Black Looks

We all stand before history. I am a man of peace, of ideas. Appalled by the denigrating poverty of my people who live on a richly endowed land, distressed by their political marginalization and economic strangulation, angered by the devastation of their land, their ultimate heritage, anxious to preserve their right to life and to a decent living, and determined to usher to this country as a whole a fair and just democratic system which protects everyone and every ethnic group and gives us all a valid claim to human civilization, I have devoted my intellectual and material resources, my very life, to a cause in which I have total belief and from which I cannot be blackmailed or intimidated. I have no doubt at all about the ultimate success of my cause, no matter the trials and tribulations which I and those who believe with me may encounter on our journey. Nor imprisonment nor death can stop our ultimate victory.

I repeat that we all stand before history. I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial.

Shell is here on trial and it is as well that it is represented by counsel said to be holding a watching brief. The Company has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come and the lessons learnt here may prove useful to it for there is no doubt in my mind that the ecological war that the Company has waged in the Delta will be called to question sooner than later and the crimes of that war be duly punished. The crime of the Company’s dirty wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished.
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As at yesterday, Okerenkoko and Oporoaza communities were completely razed down. The JTF also started attacking Miller waterside in Warri destroying cars and killing 4 persons including a woman. The fight is still on. about 30,000 persns are trapped in the swamps humanitarian groups are not allowed to have access to them.

It is terrible and it is terror

Statement issued by Ijaw leaders on the unprovoked attack on Ijaw communities in Warri South West, Delta State.

At the aftermath of the unprovoked attack on Ijaw communities in Gbaramatu kingdom of Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State the Ijaw nation wishes to state with emphatic unequivocation the following:

a) That the deployment of highly supplicated military weaponry and arsenal to engage hapless villages and towns in aerial and amphibious bombardment in a scale never ever witnessed in even the Nigerian civil war is callous, inhuman, dastardly, barbaric and insensitive. We condemn this unprovoked attack in the strongest term possible.

b) The burning, destruction, complete razing of Okerenkoko, Oporoza, Kunukunuma, Peretorukorigbene, Kurutie and many other communities and the killing and maiming of innocent people including women and children amount to systemic annihilation of an ethnic race and this is simply genocide. It therefore deserves international condemnation.

c) Nigeria, in the comity of nations, is a highly respected country in International Peace Keeping operations where its proficiency even in the most challenging circumstances restrained it from the deployment of such supplicated weaponry in the weight and scale as was deployed to attack the Ijaw communities. It is therefore a travesty of justice and totally incomprehensible that the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) which primary task is to restore hope and bring peace to the troubled Niger Delta region decided to employ such highly sophisticated weaponry to kill and maim innocent fellow citizens. This, in our estimation is a clearly premeditated attack, conceived, planned and executed with the light of speed not even enforced in normal war situation.
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PRESS STATEMENT – May19, 2009
STOP THE GENOCIDE IN DELTA STATE: THE CRY OF NIGER DELTA WOMEN

We, the women of the Niger Delta have noted with dismay the horrifying act of genocide meted out to innocent indigenes and inhabitants of Gbaramatu kingdom in Delta State by operatives of the Joint Task Force. This is happening despite repeated declaration by the Yar’adua government of its good intentions to address the issues and the neglect of the Niger Delta people. By this action, it has been revealed that the President feigned his sympathy for the Niger Delta problems with his much acclaimed 7-point agenda, the setting up of the Technical Committee on the Niger Delta as well as the establishment of the Ministry for the Niger Delta. But the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Umar Musa Yar’dua could not pretend for long too. Perhaps, he could have been labeled a rebel to deviate from the path towed by previous administrations, especially the Obasanjo administration that ordered the razing down of Odi, a Niger Delta community, in 1999.

Thus, the Yar’adua administration has manufactured its own excuse for a greater massacre of Niger Delta women and children under the guise of fishing out militants. Beginning Wednesday, May 13, 2009 the Joint Task Force has been bombing Kurutie, Kokodiagbene, Kunukunuma, Oporoaza and Okerenkoko communities in Gbaramatu kingdom of Delta State, killing innocent persons, majority of them, women and children. Many more persons are rendered homeless; the Punch of Monday, May 18, 2009 reported that about 20,000 people are trapped in these riverine communities because the waterways are blocked by the JTF.
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Kevin Smith writing in the Guardian and Han Shan writing in Huffington Post have each written excellent articles on next weeks landmark trial of Shell for human and environmental rights violations. By quoting Ken Saro-Wiwa’s final statement at his military trial in 1995, Shan makes the connection between Shell’s human rights abuses as well as their complicity in the arrest and hanging of the Ogoni 9 and the trial on Wednesday. Whatever happens to Shell no one in the company will loose his or her life!

