Shell faces murder charges

By Karen McGregor

New York, Sept. 19— Allegations that the oil multinational Shell aided and abetted the torture and murder of Nigerian activists – including the executed writer Ken Saro-Wiwa (pictured right)– will be tested by a full jury trial in New York, after the oil company’s attempts to have the case thrown out were rejected.

Shell will also stand accused of orchestrating a series of raids by the Nigerian military on villages in the Ogoni region that left more than 1,000 people dead and 20,000 homeless.

Saro-Wiwa and eight others were arrested in 1994 after a fatal attack on former leaders of their Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (Mosop). In a case that shocked the world, and was widely reported to be a legal farce, they were found guilty of the murders by military tribunal and executed in November 1995.

Now the case of the “Ogoni Nine,” as they became known, has come back to haunt the Dutch and British owners of Shell Nigeria.

The lawsuit was lodged by the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York on behalf of three Nigerian emigrés to the US, including Saro-Wiwa’s brother Dr. Owens Wiwa, and a woman identified as “Jane Doe” to protect her safety.

Their claims could run to tens of millions of dollars in damages against the oil company. “We believe Shell facilitated Saro-Wiwa’s execution,” said Jenny Green, of the Center for Constitutional Rights, after the judgment. “We believe there is a basis in US law to hold Shell accountable.”

Dr. Owens Wiwa and the other plaintiffs claim to have suffered abuse or to be related to victims of a state terror campaign against Ogonis who fought oil exploration in Nigeria’s Rivers State. They specifically allege that Shell Nigeria:

*Lent boats to Nigerian troops in September 1993 which were used to attack Ogoni villages. On the days of the attacks, a helicopter chartered by Shell surveilled three villages where military operations led to the massacre of more than 1,000 villagers.

*Made cash payments to military police who shot a 74-year-old man and two youths in the presence of Shell employees.

*Specifically requested the assistance of Nigeria’s notorious “kill-and-go” mobile police force to quell protests. In late 1990 these police carried out massive “scorched earth” operations, culminating in the massacre of 80 villagers and the destruction of hundreds of homes.

*Called in government troops to fire on Biara villagers who were peacefully protesting at the destruction of their homes to build the Rumuekpe-Bomu oil pipeline

*Participated in the fabrication of murder charges and the bribery of witnesses to give false testimony against Saro-Wiwa, the youth leader John Kpuinen, and other protest leaders, who were repeatedly detained and tortured by the government and later convicted of murder and hanged.

*Coercively appropriated land for oil development without adequate compensation, and proceeded to seriously pollute air and water in Ogoniland.

They also contend that they and family members were imprisoned, tortured and killed by the Nigerian government at the instigation of the oil company, in reprisal for their opposition to oil exploration, and were not afforded the legal protection required by international law.

“Jane Doe” claims to have been beaten and shot by the Nigerian military in a raid on her village. A further contention is that Saro-Wiwa’s family – including his 74-year-old mother — were beaten by Nigerian officials while attending his trial.

Shell was “disappointed” that its appeal had been rejected and said it was “still considering” in detail what its response would be if the case were to come to trial.

For years the Ogoni people, who live in the small but highly populated and formerly fertile Rivers State in Nigeria, waged an activists’ war against a dictatorial state and multinational oil companies they accused of destroying their environment.

Shell Nigeria first began its operations in 1958, when Nigeria was still a British colony. The country has vast oil reserves and oil accounts for some 90 percent of export earnings and 80 percent of state revenue.

The Ogonis, a minority ethnic group with little political clout, had no say then (or after independence in 1960) over oil activities that spawned more than 100 wells and, it is estimated, more than 3,000 oil spills.

The Ogonis’ campaign began in the early 1990s as a peaceful protest movement but became a dirty struggle, literally and figuratively, that saw an increasingly militant Mosop – which protested against poverty and environmental damage, and demanded autonomy for the Ogoni with a share in oil revenues – violently repressed by the dictatorial Nigerian military government. Oil producers saw Mosop as bad for business, while the government saw it as a secessionist and political threat and focused on Ogoni leaders for repression.

