OIL GIANT Shell has agreed to a $9.6 million settlement to end a lawsuit which claimed it was complicit in the execution of Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.
Shell, which continues to operate in Nigeria, said it agreed to settle in hopes of aiding the “process of reconciliation”. But it insisted it was not involved in the 1995 hangings of six people, including poet Mr Saro-Wiwa.
“This gesture also acknowledges that, even though Shell had no part in the violence that took place, the plaintiffs and others have suffered,” the company said.
The lawsuit in the US District Court in New York claimed Shell colluded with Nigeria’s former military government to silence environmental and human rights activists in the country’s Ogoni region.
The oil-rich district sits in the southern part of Nigeria and covers about 400sq miles. Shell started operating there in 1958.
The main complaint against Shell focused on activities by the company’s subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited.
The lawsuit said in the 1990s Shell officials helped give Nigerian police weapons, participated in security sweeps of the area and hired government troops who shot at villagers protesting over the construction of a pipeline.
The plaintiffs also say Shell helped the government capture and hang Mr Saro-Wiwa, John Kpuinen, Saturday Doobee, Felix Nuate, Daniel Gbokoo and Dr Barinem Kiobel on November 10th, 1995.
Mr Saro-Wiwa, leader of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, led rallies against Shell. He blamed the company for myriad oil spills and gas fires in the Ogoni region.
“I think he would be happy with this,” said his 40-year-old son Ken Saro-Wiwa jnr. Although Shell denied any wrongdoing, “the fact that they would have to settle is a victory for us”. Besides compensating the families, the money from Shell will pay for years of legal fees. And a large chunk of the settlement – roughly one-third – will create a trust that will invest in social programmes in the country, including educational endowments, agricultural development, support for small enterprise and adult literacy schemes.
Altogether, the settlement will have a negligible effect on Shell’s shareholders, amounting to less than one-hundredth of a per cent of Shell’s annual revenue.
It’s comparable to the annual cost of renting one of the supertankers that Shell uses to deliver Nigerian oil to other countries.
Shell has consistently maintained that it never advocated violence and that it lobbied Nigerian officials to grant Mr Saro-Wiwa clemency. Critics say that Shell did so because of the bad publicity the case had generated.
“Is it enough to bring back the lives of our clients? Obviously not,” said Jenny Green, a lawyer for the Centre for Constitutional Rights in New York who helped file the lawsuit in 1996.
But she said it will send a message to Shell and other multinationals that operate in developing countries.
“You can’t commit human rights violations as a part of doing business,” she said.
“A corporation can’t act with impunity. And we think there is accountability in this settlement.”
The Shell settlement ends one of several legal battles brought against energy companies by indigenous peoples where they operate.
Villagers in Indonesia are suing Exxon Mobil, claiming it employed guards who kidnapped, tortured and murdered civilians.
Chevron is awaiting a verdict from a judge in Ecuador in a dispute over the role of Texaco, which Chevron bought in 2001, in environmental damages in the Amazon rain forest.
The case against Shell was based on the Alien Tort Claims Act. The 18th-century law was originally meant to combat piracy and allows foreigners to pursue corporations in US courts.
At least one additional lawsuit alleging human rights abuses by Shell in Nigeria is pending in the US District Court in New York.
Mr Saro-Wiwa jnr said he thinks Shell has started to acknowledge that it needs a “social licence” to operate in foreign countries.
For example, the company has agreed to pay for a study of environmental damage that drilling has caused the Ogoni region.
“They have a long way to go,” he said. “But at least they realise some of their actions can come back to haunt them as we saw in New York.” – (AP)