Development

demonstrate against shell

Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, uk

2001-04-30, Issue 19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/680

Printer friendly version

We hereby invite you to participate in a massive demonstration and protest against Shell and other allied companies. We have within the past months
received and collated a list of over 5,000 supporters appending their signature and disgust against the environmental award given by WEC to Shell for polluting and destroying Ogoniland.

P.O. BOX 22067, LONDON SW2 5WR, UK
TEL: +44 (20) 8539 9050 FAX/PHONE: +44 (20) 7737 1550
CELL/MOBILE PHONE: 07968 965 760
E-MAIL: mosopgb@hotmail.com
CONTACTS: mrs gbenewa phido / harrison neenwi


PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY

25th April 2001

DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST SHELL

Dear friends and activists,

We hereby invite you to participate in a massive demonstration and protest
against Shell and other allied companies. We have within the past months
received and collated a list of over 5,000 supporters appending their
signature and disgust against the environmental award given by WEC to Shell
for polluting and destroying Ogoniland. MOSOP and other supporters of
justice believe that this award is undeserved, unjustified, distasteful,
tactless and insensitive to the memories of murdered Ogonis and those who
continue to suffer due to Shell’s shameless corporate greed and arrogant
attitude of putting profit before people.

To further drive home our message to WEC and Shell, MOSOP in association
with various international NGO’s, environmental and human rights
organisations have scheduled a demonstration during the 17th Annual WEC gold
medal presentation ceremony as below:

DATE: Friday, 18th May 2001

TIME: 6.00 p.m.

VENUE: The National Building Museum
Judiciary Square NW
G Street between 4th & 5th Streets
Washington DC
USA


All organisations and individuals who are opposed to corporate greed and
support the call for justice are welcome to participate in a show of
solidarity both for Ogonis, the Niger Delta People and for the oppressed
people across the world.

Please be punctual and come with your placards and banners with inscriptions
denouncing Shell’s greed and disregard for environmental protection.

For more information on the demonstration, contact the following MOSOP
representatives in Washington DC
1. Benjamin Osaro-Olali 703 920 5451 e-mail: benosaro@aol.com
2. Onumgwe Osaro 703 892 4746
3. NiaBari Dum-erenee 703 739 0569 e-mail: nialaw@juno.com
4. Nwagia Saro Nkesi 703 931 5920 e-mail: giasaro@starpower.net
5. Lucky Pianwi 202 832 2364 e-mail: lpianwi@aol.com
6. Gogo Nwiakoro 202 986 9254
7. Saturday Seven Nnam 202 986 9254 e-mail: satnam@aol.com
8. Barisua Ikpe 410 426 7225/410 323 7491
e-mail: lahikpe@aol.com


MOSOP and the Niger Delta People sincerely thank everyone who has
contributed to this petition and protest.

Yours in the Struggle

Mrs Gbenewa Phido
MOSOP-UK President



For more information about the award visit
www.wec.org

To send more letters of protest, e-mail WEC’s gold medal Co-ordinator Susil
Singh:
Susil@wec.org

Find here copy of the protest letter, which can be reproduced on an e-mail
to WEC.



PROTEST AGAINST OBSCENE REWARD FOR SHELL’S ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES!!!


29th January 2001

John .F. Mizrock
President /CEO
World Environment Center (WEC)
419 Park Avenue South
Suite 1800
New York NY 10016, USA

Dear Mr Mizrock,

On 10th January 2001, your organisation (WEC) ignored Shell’s disgraceful
environmental record and gave them an award for environmental quality.

We, the undersigned organisations and individuals from around the world,
wish to express our total disappointment and shock at your choice of company
- Shell whose environmental track record in Ogoniland and the Niger Delta of
Nigeria is below average to say the least. We share the concerns of the
Ogoni people who have called for the immediate disqualification of Shell
from this award. This is because an environmental award to Shell undermines
the struggles and demands for a healthy environment by the Ogonis as well as
exonerates and endorses the company’s atrocities in the community since
1958.

We understand that WEC is an independent organisation which has been funded
by the United Nations Environment programme to advance sustainable
development and social responsibility, encouraging environmental leadership
and help improve environmental health and safety practice world-wide. Going
by this criteria, giving this award to Shell confirms your organisation’s
refusal to abide by its stated terms of reference thereby encouraging the
destruction of the natural environment of the Ogonis and Niger Delta people
whose land is continuously being savaged by Shell in Nigeria.