“I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is here on trial… its day will surely come and the lessons learned here may prove useful to it, for there is no doubt in my mind that the ecological war that the company has waged in the Delta will be called to question sooner than later, and the crimes of that war be duly punished. The crime of the company’s dirty wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished.“

Kevin Smith’s piece explains the details of the case against Shell and despite their “slick PR team” are unable to defend the continued use of gas flaring which has been illegal since 1984 [although the Nigerian govenrment continue to delay the actual end to the process].

While a slick PR team has navigated Shell through numerous allegations of human rights abuses and localised pollution in the Delta, the climatic impacts of gas flaring are becomingly increasingly difficult for the company to shrug off. Even without taking flaring into account, Shell’s 2007 global operations were responsible for pumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than all of the UK’s domestic emissions combined.

Shell is one of many oil multinationals operating in Nigeria all of whom are guilty of human rights and environmental rights abuses – Chevron, Elf, Agip Mobil all should be facing trial along with Shell. The trial of Shell takes place against the backdrop of the continued occupation and human rights abuses in the Niger Delta by the Nigerian government. They too should be on trial along with Presidents Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and the gutless Vice President Goodluck Jonathan who is complicit by his very silence.

UPDATE – 2000 bodies counted – Via Sahara Reporters

The war in the Niger Delta reached a new level last Sunday when the Nigerian Military bombed communities in Delta state where suspected militants were supposed to be hiding. In an act of collective punishment and completely ignoring the civilian population three villages, Oporoza, Kokodiagbene and Okarankoko villages, were attacked by helicopter gunships and reduced to rubble.y evening. 80 to 100 people were killed and some 20,000 villgers are now displaced and have now fled and are taking refuge in the Warri South area. A further 25 people were killed yesterday.

TWENTY-FIVE persons — six children whose ages range between two and seven; 11 septuagenarians, six women and two other villagers were said to have been killed yesterday when Kurutie community came under fresh aerial attacks by the Joint Task Force (JTF) on the Niger-Delta.

Over 65 persons had earlier been killed and more than 100 injured since the JTF began its offensive against militants last weekend.

However, the Defence Headquarters, while explaining circumstances that led to the all-out battle to oust the militants warned that the Nigerian military will no longer tolerate or watch criminal gangs slaughter its personnel without response.

It also said no community, particularly in the Ijaw areas, was destroyed or razed down as claimed by many people in the battle area. Director of Defence Information (DDI), Col. Chris Jemitola pointed out that the JTF in carrying out its offensive, has ensured that collateral damage was kept to the barest minimum.

The attack on civilians are in a long line of similar attacks over the past 20 years on all the people of the region by successive military and civilian governments – Babaginda, Abacha, Obasanjo and now Yar’ Adua has joined the list of state murderers. In the early 1990’s war was declared against the Ogoni people which culminated in the murder of the Ogoni 9 including Ken Saro-Wiwa. In January 1999 it was the Ijaw people who came under attack as the towns of Kaiama and Odi (November 1999) were attacked. Odi was completely destroyed, hundreds died and thousands were left homeless. Neither of the towns has yet been rebuilt. Other communities that have come under attack and towns and villages in Isokoland in 1999. In Umuechem in 1990. In Egiland in 2000. In July 2002 Itsekiri, Ilaje and Ijaw communities all came under attack and in the last few years the Ijaw people have been the main focus of attack but essentially the whole region has been under military occupation since 1990. [For more on the response of women to these acts of violence see "Nigeria, Gender and Militarization in the Niger Delta.]

The Nigerian military has to take full responsibility for the death, injury and displacement of thousands of mainly women and children and Yar’Adua has shown himself to be yet another military tyrant. Of course they must know that bombing densely populated areas will result in death and displacement but we know Nigerian leaders dont give a damn about how many of their people they kill and maim. This is the Niger Delta where there is very little infrastructure of any kind including medical care and even where it is available it is not accessible to the very poor population. The situation is not that different to the Tamil population who have been wounded, driven from their homes and killed in the ruthless genocidal actions of the Sri Lankan government. It’s women children and the elderly that mainly live in the villages and hamlets and it is they not the militants who are loosing their lives and livelihoods. It is they who are suffering and the militancy together with the kidnapping is adding to their suffering and needs to stop.