The lawsuit was originally filed in a Manhattan federal court in 1996 under laws that allow action in the US against firms accused of human rights abuses anywhere in the world. It alleges rights violations involving the Dutch-owned Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. and its sister company, Shell Transport and Trading Company Plc., based in Britain.

They jointly control the multinational Royal Dutch-Shell Group, a network of affiliated but independent oil and gas firms, one of which is Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria (Shell Nigeria) – the country’s biggest oil producer.

Royal Dutch, which wants the case heard in England, said that the Nigerians’ allegations were “false and unsubstantiated.” The ruling, it added, “is about where the case should be brought, if it is brought at all, and not about the merits of the allegations.” The US Circuit Court of Appeals, however, considered the case sufficiently valid to overrule a 1998 lower court judge, who dismissed it on jurisdictional grounds. That dismissal itself overruled an earlier court finding that jurisdiction did exist. The appeals court judge Pierre Leval said the lower court “failed to give weight” to three factors that favored US jurisdiction for the trial.

First, some of the plaintiffs now live in the US and chose the forum. Second, the lower court had ignored interests of the US in providing a forum for human rights claims. And finally, “the factors that led the district court to dismiss in favor of a British forum were not compelling.”

Judge Leval also said that “new formulations” of the Torture Victims’ Protection Act of 1991 “convey the message” that torture committed under the law of a foreign nation in violation of international law are also violations of US domestic law. The district court, he also argued, failed to consider financial hardship the plaintiffs would suffer if the case was moved to Britain, and sent it back to district court for further argument.

Environmental groups such as Earthlife Africa accused oil companies of causing serious damage without consulting the Ogonis, and there were allegations that oil companies were behind the terror campaign. But the world largely ignored the events that led up to the execution of the Ogonis and Saro-Wiwa, whom Amnesty declared a prisoner of conscience.

The main allegations

The plaintiffs allege that:

1: They (and their next of kin) were imprisoned, tortured, and killed by the Nigerian government at the instigation of Shell Nigeria, in reprisal for their political opposition to the Shell’s oil exploration.

2: Shell Nigeria coercively appropriated land for oil development without adequate compensation, and caused substantial pollution of the air and water in the homeland of the Ogoni people.

3: Shell Nigeria recruited the Nigerian police and military to attack local villages and suppress the organized opposition to its development activity.

4: Ken Saro-Wiwa and John Kpuinen (leaders of the Ogoni opposition group Mosop) were repeatedly arrested, detained and tortured by the Nigerian government because of their roles in the protest movement.

5: In 1995, Saro-Wiwa and Kpuinen were hanged, along with other Ogoni leaders, after being convicted of murder by a special military tribunal. They were allegedly convicted on fabricated evidence solely to silence political criticism and were not afforded the legal protections required by international law.

6: The complaint further alleges that plaintiff Owens Wiwa (Saro-Wiwa’s brother) was illegally detained by Nigerian authorities, that plaintiff Jane Doe was beaten and shot by the Nigerian military in a raid upon her village, and that Saro-Wiwa’s family – including Ken Saro-Wiwa’s 74-year-old mother – were beaten by Nigerian officials while attending his trial.

7: According to the complaint, while these abuses were carried out by the Nigerian government and military, they were instigated, orchestrated, planned, and facilitated by Shell Nigeria under the direction of the defendants.

8: The Royal Dutch/Shell Group allegedly provided money, weapons, and logistical support to the Nigerian military, including the vehicles and ammunition used in the raids on the villages, procured at least some of these attacks, participated in the fabrication of murder charges against Saro-Wiwa and Kpuinen, and bribed witnesses to give false testimony against them.

