Friday July 3, 2009, 3:55 pm
The posted article:
Serious allegations of human rights abuses caused by oil companies in the Niger Delta, the oil-producing region in southern Nigeria, have been published today.

A 141-page report by Amnesty International quotes sources suggesting that in the last 50 years at least 9m barrels worth of oil have leaked into land and rivers in the region.

Royal Dutch Shell is singled out by Amnesty as the most powerful operator in the region. The report will make uncomfortable reading for the energy group's new chief executive, Peter Voser, who starts work tomorrow.

The report gives evidence of oil spill cover-ups, gas flaring near villages and waste dumping leading to serious pollution of wetlands and the destruction of farming and fishing. The Niger Delta is notorious for violence and gangs are often used as security forces by oil firms to prevent terrorist attacks, hijackings and assaults on oil installations. The region has become unstable, with Nigeria's military launching fierce attacks on villages to flush out suspected terrorists, but this has led to the displacement of thousands of people.

The Amnesty report lays the blame for the region's intractable problems on the oil industry. "Decades of pollution and environmental damage, caused by the oil industry, have resulted in violations of the right to an adequate standard of living, including food and water, violations of the right to gain a living through work and violations of the right to health," it says.

"A lack of accountability and the inability of those affected to access justice or receive adequate reparations and remedies, has perpetuated the context of human rights violations and encouraged them to occur again and again. So long as impunity for abuses of the environment and human rights remains entrenched, so too will the poverty and conflict that has scarred the Niger Delta."

Shell, which trades in Nigeria through the Shell Petroleum Development Company – a consortium which also includes the Nigerian government, Total and Agip – disputes much of the Amnesty report. It argues: "About 85% of the pollution from our operations comes from attacks and sabotage that also puts our staff's lives and human rights at risk."

Amnesty says oil firms treat communities as a "risk" instead of as stakeholders.


The 'Justice in Nigeria Now' site has obviously taken notice of Amnesty's report:

"Nigeria: Petroleum, Pollution and Poverty in the Niger Delta" -

On Tuesday June 30, Amnesty International released a major report detailing the the pollution and environmental damage caused by the oil companies while the Nigerian government continues to favor the oil companies and not the people of the Niger Delta.

“Oil companies have been exploiting Nigeria’s weak regulatory system for too long,” said Audrey Gaughran of Amnesty International. “They do not adequately prevent environmental damage and they frequently fail to properly address the devastating impact that their bad practice has on people’s lives.”

This 143-page report covers explains how decades of neglect, human rights abuses and environmental damage has contributed to the current crisis in the Niger Delta.

Read the Summary (http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR44/021/2009/en/3be47dff-af1f-4c8e-b7a6-960d229644f7/afr440212009en.pdf)

and Full Report (active link @ http://justiceinnigerianow.org/uncategorized/amnesty-international-releases-major-report-on-the-niger-delta)

Friday July 3, 2009, 4:06 pm
"Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta" is a book, a photography exhibition and a web site:
The site says this of the book: It 'takes a graphic look at the profound cost of oil exploitation in West Africa. Featuring images by world-renowned photojournalist Ed Kashi and text by University of California at Berkeley professor Michael Watts, this book traces the 50-year history of Nigeria's oil industry involvement.'

There is a perpetual slide show of some of the photographs on the web site:
http://curseoftheblackgold.blogspot.com/

Friday July 3, 2009, 4:20 pm
IMAGE: MASSIVE SPILL IN OKPE RIVER NEAR AMUKPE SAPELE, THE ERA FIELD REPORT CITED GROSS NEGLIGENCE ON THE PART OF PPMC - other pics, too -- http://universalgeneral.com/_wsn/page3.html

Saturday July 4, 2009, 3:45 am
Any time you see heart-rending conflicts in Africa, don't scratch your head and utter "those crazy Africans", as a friend of mine does. The " news " lacks any historical backround as to how and why. This story of corporate plunder and manipulation of Nigerian politics is a prime example.

Saturday July 4, 2009, 3:56 am
I get very, VERY annoyed whenever I stumble across a post on Nigeria that limits itself to reporting that oil company employees have been kidnapped - AGAIN- or that MEND guerillas are simply terrorists or insurgents, without giving any context to their struggle.

Saturday July 4, 2009, 11:44 am
Oil companies are the reason that America went to war in Iraq and for Kuwait. They believe they own the world. They obviously persuaded Bush to break the law by holding back the polar bear protection and handing out drilling rights in the Arctic. They pollute environments and believe themselves above the law. Yet they make millions of pound/dollars per minute pumping oil. They MUST pay to clean up their mess out of their profits and not pass on the costs to us. We also need to do more research into how to free ourselves from them and Kit B listed some research into biomass to feed cattle.

