(S)Hell in Nigeria
The Royal Dutch/Shell Group, commonly knowN as Shell, controls over 1,700 companies and is one of the largest producers of petroleum and related products in the world. Some of its largest operations are in Nigeria, where it has operated since 1958.
Eighty percent of the oil extracted in Nigeria comes from the Niger Delta region, in the south-east of the country, the home of the Ogoni people.
Shell's operations in the region have contributed to enormous pollution, some 1200 oil spills between 1976 and 1991 according to one study. A World Bank investigation found levels of hydrocarbon pollution in Ogoni water more than 60 times US limits.
In Nigeria 95% of natural gas extracted is flared, set alight, compared to a 0.6% flaring rate in the US. It is estimated that between the carbon dioxide and methane released by gas flaring, Nigerian oil fields are responsible for more global warming than the combined oil fields of the rest of the world.
Owens Wiwa, a physician, has observed "higher rates of certain diseases like bronchial asthma, other respiratory diseases, gastro-enteritis and cancer among the people in the area as a result of the oil industry". No compensation for the Ogoni has been given by Shell or the government.
Shell admits funding the Nigerian military, which has ruled the country for most of the last 20 years and even now, under a supposedly civilian government, is a terrifyingly dominant force.
Claiming to be "protecting" Shell from peaceful demonstrators, in 1990 police killed 80 people, destroyed houses and vital crops. Shell conceded it twice paid the military for going to specific villages, but disputes claims that the reason for these "excursions" was to silence dissent movements.
Shell even admits purchasing weapons for police guarding its facilities. In 1994, the Nigerian government deployed permanent security forces on Ogoni land. This "Rivers State Internal Security Task Force" is suspected in the murders of 2000 people.
One of the most well-known atrocities was the 1995 hanging of nine Ogoni activists who were part of MOSOP, the Movement of the Survival of Ogoni People.
MOSOP continues to campaign in Nigeria. As Ken Saro-Wiwa, one of the nine hanged, said, "We all stand before history. I am a man of peace, of ideas. I have devoted my intellectual and material resources, my very life, to a cause in which I have total belief and from which I cannot be blackmailed or intimidated. I have no doubt at all about the ultimate success of my cause, no matter the trials and tribulations which I and those who believe with me may encounter on our journey. No imprisonment nor death can stop our ultimate victory."
BY JAMES CRAFTI