[Marxism] Oil companies on trial

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

NY Times, May 22, 2009
Oil Industry Braces for Trial on Rights Abuses
By JAD MOUAWAD

Fourteen years after the execution of the Nigerian author and activist 
Ken Saro-Wiwa by Nigeria’s former military regime, Royal Dutch Shell 
will appear before a federal court in New York to answer charges of 
crimes against humanity in connection with his death.

The trial, scheduled to begin on Wednesday, will examine allegations 
that Shell sought the aid of the former Nigerian regime in silencing Mr. 
Saro-Wiwa, a vociferous critic, in addition to paying soldiers who 
carried out human rights abuses in the oil-rich but impoverished Niger 
Delta where it operated.

Shell strongly denies the charges.

But the trial is the latest in a series of cases aimed at some of the 
world’s biggest oil companies, asserting misdeeds in developing 
countries where they were once seen as unassailable. Oil companies are 
being sued on charges of environmental damage, collusion with repressive 
governments and contributing to human rights abuses, among others.

Chevron, for example, could face up to $27 billion in liability in 
Ecuador for pollution of the jungle.

Exxon Mobil is being sued by Indonesian villagers from the province of 
Aceh who allege human rights violations committed by soldiers hired to 
guard a natural gas plant.

And these legal challenges are just the latest tests for an industry 
increasingly hard pressed to find new sources of petroleum.

The most prominent case of supposed company complicity — the execution 
of Mr. Saro-Wiwa and eight other members of the Ogoni tribe — led to 
fierce protests against Shell, which was already under heavy criticism 
from environmentalists for its record in the Niger Delta. The event, 
which ignited worldwide condemnation of Nigeria, prompted changes in 
Shell’s approach to community relations in Nigeria and elsewhere.

While civilian rule has returned to Nigeria, violence in the delta has 
escalated in recent years, fueled by poverty, corruption and graft. Over 
the last week, there has been a new round of fighting between government 
forces and militant rebel groups, which have declared an “all-out war” 
in the region and threatened the operations of oil companies.

The civil suit was brought by relatives of Mr. Saro-Wiwa and other 
victims of Nigeria’s former military regime, who are taking advantage of 
a Supreme Court decision that gives foreign victims of human rights 
abuses a measure of access to American courts.

The suit asserts that in the early 1990s, Shell became worried about Mr. 
Saro-Wiwa’s campaign to protest the impact of oil production throughout 
the Niger Delta. The suit asserts that Shell feared Mr. Saro-Wiwa’s 
activities would disrupt its operations and tarnish its image abroad, 
and “sought to eliminate that threat, through a systematic campaign of 
human rights violations.”

Shell said the allegations were “false and without merit.” In a 
statement, Stan Mays, a company spokesman, said: “Shell in no way 
encouraged or advocated any act of violence,” and, in fact, "attempted 
to persuade that government to grant clemency."

The case could have global repercussions for the oil industry, said 
Arvind Ganesan, the head of the business and human rights practice at 
Human Rights Watch.

In the last decade, oil companies have been under increasing pressure to 
comply with strict standards of behavior while operating in countries 
with poor human rights records and few democratic controls.

“The lesson here is that these cases aren’t going away,” Mr. Ganesan 
said. “If a jury found Shell guilty, this would change the behavior of 
the industry pretty quickly.”

The lawsuit was filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New 
York law firm specializing in human rights, on behalf of Mr. Saro-Wiwa’s 
son and other plaintiffs who fled Nigeria’s military regime and did not 
trust they could sue Shell in Nigerian courts even after civilian rule 
returned in 1999.

The current suit was brought under the Alien Tort Claims Act, an arcane 
law written in 1789 to fight piracy, which is increasingly being used 
for lawsuits asserting human rights violations that occurred overseas. 
The Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 in 2004 that foreigners could use 
American courts in limited cases, like crimes against humanity or 
torture. While sovereign states cannot be sued, American courts have 
accepted that a wide variety of actors, including corporations, can be 
called to account.

So far no corporation has been found guilty under the alien tort law, 
though human rights lawyers note that several cases are still moving 
through the court system.

In 2004, Unocal, a California oil company accused of using slave labor 
in the construction of a pipeline in Burma during the 1990s, agreed to 
compensate villagers there. The terms of the settlement were not made 
public.

Last year, Chevron was cleared of wrongdoing by a jury after being 
accused of complicity in the shooting of Nigerian villagers who occupied 
an offshore oil barge in 1998 to protest its environmental record and 
hiring practices.

Shell’s activities in the Niger Delta, a region of mangroves and swamps 
roughly the size of Maryland where most of Nigeria’s oil is located, 
have long been criticized by environmentalists. Shell drilled the 
country’s first successful well in 1956, and has since dominated 
Nigeria’s oil sector, through decades of civil war, military rule and 
authoritarian governments.

In recent years, protests against government corruption have become more 
violent. The operations of Shell, in particular, have been come under 
attack from militant groups seeking a greater share of the country’s oil 
wealth.

For Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr., who returned to Nigeria from exile in 1999, the 
trial could provide bittersweet vindication of his father’s campaign.

“My father always said that one day Shell would be on trial,” said Mr. 
Saro-Wiwa, who now works as an adviser to the government on community 
issues. “It’s important for those involved in the conspiracy against my 
father to be held to account. It’s a communal exorcism, if you like, for 
Shell to account and bear responsibility for what it did.”

The elder Mr. Saro-Wiwa, who founded the Movement for the Survival of 
the Ogoni Peoples in 1990, was one of the most vocal critics of Shell 
for the damage done to the delta communities, including gas flaring and 
the destruction of mangroves to make way for pipelines.

According to the lawsuit, a Shell official identified Mr. Saro-Wiwa as 
being “influential” in organizing the protests and sought the assistance 
of the Nigerian government to silence him.

The company is also accused of paying soldiers who committed human 
rights abuses and providing them with transportation, including 
helicopters. During a military raid, one plaintiff, Karalolo Kogbara, 
was shot by Nigerian troops while she was speaking out against the 
destruction of crops bulldozed to build a pipeline.

“We are not saying that Shell just did business in a bad place,” said 
Jennie Greene, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights. 
“Shell was an actor here. Shell wasn’t just standing by.”

Mr. Saro-Wiwa was arrested in 1994 and put on trial before a special 
military court along with the other Ogoni advocates, on charges that 
human rights groups and Western governments said were trumped up. 
Despite international pressure, Shell initially refused to intervene, 
saying at the time, “the company does not get involved in politics.”

The lawsuit charges that Shell bribed at least two crucial witnesses to 
change their testimony during the trial. It also asserts that Shell’s 
manager in Nigeria at the time, Brian Anderson, met with Owens 
Saro-Wiwa, Mr. Saro-Wiwa’s brother and also a plaintiff, and tried to 
pressure the jailed activist to abandon his struggle in exchange for 
help in securing his release. Mr. Saro-Wiwa reportedly refused.

Shell’s chief executive eventually faxed Gen. Sani Abacha, Nigeria’s 
military ruler, a request for a pardon after Mr. Saro-Wiwa’s appeal for 
clemency was denied. By then it was too late: Mr. Saro-Wiwa and the 
other advocates were hanged on Nov. 10, 1995.

Shell denied it had sought to silence Mr. Saro-Wiwa.

“Shell attempted to persuade that government to grant clemency; to our 
deep regret, that appeal — and the appeals of many others — went 
unheard,” Shell said in its statement. “We were shocked and saddened 
when we heard the news.”

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