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Global Day of Remembrance: 16th anniversary of the murder of Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa

By atm.admin - Posted on November 10th, 2011
Day of Remembrance of the Heroes and Martyrs in the Struggle Against Mining, Oil and Gas

10 November 2011:
New Report for Day of Remembrance of the Heroes and Martyrs in the Struggle Against Mining, Oil and Gas

10 November 2011 – Today, on the 16th anniversary of the murder of Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa - a day of remembrance of the victims of mining, oil and gas - Friends of the Earth International releases a new report and renews its commitment to the struggle for justice for the communities who suffer the consequences of extractive industries.

The new report [1], released on November 10, is entitled 'Memory, Truth and Justice for Heroes in the Resistance against Mining Oil and Gas' and exposes the murders of many human rights and environmental activists all over the world for defending their rights and natural resources.

Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders were executed on 10 November 1995 for speaking out against the impact of Shell and other oil companies in the Niger Delta.

Nnimmo Bassey, the chair of Friends of the Earth International, from Nigeria, said:

“Ken Saro-Wiwa was a hero who died because of the world’s addiction to fossil fuels. His words still ring true in our ears today. This is why we set November 10 as a day of remembrance of the victims of mining, oil and gas. We demand that those who have orchestrated the murder of people for the sake of profits should be held to account. We also demand environmental justice and an end to fossil fuels: be it crude, tar sands or coal.”

Romel de Vera, coordinator of the Resisting Mining, Oil and Gas program of Friends of the Earth International, said:
“We condemn the fact that many governments favor and protect the interests of extractive industry corporations instead of the right of communities to land and resources. The list of community rights defenders, environmentalists and social activists killed in the course of their struggle against mining, oil and gas continues to grow even longer. On November 10, remembrance actions are held all over the world to commemorate their heroism and celebrate their lives and struggles, as well as to condemn the culture and cycle of death forced upon us by the extractives industry.”

Natalia Atz Sunuc, coordinator of the Resisting Mining, Oil and Gas program of Friends of the Earth International, said: “Many brothers and sisters have been murdered in Asia, Africa, and the Americas for defending life and their territories. We demand an end to the repression against those who defend life and an end to the criminalization of the people who defend their territories. The work of our heroes shall not be in vain”.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

IN AFRICA
Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director of ERA-Friends of the Earth Nigeria and chair of Friends of the Earth International: nnimmo@eraction.org, +234 803 727 4395 (Nigeria)

IN ASIA
Romel de Vera, coordinator of the Resisting Mining, Oil and Gas program of Friends of the Earth International, meldevera@gmail.com, or Tel +63 917 801 7097 (Philippines)

IN LATIN AMERICA
Natalia Atz Sunuc, coordinator of the Resisting Mining, Oil and Gas program of Friends of the Earth International: coordinacion@ceibaguate.org or Tel +502-47815617 (Guatemala)

NOTES
[1] The report can be downloaded from
http://www.foei.org/en/resources/publications/pdfs/2011/memory-truth-and...

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COMMENT RULES:

Hi everyone,

I'm the national coordinator of Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM), the owner of this site.

We will always respect views and opinions posted on this site, as much as we encourage open discussion and intelligent debate on the issue of mining. ATM has its stand on this issue very clearly, and we welcome the comments from those who do not agree with us.

However, we have observed that in the past few days, this forum has gone way beyond acceptable behavior of netiquette.

I will request and strongly encourage all posters to at least follow the following rules:

1. Be civil. Basic courtesy and privacy norms should be practised by posters in this forum. Make your mom at least proud by showing you still remember to be polite, even if you're not required to say "po" or "opo" in every post you make. We wouldn't mind that either, if you do so. Then again, I am assuming here that you're already an adult.

2. Personal attacks will not be tolerated. This also applies to flaming. Just in case you don't know what flaming is, its deliberately insulting or personally ranting against a poster (or a thread) simply because you are losing the arguments.

3. Avoid being anonymous. Since you have enough time to post long comments, you would at least have a few seconds to type even an alias. You also help people conclude that you are not a paid hack from a PR firm by Intex (or any other mining company)

4. Do not shout in the forums. Do not use ALL CAPS in your posts. A single exclamation point should also suffice.

We will observe the forum in the next few days. Should these rules be disregarded, we will transform this into a minimally-moderated forum. We hope we will avoid the situation that we will decide to make this a closely and strictly moderated forum. We value everyone's insights so much.

We'll check up again on this new rules after a short while. Of course, we expect the Intex ECC to be revoked in a few days. In this case, I suspect that the "excitement" in this thread would have died down.

Jaybee Garganera
National Coordinator
ATM
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