Chris McGreal
The family of the executed Nigerian writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa, is at odds with the organisation he once led over plans to exhume and rebury him and eight other Ogoni activists hanged after a show trial in 1995.
Saro-Wiwa’s eldest son, Ken Wiwa, has objected to the creation of a “burial committee” by the present leaders of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop). The committee, which had tried to take charge of the reburial of the “Ogoni martyrs”, is backed by families of some of the other executed men.
In a statement from his home in Canada, Ken Wiwa said he was “deeply offended and insulted” that Mosop had not consulted his family. Wiwa said his father left a will with specific instructions about his funeral and that the family had its own plans to rebury him on April 24.
The dispute flared up after Nigeria’s President, Olusegun Obasanjo, gave permission for the bodies of the nine men buried in anonymous graves in a Port Harcourt cemetery to be returned to their families. Some members of Mosop believe that because Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged as the movement’s leader, Mosop should control the funeral arrangements.
The Wiwa family has itself been criticised by relatives of the other executed men for asking American pathologists to exhume and identify the remains. Some relatives say they were not consulted, while others say they want compensation from the government, and that the best way to keep attention on the issue is to leave the bodies where they are.
Esther Kiobel, widow of Barinem Kiobel, has criticised both sides. She claims the Wiwa family failed to seek her permission to exhume her husband, and accuses Mosop of trying to make political capital from the reburials.
“The different versions of the burial arrangements and the gimmicks, tricks, politicking, manipulations and dehumanisation of some elements in Mosop leave much to be desired,” she said.
“These people who gave their lives for the survival of the Ogoni people are now being used by some people to gain cheap political fame and for profit.”
But Ken Wiwa insisted that the other families were consulted about the exhumations and that “the offer was warmly received and accepted”.
Saro-Wiwa’s relatives asked Physicians for Human Rights to identify the hanged Ogonis but the organisation postponed the exhumation after the other families protested.
Saro-Wiwa was tried by a military tribunal for the murders of four Ogoni chiefs killed by a mob after they fell out with the Mosop leadership.
The tribunal convicted Saro-Wiwa of murder even though there was no evidence that he was present or gave orders for the killings. But the widows of the four murdered chiefs blamed him for creating a climate of intolerance and for the vilification of anyone who disagreed with his strategy.