Black Looks

The following article is published in Pambazuka News and is written by Sokari Ekine and Firoze Manji

“And as I was going, I was just thinking how the war have spoiled my town Dukana, uselessed many people, killed many others, killed my mama and my wife, Agnes, my beautiful young wife with J.J.C and now it have made me like porson wey get leprosy because I have no town again.
And I was thinking how I was prouding before to go to soza and call myself Sozaboy. But now if anybody say anything about war or even fight, I will just run and run and run and run and run. Believe me yours sincerely” Ken Saro Wiwa, Sozaboy

Thirteen years ago, Ken Saro Wiwa Jr and the families of the 8 other Ogoni men who had been murdered by the Nigerian state in 1995 , together with two other Ogonis, began three separate law suits against Royal Dutch Petroleum, Shell Petroleum Development Corporation and Brian Anderson former CEO of the SPDC. The plaintiffs accused Shell of human rights abuses against the Ogoni people, arming the Nigerian army and of being complicit in the extrajudicial killing of the Ogoni 9 in 1995. The trial against Shell was due to start on the 26th of May but was then delayed indefinitely. On Tuesday 9 June 2009, we learned that Shell had settled the case out of court for a sum of $15.5 million which included a $5 million contribution to a trust for the Ogoni people. The settlement was offered with no admission of liability from the defendant. While the settlement is being seen as a victory for human rights, it does raise a number of worrying issues in law suits by local indigenous communities against multinationals who are committing human rights violations and environmental crimes.

It is impossible to separate the actions of the oil multinationals operating across the Niger Delta from the actions of the Nigerian government in the region. The relationship between the two, though complex, is based on profit over and above any other consideration. In exchange for the oil that is removed from the Niger Delta, the oil companies with the support of the Nigerian state, have left behind an ecological disaster, whole towns and villages reduced to rubble, death by fire, pollution and the guns of the Nigerian military. Shell and the other oil companies in the region have one of the worst environmental records in the world. This includes pollution of the air and drinking water, degradation of farm land, damage to aquatic life, disruption of drainage systems, oil fires which have left people dead and with horrific burn injuries and no medical care. The causes of the damage to the environment are oil spills from pipelines and flow stations, many of the former running through villages and in front of peoples homes; gas flaring which produces toxic gases and poisons into the atmosphere.
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The case has been settled out of court with $10 million going to the 10 plaintiffs and $5 million being gifted to the Ogoni people. Details of the settlement are here and here. Below is part of the statement from the lawyers in the case. I will be writing more on this in Pambazuka News later this week.

“The agreements reached today comprise one of a handful of successful settlements in corporate cases brought for human rights violations under the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 statute that allows victims of human rights abuses from around the world to sue the perpetrators in U.S. courts. Since 1997, in Doe v. Unocal, the courts have made clear that multinational corporations can also be sued for human rights violations such as extrajudicial execution, torture and crimes against humanity, as charged in this case.

The settlement represents one more step towards holding corporations accountable for complicity in human rights violations, wherever they may be committed. We hope that this settlement provides another building block in the efforts to forge a legal system that holds violators accountable wherever they may be and prevents future violations. ”

The trial has been delayed over and over and finally well we thought finally it was due to start on the 26th May and then 27th May. Another cancellation and now we learn that both the trial and the pre-trial conference have been delayed indefinitely. What is going on? Steve Kretzmann Han Shan speculates on the Shell Guility Blog on what could be causing the delay and comes up with four possibilities:

1) A new pre-trial conference and trial is round the corner – Possible but why say indefinitely if this is the case.

2) A settlement is being negotiated – Though Kretzmann Shan like the rest of us would prefer to see the trial go ahead he is sympathetic to a settlement. I am not and I think many progressive thinking Nigerians would agree. The trial is now bigger than the Ogoni 8, the Ogoni people. The whole Niger Delta and Nigeria for that matter wants to see Shell exposed and hopefully the Nigerian government as well. Why come this far only to end up settling? More of a shame than a victory.

3) Delayed to broaden the case. Like Kretzmann Shan this is the best possible scenario though like him I am not sure what it means. Maybe to include other crimes by Shell?

4) Finally a “technical” reason based on whether or not Shell or Shell Nigeria can fall under the jurisdiction of the US courts – complicated so you may need to read Kretzmann’s Shan’s explanation!

Flashpoints Radio : Haitian community leader and fighter for justice Father Gerard Jean-Juste passes away, we’ll hear from friends and colleagues who remember his life and legacy; also, how influential are the pro-Israel lobby groups in Obama’s White House? We’ll speak to an expert on the lobbies; plus, JR and the Block Report talk about the fight against Shell Oil in Nigeria; and the Knight Report.Remembering Father Gerard Jean Juste

The back story to the present military operation in Warri South West is beginning to unfold in some quite sinister ways. There are a couple of these stories I just want to highlight – I dont know what exactly they mean or where they are going but it seems to me that they could be part of something bigger.

