Niger Delta Standoff

by Kia Mistilis

Reprinted from Foreign Policy in Focus: Editor: John Feffer and Jen Doak

Behind fighter-planes and gunboats, Nigerian forces launched a full-scale offensive in the Niger Delta on May 13, displacing 30,000 people and sparking a humanitarian crisis. Thousands of civilians fleeing destroyed villages are now trapped between armed resistance groups and the Nigerian military. These civilians are hiding in the bush without food, water, or medical supplies, let alone Internet access to alert the world of their plight, as Iranians are doing via Twitter.

Suanu Bere speaking at a Shell rally in San Francisco. Credit: Jan Stürmann

Against the backdrop of a world energy crisis, the media are reporting the region’s growing instability, mostly in terms of its effect on global oil supply and prices. For the 12 million people living in the Niger Delta, however, the struggle is about their survival.

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Settlement Reached in Human Rights Cases Against Royal Dutch/Shell

On Eve of Trial, Settlement Agreements Provide $15.5 Million for Compensation to Nigerian Human Rights Activists and to Establish Trust Fund

Reprinted from Wiwavshell.org

Official Statement from Plaintiffs

Official Statement from Attorneys

New York, June 8, 2009 — Today, the parties in Wiwa v. Shell agreed to settle human rights claims charging the Royal Dutch/Shell company, its Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC or Shell Nigeria), and the former head of its Nigerian operation, Brian Anderson, with complicity in the torture, killing, and other abuses of Ogoni leader Ken Saro-Wiwa and other non-violent Nigerian activists in the mid-1990s in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta.

The settlement, whose terms are public, provides a total of $15.5 million. These funds will compensate the 10 plaintiffs, who include family members of the deceased victims; establish a Trust intended to benefit the Ogoni people; and cover a portion of plaintiffs’ legal fees and costs. The settlement is only on behalf of the individual plaintiffs for their individual claims. It does not resolve outstanding issues between Shell and the Ogoni people, and the plaintiffs did not negotiate on behalf of the Ogoni people.

Plaintiff Ken Saro-Wiwa, Jr., the son of Ken Saro-Wiwa explained, “In reaching this settlement, we were very much aware that we are not the only Ogonis who have suffered in our struggle with Shell, which is why we insisted on creating the Kiisi Trust.” The Kiisi Trust—Kiisi means “Progress” in the plaintiffs’ Ogoni language—will allow for initiatives in Ogoni for educational endowments, skills development, agricultural development, women’s programs, small enterprise support, and adult literacy.

Judith Chomsky, cooperating attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), one of the attorneys who initiated the lawsuit, stated, “The fortitude shown by our clients in the 13-year struggle to hold Shell accountable has helped establish a principle that goes beyond Shell and Nigeria—that corporations, no matter how powerful, will be held to universal human rights standards.”

Added Jennie Green, the CCR staff attorney who initiated the lawsuit in 1996, “This was one of the first cases to charge a multinational corporation with human rights violations, and this settlement confirms that multinational corporations can no longer act with the impunity they once enjoyed.”

Wiwa v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, Wiwa v. SPDC, and Wiwa v. Anderson are three lawsuits filed by CCR, co-counsel EarthRights International (ERI), and private law firms on behalf of relatives of murdered Ogoni activists and other injured Ogonis who were fighting for human rights and environmental justice in their homeland.

Plaintiffs charged Royal Dutch Shell, Shell Nigeria, and Anderson with complicity in extrajudicial killing, crimes against humanity, torture, and other human rights claims. Plaintiffs in the case include the relatives of the executed activists Ken Saro-Wiwa, John Kpuinen, Saturday Doobee, Daniel Gbokoo, Felix Nuate, and Dr. Barinem Kiobel. Dr. Owens Wiwa, Ken Saro-Wiwa’s brother, and Michael Tema Vizor brought claims for the torture and detention that resulted in their exile from Nigeria. Further claims were brought by Karalolo Kogbara, who lost her arm, and on behalf of Uebari N-nah, who was killed in attacks on Ogoni civilians.
Anthony DiCaprio, an attorney who has worked on the case for many years, commented, “Throughout this very long process, I have been humbled by our clients’ unwavering courage and resilience. Their satisfaction with the result that we have been able to achieve is extremely gratifying.”
Human rights attorney Paul Hoffman, trial counsel in the Wiwa cases and partner at the law firm of Schonbrun, De Simone, Seplow, Harris and Hoffman, noted, “This settlement is only a first step towards the resolution of still outstanding issues between Shell and the Ogoni people.”

