colonial rule, an unhappy state of affairs that had been perpetuated by subsequent Nigerian governing elites. They wanted to reclaim their rights as citizens.

This pamphlet, which has since attained iconic status in the international environmental and human rights community, is the Ogoni Bill of Rights. A few months after it was published, Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni worthies banded together and established the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), a grassroots political organization they planned to use as a vehicle to achieve all the demands and goals in the Ogoni Bill of Rights.

MOSOP was a run-away success from the onset. The organization was ingeniously structured, taping into the age-old republican norms of the six federating Ogoni clans and embedding itself in all hamlets, villages, and towns in the Ogoni nation. MOSOP was not just an ethnic movement. It combined the civic and communal, encouraging women, youth, workers organizations and self-help groups to form their own branches that were then affiliated with the umbrella organization. Ken Saro-Wiwa, the guiding genius of MOSOP, was appointed its spokesman by popular acclaim.

On January 4, 1993, MOSOP and the Ogoni people marked the United Nations day of the world’s indigenous peoples with a peaceful march that saw 300,000 children, women and men in the streets of Bori and other Ogoni towns and villages singing songs of protest. The Nigerian subsidiary of Shell was declared persona non grata and its workers in Ogoni were peacefully expelled from the oil fields. The Nigerian military government was also asked to account for the 30 billion dollars worth of oil taken from the Ogoni oil fields since 1958, and to recognize the demand of the people for a measure of political and economic autonomy within the Nigerian federation.

This was the beginning of MOSOP and Ken Saro-Wiwa’s travails. Nigeria’s political elites had since the oil boom of the early 1970s, considered the oil fields of the Niger delta as a private fief, for them to do with as they saw fit. A raft of decrees and laws had been passed taking over the oil-bearing land of local communities in the area and transferring it to the central government in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. Shell and the other oil companies had been encouraged to barge into this land to mine oil without paying adequate compensation to the rightful owners. Billions of dollars had poured into the coffers of these elites and their accomplices in Shell while the Ogoni, the Ijaw and the other minority groups pined away in poverty and neglect, denied such basic amenities as water, power, roads, schools, and hospitals.

Ken Saro-Wiwa threatened this cozy arrangement between Nigeria’s corrupt power elite and the oil companies, and they determined to do away with him. Beginning in mid 1993, a special military task force was established by the military government, and with the active cooperation of senior Shell Nigeria officials, proceeded on a campaign of terror, mayhem, and mass murder in Ogoniland. MOSOP elements were identified, isolated, and murdered or maimed. Women were raped. Homes were looted and razed to the ground. In all, 102 Ogoni villages were plundered and their inhabitants either murdered or driven out into the forests.

In May 1994 Saro-Wiwa was arrested by the government on trumped up charges of murder. Several other MOSOP members were detained along with him. After a judicially flawed trial that was widely condemned by human rights groups and opinion leaders world-wide, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other MOSOP leaders were hanged in a Nigerian prison in the morning of 10 November, 1995.

In November 2005 it will be ten years since Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni Eight were murdered in cold blood by the Nigerian military junta and dumped into unmarked graves. Their intent was to remove the writer and activist from political contention in the Niger delta, and also rid Shell of its most powerful critic. But Saro-Wiwa dead has become even more of a potent force in the burgeoning campaign for minority rights, corporate social responsibility, and environmental protection than when he was alive. He has joined the eternal greats beautified by their selfless service to humanity, even at the cost of their lives.

All over the world preparations are being made to mark the tenth anniversary of Saro-Wiwa’s passing. Several non governmental organizations in Nigeria are banding together to establish a writers resort for the late writer who gave African literature such classics as ‘Soza-boy: A Novel in Rotten English’, ‘On a Darkling Plain’, and ‘A Forest of Flowers’. A memorial statute of Saro-Wiwa will be erected in London by a group of environmental and human rights groups. San Francisco will offer a musical concert and fundraiser on behalf of the Ken Saro-Wiwa Foundation, recently established by the late writer’s son, Ken Wiwa Jnr.

Still, the present Nigerian government, and the oil companies to which it is in hock, are working feverishly to undermine the legacies of this moral and political giant, in the Niger delta and elsewhere in the country. A fresh wave of communal and civic unrest is sweeping through the delta as youth, women and communal leaders join their counterparts in other parts of the country to demand an end to authoritarian rule and the regime of impunity that has enabled the transnational oil companies to plunder the resources of local people and despoil their environment.

