Shame on Nigeria.

Shame on Nigeria. The military regime’s hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the renowned writer and environmentalist, and eight other champions of minority rights shall not go unpunished. Within days of the outrage, an already shunned nation finds itself even more ostracized. It stands with blood on its hands before an accusing world.

The United States, South Africa and European nations have ordered their ambassadors home. Washington has banned military sales to the Lagos government, and a spokesman said the United States and its allies are considering further sanctions, including an embargo on oil, which gives the West African nation 80% of its export earnings. Unrepentant, the Nigerian generals have recalled their own ambassadors in response. Contacts with the Commonwealth, the organization of former British-ruled nations, have been suspended by Commonwealth officials. Nigeria has become a rogue state.

African heads of state, who traditionally stay out of the internal affairs of their neighbors, also have condemned the killings. South Africa’s President Nelson Mandela headed the campaign for Commonwealth action against Nigeria. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is calling for international sanctions similar to those that helped lead his own nation, then known as Rhodesia, to democracy.

Oil profits finance the corrupt militarists, including President Sani Abacha, who rules with an iron fist and without benefit of free elections. An embargo, or a restriction on sales of oil-related equipment, would cripple Nigeria. Oil is an appropriate target because it played a role in the executions of the nine men last week.

Saro-Wiwa and the eight other dissidents were hanged after a military court sentenced them for murders they did not commit. Those murders took place at a rally held on behalf of their minority group, the Ogoni people, who claim oil companies have spoiled tribal land and polluted water for four decades. The Ongoni are insisting on an ecological cleanup and a share of the oil riches.

For foreigners doing business there, Nigeria already was a horror story, a nation filled with official corruption. Now that image is made even worse and is cast into a global spotlight by the actions last week of Gen. Abacha, a thief who has taken the lives of nine martyrs.