PHR to Exhume Ken Saro-Wiwa Fri, 11 Feb 2000 09:04:43 -0500 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - mosopgb@hotmail.com http://www.theMarcusGarveyBBS.com Physicians for Human Rights to Exhume Remains of Nigerian Activist Ken Saro-Wiwa FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 25, 2000 Contact: Nathaniel A. Raymond, (617) 695-0041, ext. 220 Home: (617) 492-3476 Barbara Ayotte, (617) 695-0041, ext.210 On January 30, at the Wiwa family's request and with Nigerian President Obasanjo's permission, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) will send Drs. William Haglund, Robert Kirschner, and Doug Scott of PHR's International Forensic Program to Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. Their task will be to exhume and identify the remains of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists. The PHR team will be accompanied by Saro-Wiwa's brother, Dr. Owens Wiwa. After PHR's identification of Saro-Wiwa's and the others'remains, the Wiwa family will hold an official burial on April 24, 2000 in Ogoni, Nigeria. In 1998, a PHR forensic pathologist assisted in the autopsy of Chief Abiola in Nigeria. That year, the Wiwa family also requested that the government release the bodies of Ken Saro-Wiwa for a proper burial. PHR has conducted similar post-mortem examinations in all parts of the world, including Afghanistan, El Salvador, South Korea, Rwanda, Israel, the former Yugoslavia, Guatemala, Kosovo, Sri Lanka, East Timor, Cyprus, and elsewhere. Saro-Wiwa, an environmental and human rights leader, playwright, and founder of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), was hung by a Nigerian military tribunal in November 1995. Claiming Saro-Wiwa conspired in the murders of four fellow Ogoni activists, the military government of General Sani Abacha arrested Saro-Wiwa in 1994 and held him for more than a year without an official charge. He was tortured and denied medical and legal attention and contact with his family. Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed by hanging despite charges from the international community that Saro-Wiwa's trial before military tribunal was unfair and that he was denied the right of appeal. Saro-Wiwa's remains, along with the bodies of the other Ogoni Eight Activists, were interred on a government site in the Ogoni city of Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Physicians for Human Rights will attempt the identification of the remains by using antemortem information such as medical and dental records, clothing, X-rays, and possible DNA testing. It is our fervent hope that this solemn occasion will bring a measure of closure to a sad chapter in our nation's history and usher in a process that will lead to the mitigation of injustice and oppression visited on the Ogoni and other peoples of the Niger Delta, said Owens Wiwa. It is my wish that this cooperation by the government will bring legitimacy for other Ogoni activists and our cause. For 17 years, Ken Saro-Wiwa led protests against multinational oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell for their alleged collusion with the military regime of General Abacha in widespread abuses and killing of thousands of Ogoni people. In the early 1990s, Ogoni activists, the first to protest against the inequalities in the manner in which oil revenues were distributed in Nigeria, also demanded billions of dollars in compensation and royalties from the oil companies for illnesses associated with oil spills and environmental pollution in the Niger River Delta. Physicians for Human Rights is honored to help bring closure to the five-year ordeal of the Wiwa family, stated Dr. William Haglund of PHR. Even if you know who lies in a specific gravesite, having identified remains of a loved one is profoundly important for the grieving process. President Obasanjo's statesmanship in releasing the bodies to the families signals hope for a new spirit of national reconciliation in Nigeria, said Len Rubenstein, PHR's executive director. The eight other Ogoni activists PHR hopes to identify include: Dr.Barinem Kiobel, Saturday Dorbee, Paul Levura, Nordu Eawo, Felix Nuate,Daniel Gboko, John Kpuine, and Baribor Bera. The lab work conducted by PHR will take place at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital Facility. The International Forensic Program (IFP) of Physicians for Human Rights is directed by Dr. Haglund, a forensic anthropologist with extensive experience in death investigations and in the exhumation and examination of mass graves. He has testified before the International Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytaf-02.11.00-09:04:47-21494