November 12, 1995
Web posted at: 10:40 a.m. EST (1540 GMT)
AUCKLAND, New Zealand (CNN) -- Leaders of the Commonwealth, a grouping of Britain and its former colonies, on Sunday gave Nigeria two years to embrace democratic reform or face expulsion. In an unprecedented move on Saturday, the Commonwealth suspended the western African nation from the 52-member organization for executing nine environmentalists, including Nobel Peace Prize nominee Ken Saro-Wiwa.
British Prime Minister John Major said the Commonwealth had no choice "but to respond swiftly and decisively." He confirmed Nigeria will be re-admitted only after it returns to a civilian democracy and releases political prisoners. (235K AIFF sound or 235K WAV sound) Major also announced a total ban on British defense exports to Nigeria.
South African President Nelson Mandela, whose nation is a Commonwealth member, said that because all attempts at "persuasive diplomacy" had failed, it was time to take tougher action against Nigeria's military regime. (48K AIFF sound or 48K WAV sound) "We are filled with such a revulsion and disgust with what Nigeria has done."
Commonwealth leaders established a panel of foreign ministers that will monitor Nigeria's progress.
David Attah, a spokesman for Nigeria's leader, Gen. Sani Abacha, told BBC World Service radio that Nigeria was sad and displeased at the suspension. "We see it as most unfortunate, unfair and baseless, and it doesn't seem to approximate events and developments in Nigeria," he said.
The people of Nigeria, like the rest of the world, were stupefied by Friday's executions. These were the fastest executions in the nation's history, said the president of the Nigerian Medical Association.
Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight friends were put to death 10 days after they were convicted of the murder of four leaders of the Ogoni ethnic community.
In a press statement, the National Association of Nigerian Students declared Abacha a "persona non grata," and said they would not hesitate to vent their anger.
All was quiet this weekend in the Southern city of Port Harcourt, where the executions took place. The military regime was taking no chances, however, deploying riot police and tanks to quell any protest that might erupt.
The United States and several European countries have recalled their ambassadors from Nigeria, but Nigerian human rights activists urged the Commonwealth and the United States on Sunday to turn the screws on Nigeria's military government by boycotting its oil.
Nigerian opposition groups have long pleaded to the world to impose economic sanctions on the country. They argue that it is the only way to force Abacha's regime to restore democracy. But Prime Minister Major said such a punishment would cause "worse unemployment, worse poverty, worse misery and worse starvation." In a less drastic step Sunday, the European Commission, basec in Brussels, Belgium, said it is suspending development cooperation with Nigeria, and will propose to European Union members that further restrictions be imposed.
The United States has banned military sales and imposed travel restrictions on Nigerian government officials. And the Clinton administration directed Madeleine Albright, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to seek punitive U.N. measures. But Reuters news service quotes a senior White House official as saying an oil embargo is not under consideration. The U.S. buys half of Nigeria's oil exports.
Nigerian oil is produced in a joint venture partnership with powerful Western multinational corporations, among them the Anglo-Dutch giant Shell, U.S. firms Mobil, Chevron, Texaco and Ashland, France's Elf Aquitaine and Agip SpA of Italy.
One crisis after another has rocked Africa's most populous nation since 1993, when the army annulled a presidential election. Last month, yielding to pressure from the West, Abacha commuted the death sentences of more than 40 people, including former ruler Olusegun Obasango. They allegedly had plotted to overthrow the military government.
Saro-Wiwa, 54, had championed the rights of the Ogoni people, who make up a tiny part of Nigeria's population.
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