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Testimony of Michael K. Dorsey, Director, Sierra Club, Regarding Maryland State Finance and Procurement Act SB 354, Sanctions Against Nigeria February 26, 1998 I am pleased to appear before the committee today to talk to you about some very important issues. I must admit that I am hear with mixed emotions. While it is both a privilege and an honor to testify before this committee on the state of affairs in Nigeria, this hearing comes at a time of great concern for many Americans, especially African Americans and Maryland residents, who have waged a steadfast campaign against the atrocities and human rights abuses of the current regime in Nigeria working in collusion with the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies (hereafter Shell). Many basic freedoms that US citizens (i.e., Maryland residents) take for granted are, unfortunately, not universal. Environmentally concerned citizens in many countries-- including Nigeria--are not only threatened by their governments; indeed some multinational corporations, like Shell, working with governments, jeopardize and undermine both human and civil rights. Many of these corporations pressure nations, in desperate need of foreign investment to compete for their business by reducing environmental, labor, health and safety standards. On Friday November 10, 1995 at 11:30 in the morning Ken Saro-Wiwa, Barinem Kiobel, John Kpuinen, Baribo Bera, Saturday Dobee, Felix Nwate, Nordu Eawo, Paul Levura and Daniel Gbokoo were all hanged. The story surrounding the hanging is a grim one and according to Stephen Mills, the human rights campaign director for the Sierra Club, reveals the "extreme measures a multinational corporation will use to protect its bottom line" and illustrates the "insidious relationship" between oil companies and military dictatorships. The case brought against Dr. Owens Wiwa’s brother, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and the other eight was based on a concrescence of trumped up and fictitious charges. The nine human-rights and environmental activists were murdered by the Nigerian government for leading non-violent protests and demonstrations against the activities of Shell in their native Ogoniland. Shell's legacy of contamination in Ogoniland and other areas in Nigeria dates back to the start of its operations in the country in 1958. According to the July 1994 Greenpeace International Report, "Shell Shocked: The Environmental and Social Cost of Living with Shell in Nigeria, in Shell's thirty-six years of operations rather than setting standards and promoting a positive relationship with the local people, as well as sound environmental and social policies, the company has done little." Shells environmental policy in Nigeria, and most of Africa for that matter, reeks of discrimination. The company thinks that it can adhere to one operating standard in this country and in Europe, while maintaining lower level standards in Africa. One report released last year found that Shells hydrocarbon pollution levels in Nigeria were more than 700 times higher than those allowed in Europe! Worse yet, Shell often employs and demands the assistance of Nigerian military forces to "protect" company operations and facilities. Shell commonly summons military forces to crush non-violent protests. One of the worst atrocities occurred in 1987 when Shell ordered the Nigerian Mobile Police Force (MPF)--nicknamed by Nigerians as Kill and Go Mob--to stop a demonstration against the company in Umuechem, 10 miles from Ogoni. Shell officials were documented to "request that you (MPF) urgently provided us with security protection." The "urgent" request resulted in the shooting deaths of eighty protesters and the destruction of nearly 500 homes. The Sierra Club believes that no country can feign environmental conscienceness when its citizens are forbidden to assemble, speak freely, fearing persecution and even execution, for attempting to protect the environment. This belief has inspired the creation of our program on Human Rights and the Environment. The Sierra Clubs strategy is to focus on nations like Nigeria where human rights abuses are committed against environmental activists and to inform the public about these abuses in order to expose the guilty parties. It is our belief that human rights abuses are less likely to occur in broad daylight of international attention. In Nigeria, however, recent US State Department reports reveal the Nigerian government has relied regularly on arbitrary detention and harassment to silence its many critics. Worst of all, the Nigerian governments human rights abuses have taken many known and unknown lives. Since the inception of our Human Rights and Environment Campaigns project against the atrocities of the current Nigerian regime and Shell both perpetrators, the Nigerian government and Shell, have engaged in a campaign of denials, qualified admissions and limited confirmations of widespread human rights abuses. The Nigerian government has taken out full page adds in major US newspapers, has offered full paid trips to Nigeria for select US elected officials and celebrities, and overall, has supported an intense public-relations (P-R) campaign denying its involvement in human rights abuses, loss of life and environmental destruction. After millions of dollars of expenditures on P-R work, what they have not done is cease their involvement in human rights abuses. The time has come to move the Nigerian government and those corporations that collude with it and back it financially and militarily, like Shell, to cease and desist their human rights abuses, complicity in murder and continued plunder of the environment. We must pass the limited sanctions bill against Nigeria and those that do business there who are based in Maryland, as first step. Subsequently, we must hold up our Legislatures visionary move to the rest of the country and the world as an appropriate and effective strategy to end a legacy of human rights violations by the Nigerian regime. Despite accolades to the contrary, mainly by companies like Shell, unilateral sanctions are very effective. Indeed, sanctions are often used in the fight against some of the most challenging problems in the world today - human rights abuse, weapons proliferation, drug trafficking and terrorism. Sanctions brought down the apartheid regime in South Africa. Limited sanctions, like the one proposed in the bill, are even more effective in processes to ameliorate human rights abuses. Unlike comprehensive sanctions, Nigerian citizens will not be adversely effected. Instead large scale investments and corporate involvement which continue to prop up the Nigerian dictatorship will be effective curtailed. As Ken Saro-Wiwa, Owen's brother, sat in detention a couple of months before his murder, he wrote in his diary, "All those that fight when oppressed incur no guilt, but God shall punish the oppressor. Come the day." Let today mark the day that begins the eventual passage of the Sanctions Against Nigeria Bill. Thank you very much. YOU MAY EMAIL YOUR REPLY TO: mkdorsey@jhu.edu or mkdorsey@ais.org OR SEND SOMETHING VIA REGULAR MAIL TO: Johns Hopkins University Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