Oil operations in Nigeria have been chief among Shell’s assets for many decades. Critics charge that Shell’s aim for the lowest possible production cost, without regard for the resulting damage to the surrounding people and land, has wreaked havoc on local communities and the environment, including the still on-going practice of gas flaring. In the early 1990s, the Ogoni, led by Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, began organized, non-violent protests against Shell’s practices. Shell grew increasingly concerned with the heightened international prominence of the Ogoni movement and made payments to security forces that they knew to be engaging in human rights violations against the local communities. The military government violently repressed the demonstrations, arrested Ogoni activists, and falsely accused nine Ogoni activists of murder and bribed witnesses to give fake testimony. The nine, including Ken Saro-Wiwa, were denied a fair trial and then hanged on November 10, 1995.

Said Agnieszka Fryszman, co-counsel with the law firm of Cohen Millstein Sellers & Toll, “The case has been pending for many years, and this settlement puts an end to what would likely have been yet another long round of appeals.”

Marco Simons, ERI Legal Director, stated, “The courts repeatedly rejected Shell’s efforts to dismiss this case, setting important legal precedents for the continued prosecution of corporations in breach of international law. This reinforces the plaintiffs’ demands that corporations such as Shell safeguard human rights and the environment.”

For complete documentation of the legal briefs and further background information, click here or visit www.ccrjustice.org, www.earthrights.org, and www.sdshh.com.

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Han Shan, Coordinator for the Shell Guilty Campaign Speculates as to why the Wiwa v Shell trial was delayed and how we can continue to support the Ogoni plaintiffs

June 3, 2009

By Han Shan, ShellGuilty

Shell Protest in San Francisco on May 19, organized by JINN in the lead up to the Wiwa v Shell trial

Today, there was another delay in the Wiwa v. Shell trial, causing teeth-gnashing by journalists who have dedicated resources to cover the trial, hand-wringing by Ogoni people and human rights & environmental justice supporters worldwide, and head-scratching by nearly everyone else following along.

The trial had been set to begin with jury selection last Wednesday, May 27th, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan. Last Tuesday, there was an 11th-hour postponement with no new trial date set. However, the court set a pre-trial conference with the two opposing counsel for Monday, June 1st. Late last Friday, the court announced that the Monday conference would be pushed back to Wednesday, June 3rd at 2pm. And today, that conference was canceled.

Presiding Judge Kimba Wood’s order says that the “trial remains adjourned sine die” which, with its poetic-sounding legal Latin, means that the trial is postponed indefinitely.

Does that mean it’s over, finished, done?!

No. But we really don’t know exactly what it means.

It could mean another court order is right around the corner that will set another pre-trial conference, or even set a date for jury selection – and the trial – to begin.

Or, as has been the subject of much speculation, the next thing we hear about may be an out-of-court settlement.

That would certainly cause more hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing but it would also make sense. Certainly, Shell doesn’t want this case to go to trial. They never did, and they filed motion after unsuccessful motion to try to keep it from happening. After losing the legal battle thus far, it’s easy to imagine that Shell would do anything it could – offering many millions of dollars of restitution to the plaintiffs comes to mind – to keep the trial date from ever coming.

And while many of us want to see Shell face the music for the crimes it has committed in Ogoni, we should also recognize that there are good reasons that the plaintiffs might want to settle and be done with this long legal struggle. I won’t enumerate them here, but I’ve reviewed the myriad reasons in my head and I would suggest that you do it yourself, if like me, your first thought on the idea of a settlement is that it’s some sort of terrible betrayal of everything the Ogoni people have fought for.

