The Guardian, David Smith, Monday 3 October 2011
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| Militants of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta travelling between camps. Photograph: Veronique de Viguerie/Getty Images |
Shell has
fuelled armed conflict in Nigeria by paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to
feuding militant groups, according to an investigation by the oil industry watchdog Platform, and a coalition of non-government organisations.
The oil
giant is implicated in a decade of human rights abuses in the Niger delta, the
study says, claiming that its routine payments exacerbated local violence, in
one case leading to the deaths of 60 people and the destruction of an entire
town.
Platform's
investigation, which includes testimony from Shell's own managers, also alleges
that government forces hired by Shell perpetrated atrocities against local
civilians, including unlawful killings and systematic torture.
Shell
disputes the report, defending its human rights record and questioning the
accuracy of the evidence, but has pledged to study the recommendations.
In Counting
the Cost: Corporations and Human Rights in the Niger Delta, Platform says that
it has seen testimony and contracts that implicate Shell in the regular
awarding of lucrative contracts to militants. In one case last year, Shell is
said to have transferred more than $159,000 (£102,000) to a group credibly
linked to militia violence.
One gang
member, Chukwu Azikwe, told Platform: "We were given money and that is the
money we were using to buy ammunition, to buy this bullet, and every other
thing to eat and to sustain the war." He said his gang and its leader, SK
Agala, had vandalised Shell pipelines. "They will pay ransom. Some of them
in the management will bring out money, dole out money into this place, in
cash."
The gang
became locked in competition witha rival group over access to oil money, with
payments to one faction provoking a violent reaction from the other. "The
[rival gang] will come and fight, some will die, just to enable them to also
get [a] share. So the place now becomes a contest ground for warring factions.
Who takes over the community has the attention of the company."
Platform
alleges that it was highly likely that Shell knew that thousands of dollars
paid per month to militants in the town of Rumuekpe was used to sustain a bitter
conflict. "Armed gangs waged pitched battles over access to oil money,
which Shell distributed to whichever gang controlled access to its
infrastructure."
Rumuekpe is
"the main artery of Shell's eastern operations in Rivers state", with
aroundabout 100,000 barrels of oil flowing per day, approximately10% of Shell's
daily production in the country. Shell distributed "community
development" funds and contracts via Friday Edu, a youth leader and Shell
community liaison officer, the report said, an exclusive arrangement that
magnified the risk of communal tension and conflict.
By 2005,
Edu's monopoly over the resources of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of
Nigeria (SPDC) had sparked a leadership tussle with Agala's group. The latter
was reportedly forced out of the community and a number of people killed.
Dozens of gang members and residents reportedly died in counter raids by Agala.
The
inter-communal violence killed an estimated 60 people, including women and
children, from 2005-08. Thousands more were displaced by fighting that left
homes, schools and churches in ruins. Many still suffer severe malnutrition,
poverty and homelessness.
Platform
says the local conflict soon created regional instability. Displaced villagers
were hunted down in the regional capital, Port Harcourt, and killed in their
homes, schools and workplaces. Gangs active in Rumuekpe collaborated with
prominent criminal networks in Rivers state and doubled as Movement for the
Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) militants.
Mend's
activity in Rumuekpe seriously disrupted Shell's operations and sent shockwaves
through world markets, the report notes, yet Shell paid little heed. One of the
corporation's managers was alarmingly candid: "One good thing about their
crisis was that they never for one day stopped us from production."
Platform
interviewed Ex-gang members claimed Shell exacerbated the conflict by providing
regular funding to both factions throughout.
In 2006,
Shell is alleged to have awarded maintenance contracts relating to its oil
wells, the Trans-Niger pipeline, its booster station and flowstation to Edu's
gang. But after Agala's counter-raid left Rumuekpe "littered" with
corpses, Shell apparently switched sides and started paying Agala. It paid
whoever controlled access, even if they were known criminal gangs, Platform
claims.
The
allegations of ex-gang members were largely substantiated by the testimony of a
Shell official, Platform claims. A manager confirmed that in 2006, one of the
most violent years, Shell awarded six types of contract in Rumuekpe. Thousands
of dollars flowed from Shell to the armed gangs each month.
The company
eventually terminated some, though not all, of the contracts. But by then the
violence had reached the Shell flowstation. A Shell manager, whose name has
been withheld, is quoted as saying: "Somebody came in [to the flowstation]
and cut off somebody's hand. We had to vacate the place. We stopped the
contract entirely."
Other
contracts to "maintain the pipeline right of way" continued
throughout the entire conflict, as did one-off contracts created in response to
specific threats, the report found.
Matthew
Chizi, a local youth leader, said: "[Shell] were going to their job, doing
their operation, servicing their manifold. They never cared that people were
dying. They never did anything to call the crisis to order. Rather they were
using military to intimidate the community."
Platform's
report offers a damning assessment: "Shell was highly likely to be aware
that it was helping to fuel the conflict in Rumuekpe, since company workers
visited the community on a regular basis. Even if Shell was somehow unaware of
the violence, media reports were publicly available.
"Members
of the community reportedly wrote to Shell to request that the company stop
awarding contracts to gang leaders such as Friday Edu. Through Shell's routine
practices and responses to threats, the company became complicit in the cycle
of violence."It adds: "The Rumuekpe crisis was entirely avoidable...
Shell operated for decades without an MoU, polluted the community and
distributed 'community development' funds through an individual who had lost
the confidence of the community. Once conflict erupted, Shell paid the
perpetrators of gross human rights abuses as long as they controlled access to
oil infrastructure. The cumulative impact of Shell's mistakes was
devastating."
Rumuekpe is
just one of several case studies examined by the report which alleges, that in
2009 and 2010, security personnel guarding Shell facilities were responsible
for extra-judicial killings and torture in Ogoniland. Platform calls on the
corporation to break ties with government forces and other armed groups
responsible for abuses, and to clean up environmental damage.
Rumuekpe is
just one of several case studies examined by the report which alleges, that in
2009 and 2010, security personnel guarding Shell facilities were responsible
for extra-judicial killings and torture in Ogoniland.
Shell
insisted that it respected human rights and was committed to working with
Nigeria to ensure that the country benefited from its natural resources.
"We have long acknowledged that the legitimate payments we make to
contractors, as well as the social investments we make in the Niger delta
region may cause friction in and between communities," a spokesman said.
"We nevertheless work hard to ensure a fair and equitable distribution of
the benefits of our presence.
"In
view of the high rate of criminal violence in the Niger delta, the federal
government, as majority owner of oil facilities, deploys government security
forces to protect people and assets. Suggestions in the report that SPDC
directs or controls military activities are therefore completely untrue."
He added:
"It is unfortunate that Platform has repeated several old cases, some of
which are unsubstantiated and some proven inaccurate, because doing so obscures
the good work which has been going on for many years. However, we will
carefully examine its recommendations and look forward to continuing a
constructive dialogue with the Nigerian government and other stakeholders to
find solutions to these issues."
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| The impact of an oil spill near Ikarama in the Niger delta. Photograph: Amnesty International UK |
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