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MOSOP Tells Shell: Clean Up By 2000 or Clear Out Ogoni, Rivers State, Nigeria - on the 3rd anniversary of the murder of MOSOP President Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders on November 10th 1995, the Ogoni people have presented the Shell oil company with an ultimatum: `clean up your act by the year 2000 or quit Ogoni for good'! On Monday November 9th a MOSOP delegation met with US Special Envoy to Africa Reverend Jesse Jackson, who is currently visiting Nigeria. In lengthy discussion MOSOP directly appealed to him to mediate to secure the release of the bodies of the Ogoni 9, currently interred in a military graveyard. Speaking from Ogoni today the Acting President of the movement Ledum Mitee [who recently returned home from two years in exile] said: "Since 1993 we have suffered the deaths of more than 2000 innocent Ogoni men and women, including our President Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders killed three years ago today. Their bodies must be returned to the people grieving for them immediately. Today we commemorate their sacrifice and respect their memory. Their only crime was to protest Shell's devastation of our land". "In 1993 the Ogoni became the first indigenous people in the history of our planet to force a transnational oil company to leave our land by peaceful means. Since 1958 Shell has poisoned our soil, polluted our water and punished the Ogoni people for demanding our human rights, including the right to choose the use of our own land and its resources". "Two weeks ago when I returned home, tens of thousands of Ogoni people were free to celebrate in the streets for the first time in five years. As much as this expression of joy was a welcome home, it was a dance of victory:MOSOP has danced the military guns to silence. Now the Ogoni people will dance Shell's lies and public relations spin to silence". "Shell must now understand the simple truth: five years of merciless repression have not destroyed MOSOP. We're back, stronger than ever. The pain and suffering we have endured has tempered our spirits like steel. We have the only weapons we need: the strength of our non-violent campaign and solidarity with other Niger Delta communities in our common struggle for economic justice. The international community has grown to understand the problems in the Delta through their support of the Ogoni people. In the months ahead the world will be watching the Delta. They will judge Shell and the Nigerian military by their actions rather than by their words". "There must be no more human tragedies of the kind Shell has created in Ogoni. In 100 years of exploration, the oil and gas industry has shown that it can't be trusted to protect our planet's environment and respect human rights. In Buenos Aires, Argentina today indigenous peoples from across the globe have gathered at the UN Climate Change Summit to call for an end to this exploitation and for no more Ogoni tragedies. Shell is clearly the worst transgressor of internationally accepted standards of practice. There has been a lessening of tension in Ogoni since June of this year. Everyone in Nigeria and Ogoni believes we deserve a new start for a new millennium. Only one party to the crisis of the last five years refuses to accept that things are changing in Ogoni for good. Shell - the company that this year promised to balance principles with profit - has not made a single concession to help bring about the peace and reconciliation it says it wants to see. I have a simple question for the Directors of Shell: `when will you balance principles with practice in Ogoni'"? "Ogoni is still a Shell shocked war zone. The Ogoni people reserve the right to tell Shell it can never return to our land if it cannot prove itself to be a trustworthy global corporate citizen. On the anniversary of the murder of nine of our leaders, MOSOP presents Shell with a simple choice: clean up the mess you have made by Ogoni Day January 4th 2000 or clear out once and for all"! As of writing (00:05 GMT) thousands of people are gathering across Ogoni at candlelit vigils. Tomorrow, processions in each kingdom will join together at a rally in Borri from 11:00 Nigeria time [GMT +1]. At the Hague, Yme Joi Yowika and Comfort Giadom - both spokespeople for MOSOP and the Federation of Ogoni Women's Associations (FOWA) - will present a letter at the HQ of Shell informing the Anglo-Dutch oil company of the January 4th 2000 deadline to clean up or clear out of Ogoni. They will lay a wreath outside the Shell building to show the Ogoni people's continued commitment to the legacy of Ken Saro-Wiwa and all those who