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Environmental Activists Arrested in Nigeria Urge Your Representatives and Senators to Support New Sanctions Bills The brutal dictator that rules Nigeria continues to thumb his nose at the rest of the world. The human rights advocacy organization Human Rights Watch today revealed that two environmental activists attending the biannual conference of the African Forest Action Network in Lagos were arrested on May 26 at one of the country’s ubiquitous "bribe and go" road blocks. Isaac Osuoka of Nigeria’s Environmental Rights Action and Dutch environmentalist Aart van den Hoek were arrested after soldiers searching their car found leaflets relating to human rights abuses in the Niger Delta. Van den Hoek was released the following day, while Osuoka remains in jail -- along with his attorney who today was also arrested after meeting with his client. Meanwhile in America, the country that consumes most of Nigeria’s oil, two new bills have been introduced in Congress which legislators hope will speed a return to democracy in Africa’s most populous country. While "The Nigeria Democracy and Civil Society Empowerment Act of 1998" (H.R. 3890 and S. 2102) essentially codifies existing sanctions on economic assistance and military aid imposed by President Clinton over the past several years, its passage would send an important message to both Nigeria’s General Sani Abacha and the Clinton administration. The Sierra Club and other environmental and human rights advocates have been frustrated by the administration’s unwillingness to support stronger measures, including oil sanctions, which many believe would help break the military junta’s firm grip on power. Oil is 80 percent of Nigerian government revenues, with most if not all of the profits whisked away to the general’s foreign bank accounts. In response to the 1995 execution of esteemed Nigerian writer and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Sierra Club Board of Directors voted to support an embargo of Nigerian oil and a boycott of Shell Oil until such time as the Abacha government resigns and steps are taken to restore democratic government to Nigeria; the bodies of the nine Ogoni victims who were executed November 10, 1995 are returned to their families for burial; and Royal Dutch Shell cleans up its existing pollution, pays compensation for damages caused by its pollution , and agrees to abide by environmental standards no weaker than they would be required to meet within the United States. Nigeria announced today that it has rejected a United States proposal to send a diplomatic delegation with a message for military ruler Abacha, unless the U.S. agrees to receive a similar "high-powered" delegation of Nigerian officials. Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
