Three killed in bloody clash in Nigeria

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) -- A memorial service in honor of executed Nigerian author Ken Saro-Wiwa ended in a bloody clash in oil-producing Ogoniland with three people killed and three wounded, witnesses said on Saturday.

The clash between rival groups of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), which Saro-Wiwa founded, took place shortly after a church service marking the fifth anniversary of the hanging of Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders, in a school in the southern Rivers State.

Witnesses said one of the factions, irked by being excluded from the event, began a protest march which degenerated into bloody fighting.

A vehicle carrying a Reuters television crew was attacked, but the occupants escaped unhurt.

A Reuters correspondent said the protesters attacked shops and market traders with clubs and machetes, chanting war songs.

Police in the area confirmed the incident but were unable to give casualty figures.

The split in MOSOP began last year over a reburial plan for Saro Wiwa, with one faction opposing a burial without Saro-Wiwa's body, as did the families of the eight others.

Saro Wiwa led a strident campaign against the Nigerian government and Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell for a better deal for the Ogoni people, saying oil exploitation had devastated their environment and left them in poverty.

The hanging of the nine by the then ruling military junta led by General Sani Abacha led to international sanctions against Nigeria, which was also suspended from the Commonwealth.

Abacha died in 1998 and Nigeria was re-admitted to the body grouping former British territories after the return of democratic rule last year.

Saro-Wiwa's successor as MOSOP leader, Ledum Mitee, said in a statement issued on Saturday the violence would not "lessen the commitment of the vast majority of the Ogoni people to peacefully expressing their demands for justice."

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