The government took delivery of yet another batch of fast attack boats from the United States in early September and has deployed them to the delta, ostensibly to check the activities of oil smugglers. But local activists say there has been a marked increase in military deployments in the region of recent, coinciding with the mass mobilisation of civic and political groups in the delta to frustrate the ruling government’s plot to perpetuate itself in office beyond 2007 when fresh presidential and local elections are due.

Niger delta leaders walked out of a conference convened by the central government in February to work out a new federal framework and an acceptable formula for sharing the oil revenue when their demand for twenty percent of oil receipts was rejected. They also refused to back a covert plan that would have enabled the President, Olusegun Obasanjo, to alter the provisions of the constitution and continue in office when his term expires in May 2007.

The increased military presence in the region, and the recent spate of detention of local leaders, is President Obasanjo’s way of retaliating against those in the region he now characterises as ‘subversive elements’. It is, however, unlikely, that these strong-arm methods will suppress the clamour for democratic accountability, self-representation, and proper consideration for the environment in the region. Saro-Wiwa was hanged in order that Shell might return to its oil wells in Ogoni. But the Ogoni have refused to back down, and the oil company is still persona non grata in the area twelve years after it was peacefully expelled from the Ogoni oil fields. The present wave of military intimidation will not achieve the result Nigeria's authoritarian leaders desire: unchecked plunder of the oil wealth of the delta communities. Saro-Wiwa's words have embedded firmly in the political soil of the Niger Delta.

Ken Saro-Wiwa was a writer and a man of ideas. He believed that the written word was potent, and that good ideas would endure no matter the travails and obstacles placed on their path. Saro-Wiwa was right. Ten years after he was brutally cut down, his word and ideas are as potent as when he first uttered them in the early 1990s.

* Dr Ike Okonta is a Junior Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford. He's co-author of ‘Where Vultures Feast: Shell, Human Rights and Oil’ (Verso: London, 2003). He writes a weekly column for the Lagos daily, ThisDay.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Remember Saro-Wiwa
http://www.remembersarowiwa.com

Remember Saro-Wiwa is a coalition of organisations and individuals encompassing the arts and literature, human rights and environmental and development issues. Remember Saro-Wiwa is working with Ken Saro-Wiwa's family and the Ken Saro-Wiwa Foundation (based in Toronto, Canada). Visit http://www.remembersarowiwa.com for a list of planned events and partner organisations.

Remembering Ken Saro-Wiwa: Book titles resissued
http://www.africanbookscollective.com/

To coincide with the ten-year anniversary of the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, and in association with the Remember Ken Saro-Wiwa coalition, African Books Collective is reissuing some of his best known works. Visit the ABC website at http://www.africanbookscollective.com/ to browse the titles.

À la mémoire de Ken Saro-Wiwa et la lutte pour la justice au Nigeria
Dr. Ike Okonta

Ça fait presque dix ans que Ken Saro-Wiwa, activiste et écrivain nigérian, et huit autres membres du Mouvement pour la Survie du Peuple Ogoni (MOSOP) ont été pendus au matin du 10 novembre, 1995. Aujourd’hui, le Nigeria doit faire face à de nouvelles manifestations dans le delta du Niger, le territoire fréquenté surtout par Saro-Wiwa, à cause de lu régime autoritaire et du pillage de l’environnement commis par les grandes sociétés pétrolières. Ike Okonta écrit que, malgré la stratégie d’intimidation qu’emploie l’état pour supprimer les demandes du peuple Ogoni, les mots de Ken Saro-Wiwa vivent toujours et sont solidement enracinés dans le sol politique du delta nigérian.

Vivant, Ken Saro-Wiwa, écrivain nigérian et défenseur des droits des peuples minoritaires, était une force élémentaire. Comme le soleil, qui illumine tout ce qu’il touche, l’?uvre de Ken Saro-Wiwa était une torche qui a exposé les coins minables de l’état nigérian, illuminant les actes sordides d’injustice et d’oppression qui ont été commis contre les pauvres et les impuissants dans le pays depuis son origine, origine d’ailleurs mal organisé par les Britanniques quand ils ont pris possession du pays en 1914.