Its also worth noting that the latest attacks against the Niger Delta take place against the backdrop of the Wiwa v Shell trial which begins in New York on the 27th. Ken’s constantly spoke out against violence and vowed that not one drop of blood should be shed by any Ogoni person. His passion and belief in self-determination were as strong as any of the militants operating today but he was also adamant that the struggle should be non-violent. This of course did not stop the Nigerian military from attacking villages and killing people but MEND and other militants are not the answer.

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Imagine this burning in your back yard!

The Nigerian government has once again extended the deadline to end gas flaring…Gas flaring is the burning of the natural gas that is produced on the surface during the production process. The flares are either blown off in the sky or in giant sized low level pits on the ground and are in the midst of villages and farmland. They burn gas that produces huge flames and toxic gases. This latest postponement is one in a series from December last year’s deadline which was preceded by a 2007 deadline and the original flare-out date of 1984. For a full report on the impact of toxic flares see ERA

Shell won’t stop gas flaring- emitting toxins from Shell Guilty on Vimeo.

Via Shell Guilty Vimeo

These constant postponements are absolutely unacceptable. Gas flaring must stop. Shell Guilty are calling for an International Week of Action:
Here are 3 ways you can make a difference:
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How far will oil companies go to hide their dirty deeds? What did Chevron when they learned CBS 60 Minutes was making a documentary about their contamination of the Ecuador rainforest? They hired a journalist to make a “mirror” film but one which would put “their side of the story” but is actually presented as a piece of investigative journalism.

Mitch Anderson, a campaigner for Amazon Watch, said that Chevron had resorted to “embarrassing public relations tactics” because credible news sources had not sufficiently framed the report the way they would like, namely, to “to place all of the blame for Texaco’s environmental disaster in Ecuador on PetroEcuador,” Texaco’s former partner.

Mr. Randall’s video acknowledges the claims of the plaintiffs many times, primarily to set up Chevron’s response. “This is not a news report,” he said in an interview. “This is a client hiring a provider to tell its side of the story.” The video ends with a voiceover saying “Gene Randall reporting.”

Continue reading “When Chevron Hires Ex-Reporter to Investigate Pollution, Chevron Looks Good”

A short documentary explaining the case against Shell in the upcoming trial. The film is produced by Rikshaw Films

Via Wiwa v Shell

Two stories on the legacy of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the human rights trial against Shell’s action in Ogoniland and their complicity in the execution of the Ogoni 9.

A Writer’s Violent End, and His Activist Legacy is a report from the PEN International which took place last weekend. Many people forget Ken was also a writer and journalist as well as an activist so it was right that he should be honoured here. Listen to the tribute here including audio from Ken during a protest march on Ogoni Day.

The second article asks whether “Oil is worth more than blood in the Niger Delta?” The answer is a resounding YES for the multinationals operating in the region and the Nigerian Federal and the Niger Delta states governments. As Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr explains this was a dark time but still very little has changed since then.

It was a pretty dark time, and you felt as if the world had collapsed. We put all pressure on the Nigerian government, and Shell was washing its hands. It felt that no one was willing to take responsibility for the horrendous injustice. My father was hanged for a crime he didn’t commit. The company was complicit in my father’s execution, and they washed their hands. It seemed like a shot in the dark. It is painful that no one wants to face up to what they did.

If Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr wins this case it will be the first time that a multinational corporation has been held to account for human rights violations overseas. Its taken more than 10 years to bring the case to trial which is a miracle in itself and speaks to the perseverance and belief of the plaintiffs. Whatever happens in the case, this one like the case against Chevron will open doors for others across the world to bring rampaging corrupt corporations to account

And this is a time when transnational corporations are being put on notice. A clear signal is being sent to them that the world is no longer their oyster. Neocolonialism is over. They cannot run roughshod over the world for the sake of the almighty profit, conducting business around the globe without regard for U.S. law and the law of nations. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is presently investigating Shell for engaging in graft in Nigeria, a violation the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In February, the Halliburton spinoff KBR admitted to paying bribes to secure contracts related to the construction of a liquefied natural gas facility in Nigeria.

Listen to the whole tribute to Ken – Standing Before History: Remembering Ken Saro-Wiwa”