UPDATE 2-Ecuador plaintiffs appeal Chevron damages award
6:07pm EST, By Victor Gomez, Reuters

Indigenous farmers say $8.6 bln in damages not enough

Chevron says charges of polluting the jungle are false (Recasts, adds plaintiffs appeal, updates throughout)

LAGO AGRIO, Ecuador, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Ecuadoreans suing U.S. oil giant Chevron Corp (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) for environmental damages on Thursday appealed a recent court ruling that awarded them $8.6 billion, claiming that more money would be needed for cleanup efforts.

Residents of Ecuador’s Amazon jungle say that Texaco, which was later acquired by Chevron, dumped polluted water into their rivers and left drilling waste to fester in unlined pits, charges that the company denies.

At $8.6 billion, the damages figure is one of the biggest environmental judgments ever. But plaintiffs say more money will be needed to clean up the Rhode Island-sized swath of rainforest that they accuse Texaco of wrecking when it operated in area during the 1970s and 1980s. [ID:nN16261158]

In their appeal before a three-judge panel at Sucumbios provincial court, in the heart of Ecuador’s Amazon region, the plaintiffs did not say how much they are seeking in damages.

“We do not have an economic figure. It is an open petition,” lead lawyer Pablo Fajardo told Reuters.

The long legal battle in Ecuador, which has spawned related actions in U.S. courts and international arbitration, is seen as a test case widely watched by international oil companies wary of precedents for other major damage claims.

Chevron inherited the case when it bought Texaco in 2001. It says it cleaned up all waste pits it was responsible for before turning the sites over to Ecuador’s state-owned oil firm, Petroecuador, which still operates in the area.

Chevron says the 17-year-old legal saga has been driven more by greedy trial lawyers than concern for the environment.

Calling the charges false, Chevron says it will seek to overturn Monday’s ruling by Sucumbios court judge Nicolas Zambrano that found the company responsible for pollution.

Resolution could still be years away, and few analysts expect the company to pay anything soon, if at all. Chevron’s stock price was not hit by the Feb. 14 ruling, as investors had widely expected the verdict.

ENFORCEMENT SUSPENDED

Company lawyers filed a 31-page request with the court on Thursday, asking to clarify points included in its ruling.

“Our filing today has the same effect as an appeal in that it suspends the enforcement or execution of the verdict,” Chevron spokesman James Craig told Reuters.

“The judge must resolve our request for clarification of his ruling and, upon doing that, the company will have 72 hours to file its appeal,” he said.

Zambrano’s tiny courtroom is in a rundown building in an Amazon town called Lago Agrio near the Colombian border.

In its request for clarification of his Monday ruling, Chevron wants to know more about the formula that Zambrano used to come up with his damages assessment.

The company is also asking the judge if he viewed outtakes from the 2009 documentary “Crude” that were subpoenaed by Chevron as part of U.S. court proceedings related to the case.

The company says the clips, which did not appear in the film, show evidence of fraud on the part of the plaintiffs. [ID:nN10247574] (Additional reporting by Alexandra Valencia in Quito, writing by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Cynthia Osterman)

The Nigerian joint military task force (JTF) carried out a land, air, and marine assault in the Niger Delta, freeing 19 hostages and raiding two suspected criminal camps after several kidnappings and attacks on oil facilities.

“At the moment we have ongoing operations in several locations simultaneously,” JTF spokesman Timothy Antigha was earlier quoted by Reuters as saying before the hostages were freed.

The military had warned on Saturday it planned to carry out raids on suspected criminal camps in the Niger Delta and told civilians in the vicinity to leave.

A major military offensive would be the first in the heartland since an amnesty brokered by late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua began in August 2009.

JTF Attacks More Militant Camps, Frees 19 Hostages, Paul Ohia with Agency Reports, All Africa, 17 November 2010

The Critical Now

By Oronto Douglas

November 20, 2009

Reposted from NEXT

Militancy and amnesty aside, the challenge of resolving the puzzle that has denied the many communities and clans of the resource rich Niger Delta has reached emergency levels. Although the crisis was easily predictable, successive governments had treated the anger and protests as mere irritations that can be brushed aside with warning shots, arrests or in extreme cases, devastating attacks on communities.

For scholars and survivors, there is something new that should worry all lovers of peace and livelihood – the completed project of the regionalization of anger and the now emerging nationalization of grievances anchored on stubborn defiance.

In the early days of the struggles by our people against the corporations and governments, the focus of mobilisation remained in islands of clans with small numbers of dedicated individuals and rarely was cross clan collaboration involved. In the renewed agitations of the 1990s, the idea of clan collaboration began to take firm root with the emergence of the Chikoko Movement and several groups worked like this. Read the rest of this entry »

On Sunday, several of the Niger Delta’s prominent militants agreed to the Nigerian government’s offer of amnesty at the 11th hour before the deadline on October 4th.   However, it’s unclear if this is a step toward peace in the Delta or just another failed attempt of the government to gain back control of the oil producing states.  The situation is still tenuous and nothing of substance has been negotiated.  Here are a few perspectives:

From The Vanguard (Nigeria Newspaper):

AMNESTY ENDS: Uncertainty persists

Hector Igbikiowubo
MORE than 90 days after the amnesty package for militants in the Niger Delta came to a close, an air of uncertainty persist over the effectiveness of the initiative, especially against the backdrop of threats by the Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to call off its cease-fire and reports that government has been busy acquiring fast attack helicopters and flat bed speed boats for a final showdown with militants.  Read Full Article

From the BBC:

Will amnesty bring peace to the Niger Delta?