Jun 09 2009
Shell pays $15.5 million in human rights case
Today, the Royal Dutch Shell oil giant company has agreed to pay a settlement of 15.5 million dollars to avoid a trial over allegations that the company was involved in human rights violations in the Niger Delta. The case was brought on by ten plaintiffs who have accused Shell of being complicit in the execution of activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others in 1995.
The case was brought under the US Alien Torts Claim Act and the Torture Victim Protection Act, which allows plaintiffs outside of the United States to file cases against Americans and American corporations for crime committed outside of the U.S. Other cases brought under the US Alien Torts Claim Act include cases against Coca-Cola, Drummond Coal company and Chiquita Banana, among others.
ken Saro-Wiwa was brutally murdered along with eight other activists during a Nigerian military campaign to supress the peaceful, non-violent protest against the operations of Royal Dutch Shell in the Niger Delta region. Saro-Wiwa was the founder of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, a group committed to nonviolent resistance against the exploitation of their land and their people.
Activists involved in the issue claim that Shell appealed to the Nigerian goverment to quell the protests, and threatened that the country’s main economic industry, oil, would be shut down if the demonstrators were to continue. The Nigerian government responded with brutal force waged against the civilians.
Shell denies that the accusations are true, nor that the sttlement is an indication of guilt. Representative Malcolm Brinded, said that “Shell has always maintained the allegations were false. While we were prepared to go to court to clear our name, we believe the right way forward is to focus on the future for Ogoni people, which is important for peace and stability in the region.”
Ken was hanged brother and while I would say he was murdered and that it was a travisty, I’m not sure I would call it it brutally murdered. But I am so tainted from years of political murder and torture storys that being hanged actually doesn’t sound to damn bad compared to some of the other shit I know about. But hey thanx for your blog and good luck with it. Ken was a HERO! Shell and the government of Nigeria are murderers.
Respect