[Fwd: sHELL back on Ogoni land]
B. Diamond (mailto:bdiamond@mind.net)
Tue, 18 Feb 1997 22:23:34 +0000
Message-ID: <330A2BE6.55F3@mind.net>
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 22:23:34 +0000
From: "B. Diamond" <mailto:bdiamond@mind.net>
Subject: [Fwd: sHELL back on Ogoni land]
To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
I'm curious as to what listemembers working in Nigeria (or others) would say
about this matter, what are the development implications for the Ogoni?
>
> Shell is using armed escort to check equipment with a view to resuming full
> oil production in Ogoni, against the people's wishes and their own
> guarantees not to work behind a military shield. Meanwhile, intimidation,
> rape, arrests, torture, shooting and looting by Shell-backed Nigerian
> soldiers continues.
>
> A hard-hitting report, 'Ogoni: the struggle continues', has just been
> published by the World Council of Churches, detailing Shell's devastation in
> the Niger Delta and its support of the massacres of 2000 Ogonis.
>
> The company, which has supplied money, weapons, helicopters and boats to
> attack the Ogonis still effectively refuse to recognise or talk to MOSOP,
> and refuse to condemn the imprisonment and 'trial' of the Ogoni 19. Two of
> the 19 were actually arrested and tortured by Shell Police, and all are
> effectively hostages of the military government which relies on Shell for
> half of its total income. The prisoners lost their recent appeal and are
> still held in appalling conditions for demanding environmental and human
> rights - or just being Ogoni.
>
> Shell has been influencing journalists to keep the dirt out of the press by
> taking them on 'Shell trips': unfortunately many seem to like the saccharin
> taste of greenwash. However, the company has had to drop its complaint about
> Channel 4's documentary 'The Drilling Fields', which accused it of being in
> alliance with the brutal Nigerian military government, and after denying it
> for several years has now admitted paying the military in Nigeria.
>
> Shell is being sued by the families of Ken Saro-Wiwa and another of the
> Ogonis killed in November 1995 over the company's "knowledge, consent and/or
> support" of the executions, and their part in a conspiracy "to violently and
> ruthlessly suppress any opposition to [Shell's] conduct...in Ogoni and the
> Niger Delta."
>
> Over thirty pickets of Shell garages happened in Britain around the first
> anniversary of Ken's execution, including a 29-hour lock-on to a Shell
> tanker in Newcastle where protesters now face Aggravated Trespass charges.
> Most of Slovakia's Shell garages were hit and other actions and rallies of
> up to 400 people happened around the world. In Ogoni thousands of troops
> flooded the area, and there were random arrests, torture and killing.
>
> On Ogoni Day, January 4 this year, 80,000 people came out on to the streets;
> the army raided 19 communities, detained and tortured over 20 people, and
> opened fire into peaceful crowds, wounding four. In his speech, Acting
> President of MOSOP Ledum Mitee called on activists to step up the pressure
> on Shell. The growing militarisation of commerce needs to be challenged
> harder, and winning the Ogoni issue is key for all activists fighting for
> environmental rights in the face of multinational power.
>
> Within Nigeria the pro-democracy movement is growing despite the nationwide
> repression and a still-born 'transition to democracy', and exiles are
> organising alongside for a strong alternative to the current regime. Links
> with minorities in the Niger Delta are getting stronger and the powerful oil
> workers' unions note that Shell "could easily become the target of very
> serious political action" in the future.
>
> For more news and background on Ogoni, Shell and Nigeria, send a donation or
> details of your local anti-Shell work to DELTA. The DELTA magazine has been
> distributed to all relevant direct action and other support groups around
> the world and a number distributed throughout the Niger Delta and Ogoni
> itself. DELTA #2 has just been published; the next issue in March will look
> at radical environmentalism and social change. Other topics will be featured
> according to request: what information resources do you need?
>
> Contact DELTA if you are interested in a national Ogoni / Shell strategy
> meeting to be held in Britain in February or March.
>
> DELTA: News and background on Ogoni, Shell and Nigeria
> Box Z, 13 Biddulph Street, Leicester LE2 1BH, UK
> tel/fax: 0116 255 3223
> e-mail: mailto:lynx@gn.apc.org
> http://www.McSpotlight.org/beyond/delta2_nov96.html