C’était une lumière qui a troublé les riches et les puissants, et donc ils ont résolu de l’éteindre. Ken Saro-Wiwa disait des choses qu’ils ne voulaient pas entendre, même si tout était vrai. Encore plus troublant, il avait mobilisé son peuple, les Ogoni, un petit groupe ethnique dans la région du delta nigérien du Nigeria, où Royal/Dutch Shell et plusieurs autres sociétés transnationales produisaient du pétrole déjà depuis quatre décennies sans leur en donner aucun revenu, à se mettre debout et à insister que cela en était assez.

Nous sommes au début des années 90. Ken Saro-Wiwa avait écrit un court pamphlet en 1990 dans lequel il a énoncé les plaintes des Ogoni contre l’état nigérian et contre Shell, qui exploitait plusieurs gisements de pétrole dans la région et qui avait dévasté les terrains agriculteurs et les rivières utilisés par le peuple local. Saro-Wiwa a aussi articulé les moyens par lesquels ces plaintes pourraient être améliorées, informé par un régime de droits qui ont été observés seulement dans leur infraction depuis le début du 20e siècle. Les Ogoni avaient été réduits à des sujets par les Britanniques sous la règne coloniale, un état malheureux qu’avaient perpétué les élites nigérians après leur appropriation du pouvoir gouvernemental. Les Ogoni voulaient reprendre leurs droits comme citoyens.

Ce pamphlet, qui a depuis atteint un statut iconique parmi les communautés internationales qui défendent l’environnement et les droits humains, est le Bill of Rights des Ogoni. Quelques mois après sa publication, Ken Saro-Wiwa et d’autres notables Ogoni se sont groupés ensemble et ont établi le Mouvement pour la Survie du Peuple Ogoni (MOSOP), une organisation politique au niveau de la base dont ils voulaient profiter afin d’accomplir toutes les demandes et tous les buts annoncés dans le Bill of Rights Ogoni.

MOSOP était un succès éclatant depuis son origine. L’organisation était structurée de façon brillante, tirant profit comme il l’a fait des normes républicaines et anciennes des six clans fédérants des Ogoni, et s’enracinant dans tous les hameaux, tous les villages, et toutes les villes de la nation Ogoni. MOSOP n’était pas seulement un mouvement ethnique. C’était un mélange des éléments civiques et communautaires, et a encouragé des femmes, des jeunes, des organisations d’ouvriers, et des groupes d’entraide à former leurs propres branches qui étaient associées, à l’époque, avec l’organisation centrale. MOSOP a nommé Ken Saro-Wiwa, son génie conducteur, comme porte-parole à cause de sa renommée populaire.

Le 4 janvier 1993, MOSOP et le peuple Ogoni ont observé le jour reconnu par l’ONU comme celui des peuples indigènes avec une manifestation paisible, une action qui a inspiré 300,000 enfants, femmes, et hommes à marcher dans les rues de Bori et celles d’autres villages, tout en chantant des chansons de protestation. On a déclara la filiale nigérienne de Shell persona non grata, et on a expulsé ses ouvriers postés à Ogoni des gisements de pétrole de façon paisible. On a demandé aussi au gouvernement militaire du Nigeria de rendre compte des 30 milliards de dollars de pétrole puisé des gisements de pétrole Ogonis depuis 1958, et de reconnaître la demande du peuple d’une mesure d’autonomie politique et économique dans la fédération nigériane.

Ceci était le début du travail pénible pour MOSOP et pour Ken Saro-Wiwa. Depuis la forte hausse du pétrole du début des années 70, les élites politiques du Nigeria avaient considéré les gisements de pétrole du delta nigérien comme un fief privé, dont elles pouvaient se servir comme elles voulaient. Elles avaient approuvé un tas de décrets et de lois qui ont pris possession des terres qui avaient appartenu à des communautés locales, terres qui étaient riches en pétrole, et elles ont transféré l’administration de ces terres au gouvernement central à Abuja, la capitale du Nigeria. Ces élites avaient encouragé Shell et les autres sociétés pétrolières à s’installer dans ces terres et à en exploiter le pétrole, sans les obliger de payer une compensation adéquate aux propriétaires légitimes du pétrole. Les coffrets des élites et de leurs accomplisses à Shell débordaient des milliards de dollars, tandis que les Ogoni, les Ijaw, et les autres groupes minoritaires languissaient dans la pauvreté et l’oubli, privés des nécessités fondamentales telles l’eau, l’électricité, les autoroutes, les écoles, et les hôpitaux.

