The body of Nigerian minority rights activist and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, executed seven years ago to worldwide outrage, has been exhumed for a ”decent” reburial, his family said on Wednesday.
Saro-Wiwa and eight of his companions in the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (Mosop) were hanged in November 1995 after they were convicted of the murder of four Ogoni traditional chiefs.
They pleaded their innocence, but were executed by the then military regime despite calls for clemency from individuals and organisations from Nigeria and around the world.
International sanctions were imposed on Nigeria, which was suspended from the Commonwealth.
Saro-Wiwa’s younger brother, Owens Wiwa, a doctor, said experts from the US-based group Physicians for Human Rights were involved in the identification of the exhumed bodies.
The exhumation began last week, he said in a statement released to reporters.
Since the activists’ execution and burial in a simple public cemetery, Mosop and Saro-Wiwa’s family have clamoured for the release of the corpses for a befitting reburial as tradition demands.
Mosop, founded and headed by Saro-Wiwa, also demanded compensation last year before a human rights panel which investigated three decades of rights violations, especially under the Nigerian military.
The panel, headed by respected supreme court judge Chukwudifu Oputa, submitted its report to government last May in which it made recommendations, including those affecting the Ogoni People. The recommendations have not been officially released.
”I think the exhumation of the corpses is a matter between the government and the families concerned. It may also be part of the recommendations of the human rights panel,” said Mosop president Ledum Mitee.
”Mosop has not been officially brought into the matter. At any point the families want Mosop to assist, we will surely do,” said Mitee, who succeeded Saro-Wiwa.
Mitee, a lawyer, was charged but acquitted of the same crime of which Saro-Wiwa was convicted.
The Ogoni are a small community living in the oil-rich Niger delta. Their leaders believe Ogoniland is being exploited by oil multinationals and that its people being neglected. – Sapa-AFP