TNC's 2 - Shell - Brit/Dutch

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

>From Chris B:

And also from yesterday's Guardian, London, on TNC's -
a letter from Nobel prize winner Ken Saro-Wiwa, smuggled
out of prison in Nigeria: -


"At the root of my travails is Shell, which has exploited,
traduced and driven the Ogoni people to extinction in the last
three decades. The company has taken over $30 billion out of
Ogoni and has left a completely devastated environment and a
trail of human misery.

When I organised the Ogoni people to protest against Shell's
ecological war, the company invited the Nigerian military
to intervene. Lethal arms supplied by the British government
were used on unarmed Ogoni people while they were sleeping
in their beds. Thousands have been murdered, hundreds of
thousands driven into the bush and tens of villages
flattened.

...

The World Bank, after studying the Niger delta, has warned
that 'an urgent need exists to implement mechanisms to protect
the life and health of the region's inhabitants and its
ecological systems from further deterioration'. Shell has not
faced the consequences of its ecological war on the delta.
Given the brutal nature of the military dictatorship, there is
little doubt that it will send me to the gallows or have me shut up
as long as possible.

I have one suggestion for those whose conscience has been
disturbed by my story: boycott all Shell products. Picket
Shell garages. Do not allow them to profit by their destruction
of the people and ecology of the Niger delta.

And please do not allow the kangaroo military tribunal which is
supposedly trying me to condemn me to death for a crime I know
nothing about; make appeals to a military dictatorship
which has neither legitimacy, nor conscience.

Support the call for a world wide boycott of Nigerian oil. Help
save life and the environment of the Niger delta."

Ken Saro-Wiwa.
c/o box 639, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.   "




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