It’s not. And if there’s a settlement, we should be ready to support the plaintiffs as they declare victory, and work to keep the heat on Shell to end the crimes it continues to commit in communities cursed by the oil beneath their lands.

If Shell settles, they’ll try to spin it as if they were victims of a spurious extortion campaign by a bunch of trial lawyers using poor Nigerians as pawns (just watch). But if Shell – with its vastly superior resources – decides to settle, it will be because they realized that the evidence against them was overwhelming, and they made a deal that would allow them to pretend they’re innocent, and, well, play the victim.

Shell is victim only to hubris and to the self-destructive belief that it will forever get away with making human rights abuses and environmental devastation part of its business as usual.

Like many others, I am eager to see a trial. As determined as I am to support the plaintiffs who have known so much suffering and struggle, it would be hard to conceal my disappointment at news of a settlement. So I’m going to focus on the much more exciting possibility… that the trial has been delayed in order to broaden the case.

Okay, I’m not a lawyer so I don’t know if ‘broaden the case’ really describes what I mean. But today, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals added a very interesting wrinkle to the case that could explain the delay.

From a press release from the Center for Constitutional Rights, co-counsel on the lawsuit against Shell:

Today, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the District Court decision dismissing the Wiwa v. Shell plaintiffs’ claims against Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, Ltd. (Shell Nigeria). The District Court had dismissed the case against Shell Nigeria on March 4, 2008, finding it did not have jurisdiction over the company because the plaintiffs had failed to establish that Shell Nigeria was doing sufficient business in the United States to justify trying them in U.S. courts. The effect of the appellate court decision is to permit the plaintiffs to seek further information to establish Shell Nigeria’s connections to the United States.

When the plaintiffs filed the lawsuit against Shell, they charged Royal Dutch Shell, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (Shell Nigeria), and Brian Anderson, head of Shell Nigeria when the abuses at issue took place. The District Court dismissed the charges against Shell Nigeria (allowing the other cases against Royal Dutch Shell and Mr. Anderson to go forward). Under the Alien Tort Statute, a company has to have a certain level of interest in the United States to come under the federal court’s jurisdiction. The District Court said that Shell Nigeria didn’t. But the plaintiffs argued on appeal that they should be granted the opportunity to do more discovery to determine whether or not this is actually the case. And according to the decision by the Circuit Court today, the plaintiffs prevailed.

Now the issue is kicked back to the District Court. And here’s where it gets really interesting.

It’s possible that Chief Judge Kimba Wood – aware that a decision was coming from the Circuit Court on this key issue – delayed the trial in order to make time to consider whether Shell Nigeria should be a defendant.

Of course, all the parties remain tight-lipped, so I really have no way of knowing. And I speculate partly for my own sanity.

So we all wait on pins and needles to hear what’s next – whether news of a settlement or the opening of this landmark trial or the confirmation of a formal delay to consider whether Shell Nigeria will join its parent company in the dock. Any which way it turns out, the Ogoni people have already put Shell on trial and found them guilty. And they’ve been witness to Shell’s crimes in ways that I hope and pray no-one else will again.

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Last week, the historic trial against Shell oil filed by the family of Ken Saro-Wiwa and others was delayed by one more week. According to the article by the AFP, the Judge Kimba Wood gave no explanation for the delay:

NEW YORK (AFP) — A pre-trial conference scheduled in the potentially landmark lawsuit brought by Nigerian plaintiffs against oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has been delayed until Wednesday, court papers show. Read Full Article

Ogoni Activist Suanu Bere speaks at San Francisco Shell protest. credit: Jan Sturmann

However, protests and rallies that began on May 19 for Shell’s shareholder meeting in the Hague and in London continued last week to call on Shell to end gas flaring in the Niger Delta – a demand that Wiwa and the Ogoni’s were asking for over 15 years ago and people of the Delta are still asking today.

JINN led the Bay Area protest with a large banner that read:  “Shell:  Stop Gas Flaring in Nigeria” and signs that read:  “Remember Ken Saro-Wiwa  and Shell:  Stop  Toxic Flares in Nigeria”

San Francisco activists hold Shell protest on May 19 - the day of Shell's shareholder meeting. credit: Jan Sturmann

Bere Suanu, an Ogoni from Nigeria spoke about how the Nigerian military tortured him at a time when Shell was paying the Nigerian military to quell protests in Ogoniland.