Ken Saro-Wiwa a menacé ce rapport intime entre les élites puissantes et corrompues et les sociétés pétrolières, et donc elles ont déterminé de se débarrasser de lui. Vers le milieu de 1993, un corps expéditionnaire a été établi par le gouvernement militaire pour ce but singulier, et, avec la collaboration active de la part des officiaux les plus haut placés de Shell Nigeria, ce corps a procédé à une campagne de terreur, de chaos, et de meurtre en masse dans le pays des Ogoni. Des éléments de MOSOP étaient identifiés, isolés, et assassinés ou mutilés. Des femmes, violées. Des maisons, pillées et détruites. En somme, 102 villages Ogoni ont été pillés et leurs habitants ont été assassinés ou chassés dans la forêt.

En mai 1994, le gouvernement a arrêté Ken Saro-Wiwa et l’a accusé de meurtre, une accusation inventée de toutes pièces. Le gouvernement a retenu, en plus, plusieurs autres membres de MOSOP. Après un procès plein de défauts judiciaires qui a mérité la condamnation de nombreux groupes défenseurs des droits humains et des chefs d’opinion à travers le monde, Ken Saro-Wiwa a été pendu avec huit autres dirigeants de MOSOP dans une prison nigériane au matin du 10 novembre, 1995.

Ça fera, en novembre 2005, dix ans depuis l’assassinat de Ken Saro-Wiwa et les Huit Ogoni, tués avec sang-froid par le junta militaire du Nigeria et jetés dans des tombeaux anonymes. Leur intention, c’était d’enlever l’écrivain et l’activiste du conflit politique du delta du Niger, et aussi de se débarrasser du critique le plus fort de Shell. Cependant, mort, Saro-Wiwa est devenu une force encore plus puissante dans la campagne croissante pour les droits des peuples minoritaires, la responsabilité des grandes sociétés envers la population nigériane, et la protection de l’environnement, encore plus puissant qu’il ne l’a été quand il était vivant. Il s’est joint avec ces grands immortels dont le service désintéressé envers l’humanité, même au prix de leurs vies, les rend beaux.

Partout dans le monde, les préparations se font pour observer le dixième anniversaire de la mort de Saro-Wiwa. Plusieurs organisations non gouvernementales au Nigeria s’unissent afin d’établir un ressort pour les écrivains en l’honneur de l’écrivain décédé qui a légué à la littérature africaine des ?uvres classiques telles « Soza-boy : A Novel in Rotten English », « On a Darkling Plain », et « A Forest of Flowers ». Une statue sera érigée en sa mémoire à Londres par un groupe d’associations qui soutiennent les droits humains et la protection environnementale. San Francisco offrira un concert musical et un projet organisé pour collectionner des fonds au nom de la Fondation Ken Saro-Wiwa, établie récemment par le fils de l’écrivain décédé, Ken Wiwa Jr.

Quand même, le gouvernement nigérian actuel, et les sociétés pétrolières envers lesquelles il est au clou, travaillent infatigablement à saper les legs à ce géant politique et moral, dans le delta du Niger et autre part dans le pays. Une nouvelle vague d’agitation communautaire et civile prend possession du delta comme des jeunes, des femmes, et des chefs communautaires s’unissent avec leurs semblables dans des autres parties du pays afin de demander une terminaison du règne autoritaire et du régime d’impunité qui a permis aux sociétés pétrolières transnationales de piller les ressources et de spolier l’environnement du peuple local.

Le gouvernement a accueilli, vers le début de septembre, la livraison d’encore un groupe de bateaux d’attaque rapide de la part des États-Unis, et les a déployés au delta, avec la prétention de suivre les activités des contrebandiers de pétrole. Pourtant, des activistes locales remarquent que, récemment, il y a eu un croissement signifiant dans les déploiements militaires dans la région, ce qui coïncide avec la mobilisation en masse des groupes civiques et politiques dans le delta, qui ont pour but de frustrer le complot de la part du gouvernement régnant de se maintenir au-delà de 2007, la date des nouvelles élections locales et présidentielles.

