Re: Clashes in the Delta...

[Robert Cotter <rcotter@mindspring.com>]

  19/7/97 NIGERIA  - REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
  
  : NIGERIAN SOLDIER TO BE TRIED FOR KILLING OGONI MAN.
  
  LAGOS, July 19 (Reuter) - A Nigerian soldier will face a court martial
  for
  allegedly shooting and killing an Ogoni youth, an army commander said on
  Saturday.
  
  Ogonis are a small tribe in the oil-producing southeastern corner of
  Nigeria,
  whose leaders, including author Ken Saro-Wiwa, were hanged in 1995,
  provoking
  worldwide condemnation of Nigeria.
  
  State news agency NAN quoted Major Obi Umahi, commander of troops in
  volatile
  Ogoniland as saying at a news conference there that the incident occured
  on
  July 12.
  
  He said "the soldier acted illegally and without authority by shooting
  and
  killing Barika Kogbara," NAN reported.
  
  Umahi commands a task force sent to Ogoniland in 1992 to stop fighting
  between Ogonis and neighbouring Andoni tribe but which has stayed to
  enforce
  security.
  
  Ogoni minority rights campaigners frequently accuse the force of
  brutalising
  the strong populution, a charge the authorities deny.