Do You Know Where Your Mayor Is?

In mid-November of 1997 mayors from U.S. cities small and large quietly set off on an expense-paid trip to the African country of Nigeria. Their host? None other than the continent's most notorious human rights abuser (and executor of environmentalists), Gen. Sani Abacha. Traveling ostensibly to attend the annual meeting of the World Conference of Mayors (WCM), the most apparent product of the gathering was its implicit endorsement of an illegal regime. Abacha gave the keynote address.

Few elected officials bothered to inform their citizenry of their destination. Indeed, even the list of attendees appears to have been a closely guarded secret. Until now. The Sierra Club obtained a copy of the conference agenda and a list of speakers which reveals for the first time the names of some of the participating elected officials. When interviewed, WCM Founder Johnny Ford estimated the U.S. delegation number at nearly 100, but refused to release a complete list of U.S. attendees. Then-outgoing Seattle Mayor Norm Rice, of course, is also a former head of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the U.S. affiliate of the WCM.

Questions have been raised about this most recent gathering of the WCM, not so much because of the conference itself, an annual event to bolster trade and tourism, but because of this year's principal funder and host. Nigeria is run by one of the world's most brutal military dictatorships. The U.S. State Dept., in its January 1998 Annual Country Report on Human Rights Practices, calls the military government's human rights record "dismal." Abacha's government, the report said, "relied regularly on arbitrary detention and harassment to silence its most outspoken critics." Nigerian drug trafficking organizations, according to State, are among the leading carriers of Asian heroin into the U.S.

In 1995, Abacha's military tribunal executed noted writer and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa for what most international observers believe was his vocal campaign against the pollution in his community caused by Royal/Dutch Shell. In Nigeria, oil is 80 percent of government revenues--most produced by Shell. Saro-Wiwa's campaign threatened the regime's very lifeblood.

Nigeria is indeed a strange site for U.S. mayors to attend a meeting, especially following the resolution passed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors only a few months prior which recognized Nigeria's "serious human rights abuses" and supported U.S. economic sanctions against the African country. Why, then. would U.S. mayors so eagerly volunteer to give cover to such a despicable regime? To build trade, tourism, and technology transfer perhaps, but it was after all a free trip to Africa. The Nigerian government has, both at the Congressional level and in U.S. media and black-owned media, waged an aggressive campaign, especially since 1995, to polish (and buy off) its tarnished image; the WCM meeting was another arm of that propaganda effort. The U.S. Conference of Mayors in its resolution said that it "welcomes the actions by U.S. cities in support of democracy in Nigeria." Will the mayors and city council representatives who went to Nigeria now be less likely to support such action in their own cities?

Here's the list of some of the U.S. participants. Let's hope they value human rights and environmental protection as much as collecting mileage on British Airways.

Hon. Gary Loster (Conference Chairman), Saginaw MI; Rep. Johnny Ford (WCM Founder), Tuskegee AL; Hon. William Jefferson (member of U.S. Congress (D-LA); Hon. Gordon Bush, East St. Louis IL; Hon. Marion Barry, Washington DC; Hon. Elizabeth Butler, Lizman AL; Hon. Don Juan Williams, Glenarden MD; Hon. Omar Bradley, Compton CA; Hon. Julius Patrick, Boyce LA; Hon. Susan Farley Upton, Urbancrest OH; Hon. Kennard Whitfield, Rockhill MO; Hon. Sondra Ursery, Vandalia MI; Hon. Rosemary Gilliam, Cassopolis MI; Hon. Christopher Bazuaye, Birmingham AL; Hon. Riley Owens, Centerville IL; Hon. Clinton Johnson, City Council President, Mobile AL; Hon. Fred Richardson, Councilman, Mobile AL; Hon. Jim Montgomery, Councilman, Anniston AL.

For more information, visit the Sierra Club website at http://www.sierraclub.org/human-rights/nigeria.html, or e-mail stephen.mills@sierraclub.org.

LAW CONFERENCE: The Public Interest Law Conference is March 5-8 at the Univ. of Oregon in Eugene. This year's theme is "Activists and Advocates Demanding Accountability." See a schedule of panels, speakers and workshops at http://www.pielc.uoregon.edu or contact Joe Serres, joeserr@law.uoregon.edu for more information.

NO SURPRISES: Endangered species advocates had hoped that the delay in promulgating the "No Surprises" rule might mean the Clinton Administration was backing off of the idea, but Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt held a news conference last week to announce its promulgation. The Administration ignored nearly 800 comments in opposition to No Surprises from scientists, state resource agencies, environmental groups, and Members of Congress. Studies published by Western Ancient Forest Campaign, Defenders of Wildlife, and a national group of scientists have drawn attention to the failure of most Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) to meet basic scientific standards; No Surprises would severely curtail possible challenges to flawed HCPs. Over 2.5 million acres of non-federal forests in Washington, Oregon, and California are already affected by HCPs; proposed HCPs could cover another 7.8 million acres. "This No Surprises rule continues to lock in [logging] plans that subsidize rapid resource liquidation and lock out endangered species," said WAFC's Daniel Hall in a release. For more info, contact: WAFC, 1025 Vermont Ave. NW 3rd Floor, Washington, D.C. 20005; 202-879-3188; 202-879-3189 fax; wafcdc@igc.org.

SLOW BURNS: Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) has asked for an extension of the public comment period on the proposed partial moratorium on roadbuilding in National Forest roadless areas. In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, Burns asks for a "series of public meetings in the states most affected by this moratorium," as well as the comment period extension. The deadline for comments was Feb. 27.

Stump Talk is put out every other week by a few ecofreaks. If you want to help out, contact NW Forest Action Group at 206-632-1656 or via email at can@scn.org.