En février, les chefs du delta du Niger ont quitté une conférence organisée par le gouvernement central qui avait pour but d’esquisser un nouveau cadre pour le gouvernement fédéral et une formule acceptable pour le partage des revenus pétroliers. Leur demande de vingt pourcent des revenus était rejetée. Ils ont refusé, d’ailleurs, de soutenir un plan secret qui aurait permis au président, Olusegun Obasanjo, de changer les provisions de la constitution et de rester au pouvoir quand son terme se termine en mai 2007.

La présence croissante des forces militaires dans la région, et le nombre de retentions des chefs locaux dans des temps récents, ce sont les moyens par lesquels le président Obasanjo se venge de ceux dans la région qu’il caractérise maintenant comme « des éléments subversifs ». Il est, pourtant, peu probable que ces méthodes de force supprimeront la clameur pour la transparence démocratique, l’autoreprésentation, et une considération adéquate pour l’environnement dans la région. On a pendu Saro-Wiwa afin de permettre à Shell de retourner aux puits pétroliers dans le pays des Ogoni. Mais les Ogoni ont refusé de céder, et la société pétrolière est toujours persona non grata dans la région douze ans après son expulsion paisible des gisements de pétrole Ogonis. La vague actuelle d’intimidation militaire n’atteindra pas le résultat que souhaitent les chefs autoritaires du Nigeria, c’est-à-dire le pillage sans bornes de la richesse pétrolière des communautés du delta. Les mots de Saro-Wiwa sont fermement enracinés dans le sol politique du delta du Niger.

Ken Saro-Wiwa était un écrivain et un homme d’idées. Il croyait que l’écriture était puissante, et que les idées justes endureraient malgré toutes les difficultés et tous les obstacles mis sur leur chemin. Saro-Wiwa avait raison. Dix ans après sa mort brutale, ses mots et ses idées sont aussi puissants que la première fois qu’il les a articulés au début des années 90.

*Le Dr. Ike Okonto est Junior Research Fellow dans le département de politique et de relations internationales à l’université d’Oxford. C’est le coauteur de Where Vultures Feast : Shell, Oil, and Human Rights (Verso : Londres, 2003). Il écrit une rubrique chaque semaine pour le journal de Lagos, « ThisDay ».

*Veuillez envoyer des commentaires à [email protected].

Remember Saro-Wiwa
http://www.remembersarowiwa.com

« Remember Saro-Wiwa » (« À la mémoire de Saro-Wiwa ») est une coalition d’organisations et d’individus qui englobe les arts et la littérature, les droits humains, et les questions de l’environnement et du développement international. Remember Saro-Wiwa travaille avec la famille de Saro-Wiwa et la Fondation Ken Saro-Wiwa (basée à Toronto, Canada). Visitez http://www.remembersarowiwa.com pour une liste des événements prévus et des organisations partenaires.

À la mémoire de Ken Saro-Wiwa : Ses livres réimprimés
http://www.africanbookscollective.com

Pour coïncider avec le dixième anniversaire de l’exécution de Ken Saro-Wiwa, et en association avec la coalition « Remember Ken Saro-Wiwa », African Books Collective vous offre des nouvelles éditions de ses ?uvres les mieux connues. Veuillez visiter le site web ABC à http://www.aficanbookscollective.com pour une liste de tous les titres.

Pambazuka is grateful to Sara Gibson (Yale University) who has translated this article on behalf of Translations for Progress.

The Libyan Supreme Court's reported a decision on October 9 to retry 86 political prisoners is a hopeful sign of reform, Human Rights Watch has announced. These Muslim Brotherhood members have served seven years in prison for nonviolent activities after being convicted by a now-closed tribunal that violated fair-trial standards under Libyan and international law. "While the Libyan government had promised us that the political prisoners would be released unconditionally, their retrial is still a welcome step," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa director. "The Libyan authorities should now provide a prompt and fair trial with international observers."

Alarmed by reports regarding the administration of the death penalty in Uganda, and aware that a petition filed in September 2003 against the death penalty, signed by 417 death row inmates, was pending before the Constitutional Court of Uganda, Networking Human Rights Defenders (FIDH), decided to send an international fact-finding mission to the country. The mandate of the mission was to inquire into the administration of the capital punishment in Uganda, including the conditions of detention on death row. The objective was also to assess the possibility of Uganda abolishing the death penalty, or adopting a moratorium on capital punishment, as a first step towards its abolition, and to issue recommendations in that regard. For the full report, follow the link.

