[CounterCorp] Festival-related update: Fearing trial, Shell settles case on its role in activists' deaths

[CounterCorp News and Events List]

[NOTE: The opening-night film at this year's Anti-Corporate Film  
Festival, "Sweet Crude", documented the ongoing struggle of people in  
the Niger Delta region of Nigeria to resist the crimes, abuses, and  
devastation caused by international oil companies such as Shell, and  
seek justice and compensation for past illegal and abusive activities]



Settlement Reached in Human Rights Cases Against Shell Oil

On eve of trial, agreement provides $15.5 million for compensation
to Nigerian human rights activists, establishes trust fund

(Center for Constitutional Rights, June 8) -- Shell Oil agreed to  
settle human rights claims charging the company, its Nigerian  
subsidiary, and the former head of its Nigerian operation with  
complicity in the torture, killing, and other abuses of Ken Saro-Wiwa  
and other non-violent Nigerian activists in the mid-1990s in the Ogoni  
region of the Niger Delta.

	The settlement provides a total of $15.5 million to compensate the  
ten plaintiffs, including family members of the deceased victims;  
establish a trust intended to benefit the people of the Ogoni tribe;  
and cover a portion of plaintiffs' legal fees and costs.

	"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," said co-counsel Agnieszka Fryszman. The settlement is only  
on behalf of the individual plaintiffs for their individual claims,  
and does not resolve outstanding issues between Shell and the Ogoni  
people.

	Plaintiff Ken Saro-Wiwa, Jr., son of Ogoni leader 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 ("Progress" in the Ogoni language) Trust will allow for  
initiatives in Ogoni for educational endowments, skills development,  
agricultural development, women's programs, small enterprise support,  
and adult literacy.

	"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," said Judith Chomsky, one of the attorneys who  
initiated the lawsuit. "Corporations, no matter how powerful, will be  
held to universal human rights standards."

	"This was one of the first cases to charge a multinational  
corporation with human rights violations," added Jennie Green, the  
staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) who  
initiated the lawsuit in 1996, "and this settlement confirms that  
multinational corporations can no longer act with the impunity they  
once enjoyed."

	CCR, EarthRights International (ERI), and private law firms filed  
three lawsuits on behalf of relatives of murdered Ogoni activists and  
other injured Ogonis who were fighting for human rights and  
environmental justice in their homeland.

	The plaintiffs charged Royal Dutch Shell, its subsidiary Shell  
Petroleum Development Company (SPDC, or Shell Nigeria), and SPDC  
executive Brian Anderson with complicity in extrajudicial killing,  
crimes against humanity, torture, and other human rights claims.

	Plaintiffs in the case include the relatives of Ken Saro-Wiwa and  
five other the executed activists. Ken Saro-Wiwa's brother Owens, and  
Michael Tema Vizor, both brought claims for 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. "This settlement is only a first step towards the  
resolution of still outstanding issues between Shell and the Ogoni  
people," said human rights attorney Paul Hoffman, trial counsel in the  
Wiwa cases.

	Oil operations in Nigeria have been chief among Shell's assets for  
many decades. Critics charge Shell with aiming for the lowest possible  
production cost, without regard for the resulting damage to the  
surrounding people and land, and wreaking havoc on local communities  
and the environment, including the on-going practice of flaring oil- 
related gas.

	In the early 1990s, the Ogoni people, led by Ken Saro-Wiwa, began non- 
violent protests against Shell's practices. Shell grew increasingly  
concerned with the heightened international prominence of the Ogoni  
movement, and paid Nigerian security forces that they knew were  
engaging in human rights violations against the local communities.

	The military government violently repressed the demonstrations,  
arrested Ogoni activists, falsely accused nine of them 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.

	"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," said Marco Simons, ERI  
legal director. "This reinforces the plaintiffs' demands that  
corporations such as Shell safeguard human rights and the environment."