Saturday July 4, 2009, 1:28 pm
Well put

Saturday July 4, 2009, 3:20 pm
Further proof that everything Amnesty says in this report is true is the enormous out-of-court settlement of $15.5m (£9.6m) which Shell agreed to just a month ago, just a few days into an historic trial. There is also a link in the comments section of the post to the VIDEO that SHELL DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE - SHELL Accused - Landmark Trial: Execution Nigerian Environmental-Rights Activist Ken Saro-Wiwa; with Han Shan, coordinator of the ShellGuilty campaign, at shellguilty.com., a coalition initiative of Friends of the Earth, Oil Change International, and PLATFORM/Remember Saro-Wiwa, & Steve Kretzmann, executive director of Oil Change International, who worked closely with Ken Saro-Wiwa in the last two years before Saro-Wiwa’s death. Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell accused of involvement in human rights violations in the Niger Delta begins 27 May in a federal court in New York. Fourteen years after the widely condemned execution of the acclaimed Nigerian writer and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, the court will hear allegations that Shell was complicit in his torture and execution.

In 1996, a year after Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists were hanged, the Center for Constitutional Rights, EarthRights International and other human rights attorneys brought a series of cases against Royal Dutch Shell and Brian Anderson, the former head of Shell’s Nigeria operation. They accused Shell of working closely with and financing the Nigerian military government to brutally quell the peaceful resistance against Shell’s presence in the country. Saro-Wiwa had been instrumental in organizing the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta and had written about the genocide being perpetrated against them by the oil companies.

PLEASE, Please! LISTEN & WATCH the show via the above link, this way you can hear the great Saro-Wiwa's voice and see the news clips & film excerpt that add substance to this EXCELLENT and EXCEPTIONAL Democracy Now! program !!

"Saro-Wiwa and eight of his colleagues were executed by the Nigerian government 11 years ago (this was said in 2006, on the occasion of the unveiling of the Ken Saro-Wiwa 'Living Memorial' in London) for protesting against the devastation of the Niger delta by western oil corporations, in particular Shell and Chevron. There was worldwide condemnation at the time - both of the executions (described as "judicial murder") and the appalling oil pollution that had led to Saro-Wiwa's campaign for non-violent change in the first place. However, the situation in the Niger Delta in 2006 is, if anything, worse today - not only is the area still one of the poorest in Nigeria, not only does the practice of gas flaring still continue, but the region has now become heavily militarised."

In 2009, the situation has worsened: on May 21st of this year, Democracy Now! devoted an excellent report to the Nigerian military assault which had begun a week earlier, but had received alarmingly little attention in the media - Massive Casualties Feared in Nigerian Military Attack on Niger Delta Villages : The Nigerian military has been accused of killing hundreds, maybe thousands, of civilians in the oil-rich Niger Delta. The military offensive began eight days ago but has received little international attention. Amy Goodman takes us to Nigeria to speak with Denzil Amagbe Kentebe of the Ijaw National Congress, and is joined in the studio by Sandy Cioffi, director of the new documentary Sweet Crude about the Niger Delta. The village of Oporoza, where much of the film was shot, has just been burned down.

Saturday July 4, 2009, 11:58 pm
I fully support Amnesty Int in this it is a long time in coming. No one else will take these giants on and our own government is obviously in bed with them. Like the bailouts we paid for the ExxonValdez spill.
Thanks Alba.

Wednesday July 15, 2009, 10:01 am
Settlement of Wiwa v. Shell not enough - Take Action to End the Abuse of Gas Flaring Now:

Shell: There is No Justice Until Gas Flaring Is Ended
Background - Send the letter to Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer

Dear Mr. van der Veer

With its June 8th payment of $15.5 million dollars in compensation to the victims of human rights abuses in Nigeria, Royal Dutch Shell says it hopes to begin a "process of reconciliation" with the people of the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta.

While the settlement in the case was a victory for the plaintiffs, true justice will not be served as long as the people of Nigeria continue to suffer the terrible impact of your company's operations.

Gas flaring in the Delta region causes respiratory illnesses, blindness, cancer and birth defects amongst local people. The toxic compounds in the gas have entered streams and fields, endangering the fishing and farming people rely on for their subsistence and livelihood. But the impact does not end in Nigeria. Gas flaring has caused more greenhouse gas emissions than all other sources in sub-Saharan Africa combined, thereby worsening climate change, which has damaging consequences for us all.

This atrocious practice must end. Shell has promised to stop gas flaring countless times. These broken promises aggravate the communities that continue to suffer the effects of 24-hour flaring and show a flagrant disregard for our climate that belies your professed concern.

It is clear that Shell's settlement in the Wiwa v. Shell case was intended to keep the overwhelming evidence of Shell's crimes in Nigeria from the scrutiny of a jury trial. But the case still brought Shell's ugly history in Ogoni to light, and served as a reminder that Ken Saro-Wiwa and other activists died struggling to end abuses like gas flaring that continue today.

According to your own figures, it would cost about 10% of last year's profits to end Shell's gas flaring in Nigeria once and for all. This is a small price to pay to end a human rights abuse that Shell has been committing for decades.

You will retire as CEO of Royal Dutch Shell at the end of this month. If your company truly wants "reconciliation" with the Ogoni and other people who have suffered the legacy of Shell's operations in their land for fifty years, we suggest you may begin by simply upholding the promise that you've made time and again to stop gas flaring.

As you retire, you have a choice of what kind of legacy you will leave behind; one of repeated broken promises or one of doing the right thing by ending gas flaring. Please make the right choice and end Shell's gas flaring in Nigeria once and for all.

Sincerely,