Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press,
1. Permit me to draw your attention to the very tragic situation in
the Ogoni nation in the Federal Republic of Nigeria where, in the
last three weeks, several men and women have been shot by security
forces at the behest of the multi-national oil company, Shell, and
its contractor firm, Mssrs Willbros of Tulsa, Oklahoma, United
States of America.
2. Willbros are currently engaged in a multi-million dollar
contract of laying a thirty-six inch oil pipeline through the heart
of Ogoni territory.
3. On 30th April, 1933, Shell and Willbros wilfully destroyed
freshly planted farmlands belonging to Ogoni peasants. The latter
peacefully protested this action since no compensation had been
paid for the crops. The protesters were confronted by Nigerian
soldiers in full combat gear who wasted no time in shooting them.
A mother of five, Madam Karalole Korgbara was shot in the chest and
10 others received varying injuries. Six others were arrested by
the Nigerian soldiers. Two of the detained men had severe injuries
and were not treated until officials of the Movement for the
Survival of Ogoni People (Mosop) were permitted to remove them to
hospital where they were admitted. The other four were beaten
three times a day and were not fed. As of this moment, one of them
remains under detention.
4. On 4th May, 1993, one Agbarator Otu was shot in the back and
killed while protesting the activities of Shell and Willbros in
destroying the Ogoni environment.
5. In undertaking the current contract, Shell have, as is their
usual behaviour in Ogoni, not undertaken Environmental Impact
Assessment studies. Nor has the Company undertaken a Social Impact
Assessment study.
6. Shell have been operating in Ogoni since 1958 and own eight
oilfields and over one hundred oil wells in the area. In the last
thirty-five years, Shell's activities have been so careless of the
environment as to justify the feeling among the Ogoni people that
the company is waging an ecological war against them. Gas flaring,
oil spills, oil-blowouts, water and atmospheric pollution, noise
pollution and compulsory land acquisition have been the tools in
this omnicidal war which is so sophisticated and unconventional
that it alarms only a very few. Recent Shell documents confirm
this fact.
7. Since 1958, the Ogoni people have not been paid rents and
royalties for the oil on their land and they continue to live in
pristine conditions in the absence of piped water, electricity,
education and health facilities. In an area of very high
population density (1,200 per square mile cf Nigerian national
average 250 per square mile), Shell continues to grab more and more
land to the detriment of Ogoni people. The agriculture-based
economy of the Ogoni has been completely destroyed and nothing has
been put in replacement. Shell employs a very negligible number of
Ogoni people.
8. In December 1992, the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People
(Mosop) demanded four thousand million dollars from Shell in
reparation for their destroyed environment and another six thousand
million dollars in unpaid rents and royalties. Shell ignored both
claims. The Company has similarly ignored a motion from the Rivers
State House of Assembly which demanded even higher sums on both
counts for the Ogoni people.
9. Since January 1993, the Ogoni people who are members of the
Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) based at The
Hague, have undertaken a number of non-violent protests against the
ecological devastation of their homeland and to press home their
claims to self-determination within the Nigerian federation.
300,000 people staged a peaceful protest on January 4, and the same
number held a vigil on 13th March, 1993.
10. Shell is known to seriously resent these activities and has
been reported to be closely monitoring the activities of Ogoni
leaders on both the Nigerian and international scenes. All efforts
to hold discussion with Shell International have so far yielded no
fruit. The Ogoni people, once again, call upon Shell International
to immediately open unconditional discussions.
11. I hereby appeal to the international community to come to the
assistance of the Ogoni people who are threatened in a very real
way by the activities of Shell, on the one hand, and the
insensitivity of successive military dictators in Nigeria, on the
other hand. There are signs that the government of President
Babangida is at last waking up to the dire plight of the Ogoni
people but there is still need for men and women of goodwill
throughout the world to come to the aid of the Ogoni people before
they are driven to extinction. More so as Ogoni leaders have been
harassed and arrested by Nigerian Security agents.
12. I intend to place the case of the Ogoni people and their
devastated environment before the International Green Cross which,
coincidentally, is being inaugurated today here in The Hague.
Thank you.
Ken Saro-Wiwa
Spokesman of the Ogoni People