Shell to Sea protest outside Shell HQ in empathy with the murdered Ogoni 9

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Tuesday May 26, 2009 07:55

by TD - Shell to Sea

"Shell operations (are) still impossible unless ruthless military operations are undertaken for smooth economic activities to commence"

Today, in a Manhattan Federal District Court in New York, Royal Dutch Shell with a long history of colluding with the Nigerian government to ruthlessly crush popular opposition to its ecological destruction and exploitation of the river Niger delta has to answer charges of complicity in human rights abuses, including the judicial murder of internationally renowned poet, writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of his Ogoni tribesmen on November 10th 1995 - other charges include torture, arbitrary arrest and imprisonment.

Colluding closely with the corrupt Nigerian government, for the benefit of Shell, Nigerian soldiers used deadly force and massive, brutal raids against the Ogoni people in the early 1990s to supress demands for equitable treatment for a people forced to live on less than a dollar a day on massively polluted land. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), EarthRights International (ERI) filed the case on behalf of the son of Ken Saro-Wiwa, also called Ken and others: "My father and eight others were executed for crimes they did not commit, They were seen as collateral damage so transnational business could continue pumping oil." Among the damning pieces of evidence that the jurors are going to be presented with is a secret memo authored by the head of Nigerian security forces in the region at the time which stated: "Shell operations (are) still impossible unless ruthless military operations are undertaken for smooth economic activities to commence".

Yesterday, in empathy and solidarity with the still beleaguered Ogoni people, Shell to Sea activists from Rossport, Belfast and Galway protested outside Shell's HQ in Leeson Street, Dublin for seven hours eliciting widespread support from passing pedestrians and honking motorists (see video).

Just as Shell has to answer for its crimes in Nigeria, along with its accomplices in government, Shell to Sea is working towards getting this rogue outfit to answer for its crimes in Erris.