Then, on May 26 – the day the trail was set to begin – activists in South Africa led by groundWork held a solidarity rally to bring attention to the trial in New York and Shell’s dirty operations in Durban, South Africa

Activists protesting in South Africa - Shell's Hell

According to the Shell Guilty campaign other protests took place around the globe including:

In Nigeria, a rally, a candlelit vigil at the graveside of Ken Saro-Wiwa, and a mock trial were held at Bane, in Saro-Wiwa’s community. The events ran into controversy after Rivers State Police arrested a number of women activists in an attempt to prevent them from attending demonstrations. Protestors demanded their release, and eventually forced the police to release the detainees and respect their right to protest.

A noon rally took place in New York at Foley Square in Manhattan, near the federal courthouse where the trial had been scheduled to open today. A hundred supporters came out ahead of the trial, unfurling a banner that read, ‘JUSTICE FOR THE OGONI’. Inspiring speakers stressed that Shell cannot escape justice for their role in human rights abuses in the 1990s, and put pressure on Shell to end the ongoing environmental and social devastation in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. A group of Ogoni activists closed the event by singing the Ogoni solidarity anthem.  Go to ShellGuilty.com for more information.

The trial is expected to commence no earlier than June 2nd.

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JINN presents:

April 15, 2009 in San Francisco

Delta Force, a Documentary by Glen Ellis about Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Struggle for the Ogoni People

Followed by a Panel Discussion about the upcoming case against Shell

6pm – Wine and Beer Reception
7pm – Film Screening
8pm – Panel Discussion

Artist Television Access
992 Valencia Street (at 21st) – Map
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415)824-3890
ata@atasite.org

This is a benefit screening for JINN

$10-$30 suggested donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)

Panelists include:

Cindy Cohn – Counsel to the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed against Chevron by Nigerian villagers for human rights abuses committed in 1998 and heard in US court last fall in San Francisco. The Chevron case is now entering the appeals process. Cohn is the Legal Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation as well as its General Counsel.

Beresuanu Kingston – Ogoni activist now living in the San Francisco Bay Area who has first hand experience with Shell’s abuses in Ogoniland.

On November 10, 1995, Nigerian environmental activist and internationally acclaimed non-violent resistance leader Ken Saro-Wiwa and 8 of his Ogoni colleagues were executed by Nigeria’s brutal military dictatorship. This one hour documentary, tells the story of the rise of Saro-Wiwa and the Movement for Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) and its violent suppression by the Nigerian military with the complicity of Shell Oil.

On May 26, 2009 relatives of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other MOSOP members will bring Shell to trial in New York for the company’s complicity in the death of Ogoni leaders and the destruction of Ogoni villages at the hand of the Nigerian military.

Join us at this benefit for Justice in Nigeria Now (JINN) to support JINN while socializing and learning about the Ogoni and the upcoming trial

This event is co-sponsored by  Global Exchange and the CounterCorp Film Festival (this year’s festival is May 28-30, 2009)

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Wiwa v Shell

On May 26, 2009 the Ogoni people of Nigeria will finally have their chance at justice when the families of famed activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues, who were sentenced to death in a sham trial in Nigeria and hanged in 1995, will show that Royal Dutch Shell was at the very least complicit in their deaths and likely colluded with the Nigerian military to quell peaceful protests through murder, torture and destruction of villages. The plaintiffs’ attorneys will use a U.S. law on the books since 1789 called the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) that allows violations of international law to be tried in U.S. courts. Violations include extrajudicial execution; torture; crimes against humanity; cruel inhuman and degrading treatment; arbitrary arrest and detention; and violations of the rights to life, liberty, security of person, and freedom of expression and association.