have given their lives in the Ogoni struggle for environmental and human rights. Ogoni in exile and the Ogoni people's supporters will be gathering to pay their respects to the memory of Ogoni victims of violence, and protest to Shell's record, at 100s of events and actions all over the world. November 10th 1998 is the 3rd anniversary of the extra judicial murder of 9 Ogoni leaders, following a military show trial that was universally condemned as unfair: Baribor Bera, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbokoo, Barinem Kiobel, John Kpuinen, Paul Levura, Felix Nuate, and MOSOP President Ken Saro-Wiwa. The Ogoni 9 were accused of four murders that occurred on May 21st 1994 at Giokoo in Ogoni of: Chief Albert T. Badey, Chief Edward N. Kobani, Chief Samuel N. Orage and Chief Theophilus B. Orage. MOSOP considers their murders to be unsolved crimes. Since MOSOP began its non-violent campaign in 1993, Ogoni people have suffered extra-judicial killings, rapes, arbitrary arrests, mass looting, extortion, torture, show trials and imprisonment in degrading conditions at the hands of a military that is armed by and paid for by the Shell oil company. As a result of this orchestrated violence, more than 2000 innocent Ogoni have died. Approximately 30 000 from 10 Ogoni communities have been forced to leave their homes and are internally displaced in Ogoni. Approximately 2000 have escaped to neighbouring states, or have been forced into exile as refugees. All this simply for demanding our rights to a clean environment and a future free of violence. The military authorities are beginning to respond to MOSOP's demands and pressure from the international community to address the human rights crisis in Ogoni: On September 7th 1998 the military released 20 Ogoni political prisoners who had been held illegally for more than four years on the same politically motivated charges the authorities used as a pretext to execute the Ogoni 9. A High Court judge granting their release ruled that their detention was "illegal, unconstitutional, null and void". There has been a partial military withdrawal from Ogoni. On September 12th 1998 troops of the Rivers State Internal Security Task Force (RVSISTF) [1] stationed at road-checks across occupied Ogoni since 1993 - and routinely engaged in extortion and harassment of Ogoni people - were returned to three military camps maintained in the region. This action may be the first stage of the complete military withdrawal from Ogoni demanded by world governments including Britain, and by MOSOP. Acting MOSOP President Ledum Mitee was greeted by tens of thousands of Ogoni people on his return from two years in exile on October 22nd 1998. A MOSOP reception on October 24th at Borri for 21 Ogoni political detainees released in September was attended by more than 50 000 people. Although the human rights crisis in Ogoni has improved significantly in recent months, violence has spread across other oil producing areas in the rest of the Niger Delta. A wave of protests and unrest has spread across the Delta and Nigeria's oil producing south- western coast since mid-September. According to Nigerian media reports this unrest has left 100s dead and has forced ten thousands of people to flee from ethic disturbances, mostly caused by disputes over land and oil rights. According to community leaders this unrest is a direct result of the growing poverty in the Delta, caused by the lack of economic and social development and the unjust allocation of oil revenues. Armed protestors from other - non-Ogoni - Niger Delta communities have hijacked oil rigs and flow station in October. Shell and other foreign oil companies operating or prospecting in Nigeria have now been forced to cut around one third of all the country's oil exports in response to the crisis. A fire caused by an oil spill at Jesse, Delta state on October 18th 1998 has left at least 700 dead. According to media reports most of the victims died as they tried to salvage crude oil from a burst pipe. The lack of basic medical provision for oil producing communities, and a comment to journalists by military Head of State General Abubakar - visiting the scene - that victims would not receive compensation because they were `saboteurs' caused the death toll to rise. Burns victims feared arrest if they reported to international relief agency hospitals set up to cope with the emergency. General Abubakar has re-instituted the discredited development board (OMPADEC), shut down by the previous military administration following allegations of serious corruption and mismanagement [2]. Communities in the Niger Delta have dismissed the re-institution of OMPADEC as an