10 years after, families get remains of Saro-Wiwa, others
From Kelvin Ebiri, Port Harcourt
THE bodies of the late environmental activist and playwright, Kenule Saro-Wiwa, and those of six other Ogonis hanged with him, have been returned to their families following the conclusion of a forensic test carried out in Canada to identify their remains.
However, the family of the slain palywright yesterday declined to participate in a meeting of Ogoni stakeholders with President Olusegun Obasanjo, which was held in Port Harcourt. They insisted that the government should first overturn the conviction of the Ogoni nine as a sign of genuine reconciliation.
Saro-Wiwa's remains were returned to his 100-year-father in his native Bane in Khana Local council of Rivers State a few days ago. The bodies of six of the Ogoni Nine identified were also returned to their families. Meanwhile, one of the bodies was still missing while two bodies await de-oxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
Disclosing this to The Guardian yesterday in Port Harcourt, the director of International Forensic Program me for Physicians for Human Rights, William D.Haglund, a forensic expert who carried out the exhumation and the DNA test on the bodies, said the recovery and identification of the remains of the Ogoni Nine had come after a long and arduous process that had taken nearly a decade. According to him, the remains of the Ogonis would bring dignity to the deceased and comfort to the families whose loved one's rights were so brutally violated.
He explained that in the course of trying to ascertain the identities of the Ogonis, the Physicians for Human Rights has used the DNA samples from family members of the executed men and with the assistance of the Bureau of Legal Dentistry in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, he was able to identify the remains of six of the Ogoni Nine, including that of Ken Saro-Wiwa who were hanged on November 10, 1995 by the regime of the late Gen. Sani Abacha. He added that the two identifications were pending, while a ninth victim could not be found.
Haglund debunked the allegation that the executed Ogonis were bathed with acid to make their identification impossible. The forensic expert who was first in Nigeria in 2002 to exhume the bodies in a cemetery in the Rivers State capital said the bodies of the slain men were not mutilated or their bones broken, adding that every thing found out in the process of the test was consistent with hanging. He added too that the activists were not buried in a mass grave.
"We did not find that to be true. The individuals were each in a separate grave. They were buried in a similar casket that the government provided. They had whatever clothes that they have been wearing with them on their bodies. There was no sign in our findings that there had been any acid or chemical spread on their bodies or in the casket".
The Physicians for Human Rights is directed by Haglund, a forensic anthropologist with extensive ex-`perience in death investigation and in the exhumation and examination of individuals and mass graves. He had conducted forensic work under international tribunals for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He also assisted in the autopsy of the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola.
Speaking on behalf of the Saro-Wiwa's family to The Guardian, Dr. Owens Wiwa said the family was relieved to have the remains of Ken returned home to where he belongs. With this achieved, he noted a lot of positive things would begin to happen in Ogoni.
He explained that he was saddened that apart from President Obasanjo's granting directives that the families of the Ogoni Nine be allowed to exhume the remains of their loved ones, the government did not provide any form of financial or moral support to the families to help ascertain the bodies of the slain men. The families under the auspices of well meaning individuals and organisations around the world have spent considerable amount of financial and emotional energy in having this done.
"The next issue is that that conviction, that illegal, false conviction has to be overturned and that to me is the only thing that this government can do to show to the Ogoni people that there is an intention to negotiate and reconcile. Without overturning that conviction, I do not see how the Ogoni people will depart from or leave their leader as a convicted murder and go and negotiate with the murderers", he said.
On the Ogoni stakeholders meeting with the President last night, Wiwa said his family was not interested in the process since the government, which was a part of the crisis had not deemed it proper to address the pertinent issues affecting the Ogoni people.`
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