|
 PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (AP) - From his studio overlooking Port Harcourt cemetery, Pius Waritimi watched a police truck deliver the bodies of nine human rights and environmental activists fresh from the gallows.
As police whipped onlookers, the sculptor tried to intervene and suffered a punctured eardrum. Tadi Chukwukere said he and the other gravediggers were all detained for weeks lest they divulge the location of the graves.
Ten years later, the dictator who ordered the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight fellow campaigners against the oil multinationals in Nigeria is dead. Nigeria has a democratically elected government and Saro-Wiwa, now entombed with honor in his hometown, is a global icon.
|