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Accion Zapatista de Austin.
KEN SARO-WIWA'S CLOSING STATEMENT TO THE MILITARY APPOINTED
TRIBUNAL
Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria
My lord,
We all stand before history. I am a man of peace, of ideas.
Appalled by the denigrating poverty of my people who live on a
richly endowed land, distressed by their political
marginalization and economic strangulation, angered by the
devastation of their land, their ultimate heritage, anxious to
preserve their right to life and to a decent living, and
determined to usher to this country as a whole a fair and just
democratic system which protects everyone and every ethnic group
and gives us all a valid claim to human civilization, I have
devoted my intellectual and material resources, my very life to
a cause in which I have total belief and from which I cannot be
blackmailed or intimidated. I have no doubt at all about the
ultimate success of my cause, no matter the trials and
tribulations which I and those who believe with me may encounter
on our journey. Nor imprisonment nor death can stop our ultimate
victory.
I repeat that we all stand before history. I and my colleagues
are not the only ones on trial. Shell is here on trial and it is
as well that it is represented by counsel said to be holding a
watching brief. The Company has, indeed, ducked this
particular trial, but its day will surely come and the lessons
learnt here may prove useful to it for there is no doubt in my
mind that the ecological war that the Company has waged in the
Delta will be called to question sooner than later and the crimes
of that war be duly punished. The crime of the Company's dirty
wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished.
On trial also is the Nigerian nation, its present rulers and
those who assist them. Any nation which can do to the weak and
disadvantaged what the Nigerian nation has done to the Ogoni,
loses a claim to independence and to freedom from outside
influence. I am not one of those who shy away from protecting
injustice and oppression, arguing that they are expected in a
military regime. The military do not act alone. They are
supported by a gaggle of politicians, lawyers, judges, academics
and businessmen, all of them hiding under the claim that they are
only doing their duty, men and women too afraid to wash their
pants of urine. We all stand on trial, my lord, for by our
actions we have denigrated our Country and jeopardised the future
of our children. As we subscribe to the sub-normal and accept
double standards, as we lie and cheat openly, as we protect
injustice and oppression, we empty our classrooms, denigrate our
hospitals, fill our stomachs with hunger and elect to make
ourselves the slaves of those who ascribe to higher standards,
pursue the truth, and honour justice, freedom, and hard work. I
predict that the scene here will be played and replayed by
generations yet unborn. Some have already cast themselves in the
role of villains, some are tragic victims, some still have a
chance to redeem themselves. The choice is for each individual.
I predict that the denoument of the riddle of the Niger delta
will soon come. The agenda is being set at this trial. Whether
the peaceful ways I have favoured will prevail depends on what
the oppressor decides, what signals it sends out to the waitin
public.
In my innocence of the false charges I face here, in my utter
conviction, I call upon the Ogoni people, the peoples of the
Niger delta, and the oppressed ethnic minorities of Nigeria to
stand up now and fight fearlessly and peacefully for their
rights. History is on their side. God is on their side. For
the Holy Quran says in Sura 42, verse 41:"All those that fight
when oppressed incur no guilt, but Allah shall punish the
oppressor." Come the day.
ENDS
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