Agence France Presse
Friday, April 10
by Sebastian Smith Sebastian Smith

NEW YORK – A spate of US court cases is lighting a fire under the feet of powerful corporations doing business in countries that commit human rights abuses, analysts said Thursday.

General Motors and IBM are among the latest in the firing line after a federal court ruled Wednesday that apartheid victims can sue the corporate giants for aiding the former white South African regime.

Next month Royal Dutch/Shell will be in court, defending itself against charges of complicity in horrific government abuses against Nigeria’s Ogoni people, including the 1995 execution of renowned activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.

Other cases include claims from Iraqis against controversial US-based contractors like Blackwater (now known as Xe), accused of aiding and abetting abuses during the conflict in Iraq.

In each instance, victims are taking advantage of a US law known as the Alien Tort Claims Act that requires companies with a substantial presence in the United States to obey US law — everywhere in the world.

Little used to date, the law has put on notice companies operating in the rougher corners of the globe.

“There is a progression,” said Jennie Green at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “It is changing the landscape … It’s adding to the list of legal restrictions that they have to obey.”

In Wednesday’s ruling, Judge Shira Scheindlin said that the South African plaintiffs could pursue claims against Daimler, GM and Ford “for aiding and abetting torture … extrajudicial killing, and apartheid.”

Scheindlin also cleared the way for lawsuits against IBM for “aiding and abetting arbitrary denationalization and apartheid,” and against Rheinmetall — the German parent company of Swiss-based arms manufacturer Oerlikon — for “aiding and abetting extrajudicial killing and apartheid.”

Michael Hausfeld, one of the attorneys representing the apartheid victims, hailed “a major advancement in international law.”

“I think it’s a landmark decision, extremely significant in the field of corporate responsibility and human rights violations,” he told AFP.

“The court upheld a standard for determining when and under what circumstances a corporation could be held accountable for aiding and abetting a violation of customary international law.”

Peter Rosenblum, a Columbia University law professor specializing in human rights, said the Alien Tort Statute is too narrowly defined to risk inundating corporations with claims.

“You’re very limited to the kind of cases you can bring. They have to be flagrant violations,” he said.

But coming in the same week that former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years prison for death-squad crimes, such cases demonstrate that the world’s powerful — whether politicians or companies — are not untouchable.

“These things don’t just expire. In that sense, there’s accountability,” Rosenblum said.

“There is a lot going on in the world of corporations in human rights and there is attention to it … They say there’s nothing like a law suit to focus the mind.”

Family of environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, hanged by his country’s rulers in 1995, take oil giant to court in New York

The Observer
Sunday 5 April 2009
by Nick Mathiason

Ken Saro-Wiwa swore that one day Shell, the oil giant, would answer for his death in a court of law. Next month, 14 years after his execution, the Nigerian environmental activist’s dying wish is to be fulfilled.

In a New York federal court, Shell and one of its senior executives are to face charges that in the early 1990s in Nigeria they were complicit in human rights abuses, including summary execution and torture.

The Anglo-Dutch company, if found liable, could be forced to pay hundreds of millions of pounds in damages. No multinational has ever been found guilty of human rights abuses, although two previous cases saw major claims settled outside court.

Saro-Wiwa became famous as a campaigner on behalf of the Ogoni people, leading peaceful protests against the environmental damage caused by oil companies in the Niger Delta. There was worldwide condemnation when, along with eight other activists, he was hanged by the Nigerian military government in 1995 after being charged with incitement to murder after the death of four Ogoni elders. Many of the prosecution witnesses later admitted that they had been bribed to give evidence against Saro-Wiwa, who was a respected television writer and businessman.

Lawyers in New York will allege that Shell actively subsidised a campaign of terror by security forces in the Niger Delta and attempted to influence the trial that led to Saro-Wiwa’s execution. The lawsuit alleges that the company attempted to bribe two witnesses in his trial to testify against him. Members of Saro-Wiwa’s family will take the stand for the first time to give their version of events, among them his brother Owens, who will allege that Brian Anderson, managing director of Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, told him: “It would not be impossible to get charges dropped if protests were called off.” Anderson is fighting the action.

Witnesses who were shot by military police in the Niger Delta principally to protect the building of Shell’s oil pipeline will allege that Shell, by paying the police to protect its interests, was complicit in acts of violence.