Shell’s activities in Ogoni led to the community’s crisis of 1993 – 1996,
which resulted to the killing of over 3,000 people including women and
children. Other human rights violations that ensued included raping of
thousands of teenage girls, young women and grandmothers, the sacking of 30
Ogoni villages and the maiming of youths etc. These human rights violations
was climaxed with the hanging of human & environmental rights activist Ken
Saro Wiwa and 8 other Ogonis on November 10, 1995 which caused international
outrage on Nigeria and mass boycott of Shell’s product across the world.
The human and material cost of this crisis on the Ogoni people cannot be
quantified in monetary terms. Yet Shell’s reckless oil exploration
activities remain unchanged in the Niger Delta. Shell’s poisonous gas
flares still pollute Ogoniland 24 hours daily since 1958, causing terminal
lung and chest illnesses; surface pipelines still criss-cross the lands,
causing explosions from overheating; oil spills and fires continue to
destroy lands, streams and rivers. Shell still refuses to implement proper
cleanup activities on the land or offer compensation to the landowners etc.
See below Shell’s most recent disasters in the Niger Delta of Nigeria.

RECENT HISTORY ON SHELL’S ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS IN NIGER DELTA:
1. “Pipeline explosion rocks Delta Community. This pipeline belonging to
SPDC exploded in Warri. Spilling about a million barrells of oil in the
area” – Daily Times of Nigeria 9th January 2001
2. “Shell’s oil spill claims 28 lives including women & children in Akassa
Local Government. More than 200 villages were affected – Post Express 5th
January 2001
3. “Fire guts Shell’s ‘well 18’ in Ugheli Nigeria.” - Nigerian Guardian 13th
December 2000.
4. “Ikarama oil spill spreads to Ahoada, the spill has polluted the people’s
source of drinking water” – Nigerian Observer 5th November 2000
5. “Shell’s oil spill occurs at well 32 (Ekulama) covering river and
destroying aquatic lives. Ekulama women protest against Shell over shooting
of youths” – Environmental Rights Action Nigeria. 10th August 2000
6. “Unending crude oil pollution. Shell immerses Biseni community in Crude
oil and refuses to clean spill” – Environmental Rights Action Nigeria 15th
July 2000
7. “Shell, blood stains from Evwreni” – Environmental Rights Action Nigeria
22nd February 2000
8. “Shell instigated attacks on Elelewon” – Evironmental Rights Action
Nigeria 31st January 2000
9. “Shell spill in Eregbesene” – Environmental Rights Action Nigeria 27th
January 2000
10. “43 years on, Oloibiri is a study in neglect – the road to Oloibiri, the
first oil well at Oloibiri, view of the No. 2 location of Shell at Oloibiri
in 1956” – Nigerian Guardian 25th December 1999.
11. “6 Years after abandonement, Shell facilities spew oil in Bodo” – ERA
27th December 1999
12. “Shell in Bille; unending spills and crisis” – ERA 24th November 1999
13. “Shell fails to clean spills, refuses to pay compensation in Amuse
Oyigbo” – ERA 22nd Nov. 1999
14. “Shell’s well in Ogoni area goes aflame. A dormant oil well belonging
to Shell burst into flames in Yorla oil field” - Nigerian Guardian 27th
July 1999
15. By 1993, Ogoni could point to 3,000 oil spills from high-pressured oil
lines laid over their farmlands.
16. Shell has been summoned to the Human Rights Commission sitting in Port
Harcourt – Nigeria on 16th January 2001. This is in relation to the
corroboratory role it played with the Nigerian dictator by sponsoring the
Nigerian army with amunitions and financial assistance, which was used to
kill, unarmed Ogonis in order to deter them from protesting against its
activities. Shell is also expected to answer to its role in the hanging of
Environmental /Human Rights Activist Ken Saro Wiwa and the 8 other Ogonis
hanged by the draconian regime of Sani Abacha. – Comet News 16th January
2001
17. “Shell fights compensation order of $40m” – British Broadcasting
Corporation News 26th June 2000. Shell still refuses to pay oil spill
compensation court order to the Ebubu Ejaama people of Ogoni for 1970 spill,
which devastated the area.
18. US Supreme Court ruling confirms Shell can be sued by Ogonis in the US
courts for its environmental crimes in Ogoni.

Judging from above, it is obvious that Shell’s presence in the Niger Delta
of Nigeria does not reflect the environmentally friendly organisation that
it portrays to the International community. The true story of Shell in
Nigeria is that of an organisation that ignores social responsibility,
sustainable development, and exhibits great disdain for environmental health
and safety.
Finally, the award you contemplate suggest that you are rewarding Shell for
its cruel disregard for the environmental and human rights of the Ogoni
people in particular and the people of the Niger Delta in general. This
contemptuous award defies the memory of Ken Saro Wiwa and thousands of
Ogonis who have laid down their lives in protest of Shell’s corporate
cruelty and irresponsibility.

We are by this petition demanding that you immediately disqualify Shell from
this award until it changes it attitude towards the environmental and human
rights disasters in Ogoni and the Niger Delta.

Yours truly,

Signed by:

Xx xxx

↑ back to top