In death Saro-Wiwa triumphs, Shell pays

Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigerian writer, poet, martyr and activist who was hanged, along with eight others in 1995, has triumphed even in death. When you gas up at Shell, think of Saro-Wiwa.

A news report the other day said: “The oil giant Shell has agreed to pay $15.5 million in settlement of a legal action in which it was accused of having collaborated in the execution of the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other leaders of the Ogoni tribe of southern Nigeria.

“The settlement is one of the largest payouts agreed by a multinational corporation charged with human rights violations. Shell and its Nigerian subsidiary SPDC have not conceded to or admitted any of the allegations, pleading innocent to all the civil charges.”



So why is Shell paying? “[T]he scale of the payment is being seen by experts in human rights law as a step towards international businesses being made accountable for their environmental and social actions.”

Royal Dutch Shell was to stand trial in federal court in New York for complicity in human rights abuses in Nigeria, but on the eve of the trial it decided to settle. That Shell shunned a trial meant that it was afraid of evidence that could be presented. A report said that “among the documents that were lodged with the New York court was a 1994 letter from Shell in which it agreed to pay a unit of the Nigerian army for services rendered. The unit had retrieved one of the company’s fire trucks from the village of Korokoro, an action that according to reports at the time left one Ogoni man dead and two wounded.”

Shell wrote that it was making the payment “as a show of gratitude and motivation for a sustained favorable disposition in future assignments.”

I had goose bumps as I watched the report on this development on CNN. I had written about Saro-Wiwa some years back not only because of the cause he had espoused but because Filipinos working in and around Nigeria become hostage victims of errant groups, bandits among them, who were exploiting the anarchic situation there.

Wiwa had led the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People so that the government would heed their demands. When he and the eight others, all members of the Ogoni tribe, were hanged, Greenpeace issued a statement saying that they were hanged for speaking out against the environmental damage to the Niger Delta caused by Shell through its 37 years (since 1958) of drilling in the region. Saro-Wiwa was campaigning for the basic right to clean air, land and water and his only crime was his success in bringing his cause to international attention.

Greenpeace slammed Shell’s call for “quiet diplomacy” at the 11th hour that was not of any use. Shell had ample opportunity to demonstrate concern when Saro-Wiwa was in detention and on trial, but it chose to remain cozy with the Nigerian military dictatorship at that time.

Saro-Wiwa’s execution created ripples all over the world and today, many environmental and literary groups hail him as a hero.

Here was what Saro-Wiwa said to the tribunal: “I repeat that we all stand before history. I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is here on trial… Its day will surely come and the lessons learnt here may prove useful to it for there is no doubt in my mind that the ecological war that the company has waged in the Delta will be called to question sooner than later and the crimes of that war will be duly punished. The crime of the company’s dirty war against the Ogoni people will also be punished.”

Several times in 1993, Saro-Wiwa was arrested but he was adopted by Amnesty International as a Prisoner of Conscience. The supposed reason for his arrest was that he had incited the youth to murder.

Saro-Wiwa had written 27 books and had been honored for excellence in creative writing. He was a member of the Ogoni tribe composed of some 500,000 people. The Ogoni live in the densely populated Ogoniland in southeastern Nigeria.

At that time Ogoniland had produced more than $30 billion worth of oil for Nigeria through the government’s joint partnership with Shell. But the oil endeavor had resulted in severe pollution of Ogoniland.

The $15.5 million settlement came after three weeks of intensive negotiation between the plaintiffs, mostly relatives of the executed nine, and Shell. Anthony DiCaprio, the lead lawyer for the Ogoni side working with the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, said they were pleased with the result.

The deal highlights the end of a 14-year personal journey for Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr., son of the executed leader. Among the 10 plaintiffs was Karalolo Kogbara who lost an arm after she was shot by Nigerian troops while protesting the bulldozing of her village in 1993 to make way for a Shell oil pipeline.

Part of the settlement amount will be used to set up a trust called Kiisi (which means “progress” in the Ogoni Gokana language) to support community projects in the Niger Delta.

In a statement the plaintiffs said: “It is said that justice delayed is justice denied but today our private agonies and our long struggle for justice have finally been vindicated and we are gratified that Shell has agreed to atone for its actions. In accepting this settlement we were very much aware that we are not the only Ogonis who have suffered in our struggle with Shell, which is why we have insisted on a donation that will enable other members of our community to benefit from our victory.”

Read more or watch video clips about this landmark case. Visit http://wiwavshell.org. Amazing struggle.