Source: The Independent

Prague flooded with activists arriving to protest IMF/World Bank

Prague, Czech Republic, Sept. 16— Border crossings into the Czech Republic were jammed yesterday as thousands of anti-globalization protesters began streaming into the country for next week’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank annual meeting.

Motorists on the Austrian, German, Polish and Slovak borders were delayed for up to eight hours as the police checked almost every vehicle for weapons, ammunition and explosives, fearing that they would be used in riots during the September 19 to 28 summit.

Long delays were also reported at Prague airport and on the railways.

The police and pressure groups reported that scores of people had been turned back at the border, mostly to Germany.

As the biggest security operation in the Czech Republic’s history got under way, the police stressed that their main aim was not to crush the demonstrations or the scheduled “counter summit.”

“Our prime concern is to ensure the smooth-running of the conference from start to finish,” the police president, Jiri Kolar, said.

He said that after close cooperation with officers from the FBI and Scotland Yard, the Czech police had lists of “several hundred people whose entry into the Czech Republic is undesirable at the time of the meeting,” including protesters who took part in the May Day riots in London.

About 23,000 delegates and 15,000 to 25,000 protesters are expected to attend the meeting.

There have been 5,000 bookings over the internet for a “tent city” set up in a former communist concrete monolith, the Strahov stadium.

This is the first such event to be held in a country of the former Soviet bloc, and the authorities are nervous.

Eleven thousand police officers-- more than a quarter of the country’s entire force-- backed up by 1,600 soldiers will be present in Prague. About 100 independent observers will monitor the actions of the police.

“We’ve never had to deal with anything like this before,” the police spokeswoman, Ivana Zelenakova, said. “The water cannons have not been used since the demonstrations in the run-up to the ‘Velvet Revolution’ of 1989, so we’re having to dust them off.”

Teargas equipment has been borrowed from Germany.

“The British police persuaded us to use mounted police because they create a distinct psychological advantage by towering above protesters,” said Ms. Zelenakova.

Unlike the protests at the annual Spring meetings of the Bank and IMF in April, the Prague demonstrations are expected to be more organized and will be supported by similar actions in many capitals of the world as the voices against corporate globalization rise.

“Our aim is to amplify, not to speak for, but to amplify the voices of the people of global south in places where they are not able to be present, as in Prague,’’ says Njoki Njoroge Njehu director of the 50 Years is Enough Campaign. “Despite reports to the contrary, the global coalition against globalization is getting stronger.’’

The 50 Years is Enough Campaign, a US-based network for economic justice is part of the global movement that is organizing the Sep. 26 protests during the World Bank and IMF annual meetings.

The Sep. 19-28 meetings are being held amid growing calls from civil society organizations, trade unions and student movements for a reform of the operations of the Bretton Woods institutions and a suspension of their policies in developing countries.

The international non-governmental groups behind the 50 Years is Enough Campaign are pushing seven demands on the Bank and IMF. These are:

*the cancellation of all debts owed them by poor nations

*an immediate halt to the imposition of economic austerity measures and the abandonment of all versions of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative offering relief in exchange for policy reforms

*the acceptance of responsibility for the disastrous impact of the structural adjustment programs (SAPs) and other macro- economic reforms on the economy of poor countries

*the payment of reparations to people relocated and harmed by large projects that the IMF and World Bank have funded, such as dams

*that the World Bank cease giving advice through the International Finance Corporation to advance the goals associated with corporate globalization, advice such as privatization

*that Bank and IMF officials complicit in abetting corruption be prosecuted and that the institutions involved provide compensation for resources stolen or damaged

*that the future existence, structure and policies of international financial institutions be determined through a democratic and transparent process.

Thea Lee of AFL-CIO, a confederation of US labor unions, says because there is a connection between the struggles of workers in developing countries living under SAPs and workers in industrialized nations, AFL-CIO will join the Sep. 26 activities.

“We cannot win at home if we cannot stand for worker’s rights around the world,’’ says Lee.

Source: Kate Connolly (Reuters) and Gumisai Mutume (IPS)