Intimidations trigger a response.

• Author: Bright, Chris

Nongovernmental organizations are acting to mobilize more protection for environmentalists, in the face of widespread attacks on activists. Last February, for example, five agents of the Russian FSB (formerly the KGB) arrested Alexandr Nikitin at his home in St. Petersburg. Nikitin, once a chief engineer of a Russian nuclear submarine, now works for the Bellona Foundation, a Norwegian environmental organization that is studying radioactive pollution from Russia's nuclear fleet. Russian authorities claim that Nikitin was selling state secrets - a charge that Bellona denies. Nikitin has been denied the right of attorney and is charged with high treason. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.

Nikitin's plight is hardly unique. All over the world, governments or industries with an interest in preventing environmental reform are subjecting activists to intimidation, physical abuse, and even murder. Last December, in response to such abuses, two NGOs established the world's first formal project dedicated exclusively to protecting the human rights of environmentalists. The Ken Saro-Wiwa Memorial Fund is named after the Nigerian writer and activist who was executed, along with eight colleagues, by the Nigerian government on November 10 of last year. Saro-Wiwa had led the fight against the destruction of the Niger River delta by oil development - a process that is ruining the livelihoods of the Ogoni, the ethnic group to which he belonged. His conviction, on a highly improbable murder charge, was broadly condemned by the international community as an outrage to justice. (See cover story, beginning on page 10.)

The memorial fund was established...