A Voice Silenced

摘要

The world had expected clemency, or at least hoped for it. But Nigeria's military dictators had no mercy for Ken Saro-Wiwa, the country's leading human-rights activist and environmental crusader. After a secret military trial and trumped-up conviction for inciting others to murder, Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists from the Ogoni tribe were hanged at the gallows last Friday morning in Port Harcourt, a city in southwest Nigeria. The 54-year-old writer told NEWSWEEK before his death that he was prepared for the worst. In a letter smuggled out of his prison cell last May—one of his last communications with the outside world—Saro-Wiwa wrote, "I do not fear being executed. I expect it. The men we are dealing with are mindless, stone-age dictators, addicted to blood... They are daylight robbers who kill for money."