Rights group prepares to sue Chevron over Nigeria deaths

By Tony McAuley

NEW YORK, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Lawyers for Nigerian human rights activists are
preparing to file a lawsuit in the United States against Chevron Corp.
(CHV.N), alleging that the U.S.
 oil giant was complicit in the deaths of two protesters in an incident on an
offshore oil platform last May.

The Centre for Constitutional Rights, a New York law firm, is reviewing the
case with a view to filing suit on behalf of the families of those killed and
injured in the incident. The CCR won a landmark decision last year when a
California court ruled that another U.S. oil company, Unocal Corp.(UCL.N),
could be sued in a U.S. court for its alleged role in human rights abuses in
Myanmar.

``With the decision against Unocal, and a similar fact pattern in the Chevron
case, it appears that there is a very strong claim against Chevron for
complicity in human rights violations,'' said Jenny Green, a CCR lawyer
litigating the Unocal case. ``There is a very strong interest here'' in
bringing the Chevron suit, she added.

Oronto Douglas, a Nigerian lawyer and head of the CHICOCO movement, a leading
environmental pressure group representing various activist groups in southern
Nigeria, said he would support a suit.

``We are thinking seriously of encouraging the families of those killed in the
Chevron incident to sue,'' Douglas said.

The case stems from an occupation of the Chevron-operated Parabe offshore oil
rig in the Niger Delta in late May by about 100 demonstrators, one of a
growing number of actions in the oil-rich region by groups protesting
pollution by the oil companies and their exploitation of the area's resources
without due benefit to the local population.

Chevron strongly denies that it was complicit in the deaths and injuries of
the protesters. A Chevron spokesman said the company would have no comment
specifically on the lawsuit until it was filed.

But representatives of the protesters and Chevron do agree that the unarmed
protesters occupied the rig on May 25. They also agree that Chevron negotiated
with the protesters but that on May 28, Chevron informed the authorities and
military and armed police were flown in on Chevron helicopters, with Chevron
Nigeria's head of security James Neku on board one helicopter, to end the
occupation; it quickly turned violent and two protesters -- Jola Ogungbeje and
Aroleka Irowaninu -- were killed and several others wounded.

There are three principal areas of contention.

Protesters contend that they were in the middle of negotiations with Chevron's
representative over reparations for environmental damage and jobs when the
company abruptly called in the military and police. They contend that the
military and police opened fire without provocation. The activists and their
supporters also allege that Chevron paid the military and police the customary
``special duty pay'' for their activities.

The issue of paying the police directly is perhaps the most contentious one,
though it is widely accepted in Nigeria that foreign companies and embassies
pay ``special duty'' compensation to military and police for security service.

In a news magazine programme broadcast on Sept. 30 on Pacifica Radio, a
publicly funded network in the U.S., Chevron Nigeria Ltd.'s spokesman Sola
Omole, when asked if Chevron gave ``special duty pay'' to the naval officers
who took part in the action, says: ``Those guys were working for the
contractor. I guess you have to ask the contractor that.''

The contractor providing support services to the rig was French company ETPM
Globe Star Services. ETPM area manager Bill Spencer is heard on the Pacifica
programme phoning his colleague, Habib Fadel, head of security for ETPM, and
asking who arranged for the military and police who shot the protesters on
Parabe.

After the call, Spencer says: ``They were not ours. They were paid, they were
supplied, by Chevron.''

Michael Libby, spokesman for Chevron at corporate headquarters in San
Francisco, agrees that Omole was speaking for Chevron in the interview, but
says of the Spencer conversation: ``Our reading of it is it's ambiguous. The
only people we pay are our own security force. We categorically deny we paid a
dime to any law enforcement representative. As a matter of Chevron corporate
policy, we would not pay any law enforcement agency representative.''

Chevron also disagrees that it had any control over the decision to send in
the naval officers and the notorious ``mobile police,'' both with reputations
for brutality. And Chevron disputes the protesters' account that they were
surprised early in the morning on May 28th and that the Navy and police opened
fire and began bayonetting without warning.

Libby of Chevron said: ``We negotiated with people on the platform for three
days before we reported to law enforcement agencies. We were concerned about
the safety and health of employees who'd been under this siege for three days.

``When police arrived...the description of what happened is that protesters
instigated a melee by throwing everything they could get their hands on.
Police fired teargas; in the confusion, protesters grabbed a gun from police
and then the shooting started...It is not our position to blame anybody on
either side,,'' Libby added.

Oronto Douglas said the oil companies have consistently refused to talk with
the local groups to try to resolve the pollution and compensation disputes
peacefully, instead resorting to the military and police to break up protests,
often leading to violence.

``We do not believe in using violence as an option,'' Douglas said in a
telephone interview. ``We are calling on the oil companies themselves not to
use violence against our people as we have seen with Shell in Ogoniland and
Chevron in Ilajeland.''

Douglas is in the United States to try to organise pressure against oil
companies to resolve the disputes.

12:53 10-12-98


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