Background

Almost 20 years ago in a minority region of the Niger Delta called Ogoniland, a peaceful movement emerged called the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) that began to successfully challenge the environmental and economic destruction caused by oil extraction. Royal Dutch Shell, who began extracting oil from the Niger Delta in1958, has since bulldozed subsistence farms to install oil drills, erected gas flares that cause acid rain and asthma, and laid oil pipelines literally through villages that dot the marshy creek lands of the Delta. Oil spills are a regular occurrence, and natural barriers between the fresh water creeks and the Gulf of Guinea have been breached throughout the Delta causing the fresh water to become brackish and as a result fresh water fish have died in droves. Water that was once used for drinking, for cooking, for cleaning clothes not to mention the basis for a fisher economy is now filled with a mixture of salt and oil rendering it useless in many regions and in fact dangerous to the thousands of villages who depend on the creeks for their survival.

During the early 1990’s MOSOP emerged to peacefully protest and call for land restoration, and the right to protect their environment from further destruction. MOSOP bravely challenged a dictatorial government and powerful oil companies that colluded with the Nigerian military. Saro-Wiwa, a well known Nigerian author, and TV producer began inspiring and leading the Ogoni people to stand up against Shell who had decimated their land for decades. In January of 1993 MOSOP staged one of the largest protests the Delta had ever seen. Over 300,000 Ogoni people marched on what came to be known as Ogoni Day showing the power of peaceful protest. As a result, the Nigerian military clamped down on the villagers with the support of Shell. Villages were burned and people shot. In 1994 during another Ogoni protest, four Ogoni elders were killed and Saro-Wiwa along with other MOSOP leaders were framed and held in prison for several months without charges. After several months of torture and detention, they were convicted of inciting the murders in an internationally condemned military tribunal and hanged on November 10, 1995.

A year later, the families of some of those who were killed and other victims of military abuse,  filed suit in U.S. court against Shell for their collusion in the death and torture  of Saro-Wiwa and others. Last fall after many years in litigation, Judge Kimba Wood in the U.S. Southern District court of New York announced that the case would be set for trial.

Since the death of the Ogoni 9, the situation in the Delta has only worsened. Several other peaceful protests were violently suppressed by the Nigerian military that received payments from Shell, Chevron and others. Additionally, the oil companies have been accused of using divide and conquer tactics to incite ethnic violence in the Delta. Today’s Delta has descended into armed violence. Some angry, mostly young, men who have only seen their livelihood worsen have turned to militant groups who have varied agendas and have in effect declared war with the Nigerian military and the oil companies. Meanwhile, the oil companies have not changed their practices or cleaned up the environmental damage they have caused. They still utilize the services of the military to act as their personal security and continue to avoid responsibility for their actions.

Click here for more information about the case, Shell and the life of Ken Saro Wiwa

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Ken Saro Wiwa Hanged by the Nigerian Government with 8 other activists:

Ken Saro Wiwa: October 10,1941 - November 10, 1995

This week marks the 13th anniversary of the death of famed Nigerian activist, Ken Saro Wiwa. On November 10, 1995 Wiwa and 8 other Ogoni activists, known as the Ogoni 9 were ruthlessly executed by the then Nigerian dictator, Sani Abacha.  Wiwa and his colleagues were members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) who peacefully protested against Shell Oil and the Nigerian government for human rights abuses and environmental damage in their community.

Early next year, Wiwa’s son will have his day in court in New York when it will be decided whether or not Royal Dutch Shell will be held liable for their complicity for human rights abuses against the Ogoni people in Nigeria, including summary execution, crimes against humanity, torture, inhumane treatment, arbitrary arrest, wrongful death, assault and battery, and infliction of emotional distress. Similar to the case against Chevron currently being heard in the Northern California Federal District Court, the two cases against Shell were brought under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). In addition, the Shell cases will be tried under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA). The cases also allege that the corporation violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, according to Earth Rights International, co-counsel for the case.

Wiwa was known for his ability to mobilize hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters that successfully drove Shell out of their community.  His death serves as a shift in Nigerian history when political and social unrest in the Niger Delta was addressed in a peaceful way to a gradual move toward a violent approach that faces the Niger Delta today. The current violence stems from decades of demands not being met, and corruption and divide and rule tactics that continue to tear the region apart. Violent responses were taken to new levels in 2006 with the formation of the well armed group - the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta known as MEND.

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