inadequate stopgap measure. Although General Abubakar has committed himself to transition to democratic civilian rule and `national reconciliation' a statement that he: `[hopes] the oil producing areas will realise the enormity of the problems of running a country as big as Nigeria and stop vandalising or sabotaging the operations of oil companies' has given rise to serious doubts that the current transition to democracy process will benefit minorities in oil producing regions [3]. Despite a real lessening of tension in Ogoni, MOSOP believes that the current reform process has yet to address the overall infrastructure of systematic human rights abuses in Nigeria, the Niger Delta and Ogoni. Issues that must still be addressed include the removal of military decrees such as Decree 2 and Decree 29 of 1993 by which calling for minority rights, ethnic autonomy - or even questioning the definition of regional boundaries as defined by the military - is an offence punishable by death" The Nigerian authorities must now implement the recommendations of the United Nations to address the need for compensation for the families of the Ogoni 9, and for the economic and social development of the Ogoni people. Shell, Ogoni and the Niger Delta The Ogoni people are the stakeholder community in an oil-producing region that is important to Nigeria's economy and to Shell's business. Oil accounts for 90% of Nigeria's national foreign exchange earnings. SPDC produces about 40% of Nigeria's crude oil output. Shell operates the biggest joint venture in Nigeria. Shell operated five major oil fields on Ogoni land until the temporary cessation of its operations in 1993. MOSOP estimates that approximately US $30 billion worth of oil has been extracted from Ogoni since production began in 1958. As of 1994, by its own estimation SPDC had extracted 634 million barrels from the area [4]. Although extraction has been suspended, Shell oil has flowed through Ogoni since 1993 from the Bonny oil terminal and inland. In April 1998 Shell published their `Principles and Profit' document and announced an extensive public referral process (`Tell Shell') it is taking a leading role amongst transnational companies in promoting and protecting human rights [5]. Shell has so far refused to implement the recommendation of the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights that MOSOP and the Shell work together on commissioning an independent impact assessment to establish the facts about the environmental devastation. ACTION MOSOP calls on the Nigerian authorities to:
MOSOP calls on Shell to:
MOSOP calls on Nigerians, the international community and supporters of the cause of human rights in Ogoni to:
Write to: General Abdulsalam Abubakar, And to diplomatic representatives of Nigeria accredited to your country. Cor Herkstroter Send copies to:
FOOTNOTES. [1] RVSISTF is a combined military operation that has occupied Ogoni since 1993. [2] In 1996 World Council of Churches investigation into the Ogoni crisis reported that OMPADEC was `riddled with fraud and is very corrupt'. Robinson, Deborah 1996, Ogoni, the Struggle Continues, World Council of Churches, Geneva page 13. [3] Newsweek, September 21st 1998 `We Need Each Other, interview with General Abubakar', USA page 85. [4] SPDC, 1995, Nigeria brief: the Ogoni issue, page 2. [5] "Shell" Trading & Trading p.l.c, 1998, Profits and Principles - does there have to be a choice?, page 17. For details of how to obtain copies of the Oilwatch report `Drilling to the Ends of the
Earth' (c) MOSOP International Secretariat, 1998. Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), MOSOP Nigeria: 20 Station Road,
Port Harcourt, Nigeria Tel./Fax. [+234] 84 230 250 International secretariat: Suite 5, 3 - 4 Albion Place, Galena Road, London W6 0LT,
United Kingdom. MOSOP mobile [+44] 7887 536 774 (urgent & media inquiries only please) e-mail: MOSOP International secretariat mosop@gn.apc.org "Lord take my soul, but the struggle continues" -- Ken Saro-Wiwa, the gallows, November 10th 1995. 'Ogoni is a land of half a million people in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Since 1958, oil companies such as Shell have exploited Ogoni's oil wealth, while the Ogoni people have suffered economic deprivation, the environmental devastation of our land and the discriminatory policies of successive Nigerian governments'. 'The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People demands economic justice, human rights - including the right to choose the use of our land and its resources - and to a future free of violence. MOSOP is the democratic voice of the Ogoni people'. Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