Speaking to the Observer from Abuja, Nigeria, Saro-Wiwa’s son, Ken Wiwa, said: “For 14 years we have lived with the memory of a father, an uncle, a brother, a son executed for a crime he didn’t commit. We have daily reminders. It’s painful to live with a monstrous injustice. To wake up one day to finally get our day in court is tremendously satisfying.

“After the injustice of the original crime against my father, having to watch legal arguments [by Shell] using the highest-paid lawyers in the world is sickening. You can’t describe how painful that is to go through.

“Part of the reason for the original protest was the way Shell behaved. Ogoni people made their living farming and fishing, but Shell was using open waste pits and oil pipelines criss-crossed the land. These polluting activities were put on top of a delicate ecosystem. It destroyed people’s ability to sustain themselves. That’s the impact of Shell and, when people tried to protest, they were brutally repressed.”

In a statement, Shell this weekend described the executions of the Ogoni 9 as “tragic events carried out by the Nigerian government in power at the time”.

“Shell attempted to persuade that government to grant clemency; to our deep regret, that appeal - and the appeals of many others - went unheard, and we were shocked and saddened when we heard the news. Shell in no way encouraged or advocated any act of violence against them or their fellow Ogonis. We believe that the evidence will show clearly that Shell was not responsible for these tragic events. The allegations made in the complaints against Royal Dutch/Shell concerning the 1995 executions of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight fellow Ogonis are false and without merit.”

US lawyers have finally won permission to bring the case to court under the alien tort statute, which gives non-US citizens the right to file claims in American courts for international human rights violations. The court case had been set for 27 April, though last night the date was moved to 26 May.

Today the oil-producing Niger Delta region is riven by intense violence and corruption. The Ogoni 9 trial is seen as a way of coming to terms with the past and building a non-violent future.

“We need to know the truth,” said Ken Wiwa last night. “We need to have people account for their role in the executions and the displacement of the Ogoni people, many of whom feel traumatised. It will be a relief. It will enable people to face the future. That’s the most important thing. Let’s account for the past, so we can move forward.”

Lawyers representing Saro-Wiwa’s family have not sought specific damages should Shell be found liable, but legal experts say the oil giant could face fines running into hundreds of millions of pounds.

Jenny Green, a senior lawyer at the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, who has played a pivotal role in ensuring the Saro-Wiwa case made it to court, said: “Mosop [the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People] was formed to stand up to multinationals and the dictatorship that acted hand-in-hand. This is a significant moment, because it says you can’t act with impunity.”

Financial Times
April 3, 2009
By Matthew Green in Lagos and Michael Peel in London

The death of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Nigerian activist, will return to haunt Royal Dutch Shell next month when a potentially groundbreaking court case opens in the US alleging the company was complicit in his execution.

Lawyers are hoping to hold Shell to account for sponsoring what they describe as a campaign of terror by Nigeria’s security forces in Ogoni in the Niger Delta that culminated in Saro-Wiwa’s hanging in 1995. The case is a key test of whether multinationals based in the US or operating there can be successfully sued for damages over operations abroad. Proceedings are due to open at a New York court on May 26.

The claim filed by plaintiffs including Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr, the late activist’s eldest son, accuse Shell of complicity in human rights violations committed by the former military government.

Shell is also accused of collaborating with the authorities who arranged Saro-Wiwa’s detention and eventual execution along with eight other Ogoni activists on trumped-up murder charges. The suit says the company tried to bribe two men to testify against Saro-Wiwa at his trial before a special tribunal.

“Almost daily you get a reminder that your father was hanged for a crime he didn’t commit,” Mr Saro-Wiwa Jr told the Financial Times. “We’ve always maintained that Shell was complicit in the conspiracy to silence my father and thousands of other Ogonis.”

Shell says the allegations contained in the case are false and that the company appealed for clemency for Saro-Wiwa. “We in no way encouraged or advocated any acts of violence against Ken Saro-Wiwa or the other Ogonis,” said Rainer Winzenried, a Shell spokesman. “We believe that the evidence will show clearly that Shell was not responsible for these tragic events.”

Saro-Wiwa mobilised hundreds of thousands of Ogoni people to launch peaceful protests against environmental damage caused by oil companies in the Delta. His hanging provoked a global outcry and precipitated a backlash by human rights groups against Shell.

To many in the Niger Delta, the deaths of Saro-Wiwa and the other activists marked a turning point that saw violence become rampant in the region.

The suit is being brought under the Alien Tort Claims Act, a law that has been used in a number of cases since the mid-1990s to target companies over their actions in nations from Liberia to Indonesia.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009