JERUSALEM/UK: NIGERIAN EXILES REACT TO DEATH OF SANI ABACHA

(9 Jun 1998) English/Nat Nigerian exiles and humanitarian organisations have expressed hope for the country following the death of strongman and former military leader Sani Abacha. Abacha, who came to power in a 1993 coup, faced worldwide condemnation for his hard- line regime. Wole Soyinka, the winner of the 1986 Nobel prize for literature, was charged in absentia from Nigeria with treason and has spoken of a civilian rebellion in the making. He says that Abacha got off lightly if he did die of natural causes. Others are hopeful Nigeria's human rights record may improve under any new leadership. Wole Soyinka, winner of the 1986 Nobel prize for literature - slipped out of Nigeria in November 1994, saying the country was "retreating into the Dark Ages." Abacha charged him in absentia with treason, a crime punishable by death. SOUNDBITE: (English) Q: What is your reaction to the death of General Sani Abacha? A: My reaction is very simple - it is an opportunity for the Nigerian civic society, an opportunity for the Nigerian military and also for the international community. Q: To do what? A: Right. To put pressure on the military to say to the military enough of this nonsense. Enough of this spurious transition programmes. Don't come and start and don't have a power struggle among themselves, you know, to see who is going to put on the mantle of battle - that period is very definitely over. As I was just saying Abacha never governed the country he terrorised the country - he bullied the country. He had power he had no authority he was able to kill, he could take hostages but he never governed the country because the people were not willing to be governed by a brute. They were sick of military dictatorship. So it is up to the military to recognise this and up to the international community to see that we are sick and tired of the degeneration of a potentially great society." SUPER CAPTION: Wole Soyinka, winner of the 1986 Nobel prize for Literature Soyinka's lives in Atlanta but is in the middle of a five-day visit to speak at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The son of the playwright and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed by Abacha for his human rights protests, gave his reaction to the dictator's death. No act drew such public condemnation as the hanging of Saro-Wiwa and eight other political activists. Wiwa said Abacha had the worst human rights record of a long line of dictators. SOUNDBITE: (English) "Abacha has been the worst in a long line of human rights abusers in Nigeria, the thinking has always been that every successive dictator is worse than the previous one, so one hopes that we don't get another dictator because he will have quite a record to better Abacha's appalling record." SUPER CAPTION: Ken Wiwa, son of Ken Saro-Wiwa Human rights groups, who have long condemned Nigeria's human rights record, spoke of a window of hope for the country. SOUNDBITE: (English) "This is a government, a military government which has seen enormous human rights violations in the last few years and Amnesty International hopes that a new government will end those human rights violations and will release the scores of political prisoners, prisoners of conscience, who've been in prison just for their non-violent political beliefs and have been held in appalling conditions throughout the country, even up to the day we're speaking there have been new arrests, so we hope that will all change." SUPERCAPTION: Sarah Pennington, Amnesty International spokesperson Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...