Opinions on genetically modified crops are very much polarised, so who makes decisions on their adoption? The level of stakeholder consultation by governments varies between countries, and civil society groups may only have limited lobbying access. This Panos report on GM decision-making takes a look at the issue of genetically modified crops in five developing countries, examines the influence NGOs and the media, and argues for full public participation in the GM debate.

More than 20 wildlife groups have urged Kenya's president to reverse a decision made the week of October 3 to downgrade Amboseli National Park to a game reserve. This means control of the Rift Valley wildlife haven will move from the Kenya Wildlife Service to a local authority, run by the area's Maasai community. Opponents of the change say it is an attempt to win Maasai votes ahead of next month's constitution referendum. But supporters say the Maasai will now benefit from Amboseli's revenue.

First official results have been declared in Liberia after the historic elections following the 14-year civil war which ended in 2003. With votes counted from a fraction of the 3,000 polling stations, one of the favourites, ex-footballer George Weah, is ahead in the presidential race. He has 27.5% of the 34,901 votes counted. Another fancied contender, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has 16.7%.

Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, has fixed a November 26 date for elections to a new house of parliament criticised by the main opposition, state television reported October 12. Mugabe had already said the election would take place late next month. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which since 2000 has posed the biggest challenge to Mugabe's quarter-century rule, has not yet decided whether it will contest the Senate elections. The MDC has said the Senate is designed to accommodate Mugabe's supporters, and the party, like many Western governments, accuses Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF of rigging elections over the past five years. Mugabe used Zanu-PF's two-thirds majority in parliament to push through constitutional amendments in August, including provision for the Senate. Fifty members of the 66-seat Senate will be elected and the remainder appointed.

More than 70 education ministers and high-ranking officials responsible for education will meet during UNESCO's General Conference in Paris (7-8 October) to explore practical ways to address Education for All challenges by building on positive examples from different parts of the world. The Round Table will be opened by Koochiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO. The case for education as a human right, tool of personal empowerment and means for cultural development will be reaffirmed.

A government programme to provide primary school children with free lunches has been launched in Nigeria, to encourage parents to educate their children - and to ensure that pupils learn effectively. While a campaign to achieve universal primary education was started in 1999, it has become clear that poverty is still resulting in the exclusion of millions of children from the West African country's education system. The prospect of free lunches can make sending children to school a more attractive proposition for poor parents. According to Ayalew Abai, country representative in Nigeria for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), there is evidence to suggest that free school meals lead to increased attendance -- and better performance on the part of pupils.

UN reform has been discussed practically since its inception in 1945. Initial suggested reforms focused on making amendments to the Charter itself. Since then, the debate has shifted to the organization of the relevant bodies. The current phase of the UN reform debate was initiated and supported by the Secretary General. In September 2005 governments came together to make some of these decisions. This 'Reform the UN' document highlights the main outcomes and commitments of the UN World Summit within the respective categories: development, peace and collective security, human rights and the rule of law, strengthening the UN.

All the commitments made by both donors and African countries to lift the continent out of poverty will be consolidated into one action plan and monitored on an annual basis, the Department for International Development announced. The leading Group of Eight nations have pledged universal access to HIV treatment by 2010. There has also been a commitment to set a date for the ending of export subsidies, which will give poor countries a fairer trading environment with the west. Anti-malarial drugs and treated mosquito nets will be available to 85% of Africans vulnerable to malaria by 2015. Meanwhile, African nations have pledged to undergo a review of democratic processes once every two years.

This study examines the causes of Zimbabwe's brain drain focusing on college and university students. 77% of students said that they were being encouraged or strongly encouraged to leave the country by their families, so that they could send remit funds, just for survival. The paper concludes that a coercive approach to the brain drain would only intensify the level of discontent and for most of the students would make absolutely no difference to their emigration intentions. It suggests that the best way to curb the high rates of skilled labour migration lies in addressing the economic fundamentals of the country in a way that will ultimately improve living standards.

The October 17th message is: " Wherever men and women are condemned to live in extreme poverty, human rights are violated. To come together to ensure that these rights be respected is our solemn duty. " (F. Joseph Wresinski). The theme of the United Nations for the International day for poverty eradication 2005 is "Achieving the Millennium Development Goals - empowering the poorest of the poor." Since its creation, October 17th has been a day for those living in extreme poverty to speak out and for all citizens to consider how they can contribute to the eradication of extreme poverty. For more information follow the link.