Friday, 9 August, 2002, 17:12 GMT 18:12 UK
Corporations sued over apartheid
Lawyers for victims of apartheid are beginning their courtroom battle in
New York on Friday to demand billions of dollars in compensation from
firms that did business in South Africa.

Ed Fagan, who won $1.25bn from Swiss banks for Nazi concentration camp
survivors in 1998, is spearheading the class-action case, representing
20,000 South Africans.

The New Jersey lawyer hopes to win $50bn-$80bn in damages from US,
German and Swiss corporations that he alleges profited from apartheid.


Companies sued
Swiss bank UBS
Credit Suisse
US-based Citibank
IBM
Deutsche Bank
Dresdner Bank
Commerzbank


Royal Dutch Shell and other companies will also be targeted in the case,
which started on Friday with a hearing before a judge in New York
District Court.

Mr Fagan was expected to ask the judge to forbid any of the companies to
destroy their archives pending any trial, which would still be at least
six months away.

He was also expected to announce the inclusion of British oil giant BP
and financial services firm Barclays in the case on Monday in London.

Allegations denied

All are accused of helping to sustain South Africa's racist apartheid
regime from 1948 to 1993.

Spokesmen for UBS and Credit Suisse said in June that the banks would
fight the case, which they say is without merit.

And Royal Dutch Shell denied in a statement on Thursday that it had
supported the apartheid regime.

"Shell South Africa vigorously denies any suggestion that the company
was supportive of the apartheid regime in South Africa," the company
said.

"Shell SA was vocal in its opposition to the apartheid system and
publicly called for the lifting of all bans on political organisations
and the release of political prisoners."


Mr Fagan's legal team say they expect their list of plaintiffs to grow
into the thousands.

One of their principle clients is Dorothy Molefi, the mother of
13-year-old Hector Peterson who died after police fired tear gas and
live bullets at thousands of students taking part in anti-apartheid
protests in Soweto in 1976.

US law

Mr Fagan argues they while none of the companies actually committed
crimes such as this one, their investment in South Africa helped prop up
the apartheid regime.

The case is being made in US courts, under a law that allows
non-citizens to file international human rights cases against companies
with US interests.

Some anti-apartheid activists have argued that going after damages in
court does not sit well with South Africa's attempts to move beyond its
past.

But the former chairman of the country's Truth and Reconciliation
Commission, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, has come out in favour of the
action.

"They should pay. They can afford it. And they should do it with
dignity," Archbishop Tutu was quoted as saying in the Swiss magazine
Facts.

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