In a recent Senate discussion Mohammed Ibn N’Allah, a senator from Kebbi made the following statement in response to John Halims Agoda (PDP, Delta) Daniel Metu and Hon. Tam Brisibe calls for restraint by the military…(italics below)

Although Hon. Daniel Metu and Hon. Tam Brisibe backed Agoda on the call for restraint, their resistance soon crumbled as the Chairman, House Committee on Judiciary, Hon. Mohammed Ibn N’Allah (PDP, Kebbi), took the floor by storm and unleashed a tirade of verbal attacks on the militants. He described the activities of the militants as pure criminality and total disregard for constituted authority.
“What is happening in the Niger Delta is pure criminality of the highest order, arising from total disregard for constituted authority. In Iraq, thousands of people lost their lives because of an insurrection against the government during the reign of former Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein. We can do away with 20 million militants for the rest 120 million Nigerians to live,” N’Allah said.

N’Allah later said his statement was a “parliamentary joke but as the report goes on to state – this did not have any effect on the military decision. What it does show is there are some rumblings from the Niger Delta representatives and a degree of polarisation is developing. This in itself may mean little since they are for all intense purposes powerless at this time. But if one takes the view that the military option is a part of a well planned offensive against the Niger Delta resistance by the Northern mafia that runs the country AND the latest report from chidi opara reports then something might be brewing.

This group, according to a senior Presidency contact, “met recently and forwarded a memo to Mr. President to expand the JTF mandate to include the South-eastern and the South-western regions of the country”. This group we learnt comprises retired senior security and military personnels from Northern Nigeria. It has a retired Colonel who served in the military intelligence corps during the regime of Ibrahim Babangida as leader.

The report goes on to further suggest that the government is very concerned about the possibility of various Southern resistance groups might make an alliance against the North which could lead to a “new” and very different Nigeria.

The reason for this advice we learnt is the fear within the group that “disgruntled elements” in the South-west and South-east may take advantage of the situation in the Niger Delta to cause more trouble. The South-east and South-west are the locations of the Movement For The Actualization Of Sovereign State Of Biafra(MASSOB) and the Oodua Peoples Congress(OPC) respectively. MASSOB and OPC have separatist agenda.

This video by a Biafran secessionist [ranting and tribal abuse aside there are many truths expressed here] also reinforces the chidi opara reports suggestion that there is more going on than meets the eye. Add to this the attack on Abonnema in Rivers State earlier this week which is already an extension to the war.

Another piece in this unfolding tragedy is the British and more lately French governments offer to send arms to be used against militants and their support of Nigeria having a seat on the Security Council.

Two issues are at stake here for both Nigeria and these two European governments – the free flowing of cheap oil and preventing the break up of Nigeria in which all three of them will loose big time.

Finally tomorrow Nigerian Liberty Forum holds it’s State of the Nation forum in London. Given the above it is not surprising that the Nigerian High Commissioner tried to prevent the forum from taking place. Fortunately they failed but clearly they are worried. Nigeria being worried is good news!

Ken Saro Wiwa Jr writes in London Observer “Now at last it’s time for Shell to atone for my father’s death”

Ken Saro-Wiwa’s real “crime” was his audacity to sensitise local and global public opinion to the ecological and human rights abuses perpetrated by Shell and a ruthless military dictatorship against the Ogoni people. The success of his campaign had mobilised our community to say “No to Shell” and to demand compensation for years of oil spills that had polluted our farms, streams and water sources. My father called the world’s attention to the gas flares that had been pumping toxic fumes into the Earth’s atmosphere for up to 24 hours a day since oil was discovered on our lands in 1958. He accused Shell of double standards, of racism and asked why a company that was rightly proud of its efforts to preserve the environment in the west would deny the Ogoni the same. Continue Reading ./blockquote>

Patrick Bond and Khadija Sharife “Shell on trial while Nigerians are slaughtered”

But at a time of worsening state massacres of environmental justice activists in the Delta, a moment of reckoning nears. In New York’s Southern District Court this Wednesday before Judge Kimba Wood, Shell goes on trial for crimes against the Niger Delta people and environment, which could lead to substantive reparations payments.
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When I set out to write a review of this weeks Nigerian blogs for Nigerians Talk, I had it in my mind that I would write on the invasion and bombing of towns and villages in Warri region of the Niger Delta. To be frank I expected to read that were Nigerians outraged by this attack on their fellow citizens by the Nigerian military especially since the Nigerian mainstream media has been uncritical. Unfortunately there wasn’t as much as I had hoped and hope is all too important in the struggle against tyranny.

chidi opara reports has the most posts on the Niger Delta generally but one in particular stands out in which the writer claims that the PDP tried to recruit one of the top militant leaders Mr. Government Ekpumupolo aka Tom Polo. The whole story sounds very sinister with former disgraced Bayelsa State Governor of transvestite fame, Diepriye Alamesigha as the contact man. What the story does suggest is that there are communication channels between the militants, the oil companies and the Nigerian military which on some levels seems rather too friendly for purported enemies.

More sinister than the “chidi opara reports” story, is what we do know is happening in Delta State. Waffarian points out the truth that many of us have always known – “Nigerian is not one” and certainly the Niger Delta has always been at the extremities of Nigerian consciousness. Waffarian also points out that there are now refugees in Nigerian. Hmm excuse me but this is not new. There were / are refugees from various inter religious and ethnic clashes, attacks by the Nigerian military on other Niger Delta communities – Ogoni, Isoko, Ijaw to name a few. And of course Biafra which leads me to a post by Max Siollun’s Website on the Biafran war, a subject which I think needs to be discussed far more than it is. He describes it as a “no victor no vanquished where Biafran disabled soldiers still remain the forgotten victims of Nigeria’s gruesome past.
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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

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.