The Oil Industry and Human Rights in the Niger Delta - EarthRights ...

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inhale the poison that the crude spill emits.The river was the only source of water for drinking, cooking, washing and bathinguntil the spill took place but that is no longer possible because those who drankthe water started vomiting and coming down with various internal and externaldiseases. Our children suffer more because some of them still drink the water inignorance. 112Nonetheless, the Ilaje have engaged in little collective protest against the devastation oftheir environment. Larry Bowoto, a leader of the Concerned Ilaje Citizens’ organizationwho was severely wounded by Chevron’s security forces during the Parabe protest,believes that the circumstances are too dangerous for unarmed civilians to continueprotesting against oil companies. He has observed Chevron’s willingness to usedisproportionate force, even against women and the elderly, and has seen no discerniblechange in Chevron’s use of the military in the Delta region. As a result, despite hisprevious role as an organizer of community protests among the Ilaje, he has continuallyadvised against organizing further protests against Chevron in the area. As a leader whoopposes any form of armed or violent activity, he has been left with no options forpursuing grievances.Other leaders have come to similar conclusions. In 2007, forty communities prepared tostage massive protests over Chevron’s refusal to assess damage to their lands from a 2006Abiteye oil spill. Elders intervened, however, to scale back the protesters’ plans.Knowing well the likely consequences if the activists were perceived as a threat to thesmooth continuation of Chevron operations, the elders insisted that rather thandemonstrating at Chevron facilities, the protesters should confine their activities to thecommunities themselves in order “to avoid a bloodbath.” 113There are signs that the increasingly restrictive space for airing grievances is radicalizingonce-peaceful protesting groups. Whereas Ijaw women once entered oil companyfacilities carrying nothing but banners and threatening to strip naked in order to shamethe oil companies, last year saw a group of Ijaw women march onto a Chevron drillingstation armed with machetes and clubs to protest delays in compensation for an oilspillage. 114 Incidents like this are even more likely than peaceful protests to provokesecurity forces and to lead to carnage.Leaders of peaceful protests certainly have come to understand the consequences of thealliance between Nigerian security forces and the oil companies: unarmed and nonviolentexpressions of grievances against oil companies in the Delta region are met withthe disproportionate use of force and often lead to injury and death, irrespective of theage, gender, or social status of the protester.112 ERA Interview with Mr. Aiyedatiwa Taiwo, Abreke Community.113 BBC Monitoring Int’l Reports, “Nigeria: Forty Niger Delta Communities Protest Chevron Oil FirmNeglect” (Feb. 13, 2007).114 F. Okwuonu, “Women’s Protest Closes Chevron Plant”, This Day (Nigeria) (May 9, 2007).Page 24 of 29
Violent Militancy and the “Oil War”In the past three years the pattern of protests against the oil companies in the Niger Deltahas shifted from unarmed, largely peaceful demonstrations to increasingly violent actionby armed militants, especially the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta(MEND). Along with other human rights and environmental organizations,Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria condemns the use of violencein the strongest terms, and recognizes that there are legitimate security concerns for oiloperations in the Delta, as well as for the people and the environment.Unfortunately, the rise of groups such as MEND is traceable to the lack of space forpeaceful opposition movements and the lack of progress in bringing the benefits of oilproduction to the people of the Niger Delta. It would be a grave error to use the decisionby some individuals to embrace armed struggle in order to justify greater repressionagainst those who use peaceful means to work toward progress. Instead, the oilcompanies and the Nigerian authorities should welcome nonviolent opposition groups;elevating these groups and respecting their positions is one method of combating thesupport for armed resistance and guaranteeing the security of company facilities. If thepeople of the Delta see nonviolence delivering better results than violence, theconstituency for violence will rapidly diminish.RecommendationsNumerous steps that oil companies can take to increase transparency and limit thepotential for future human rights abuses are outlined below. Other measures describedbelow are possible ways forward for this Subcommittee as it investigates extractiveindustries and human rights abuses.Recommendations for Changes in Corporate PracticeLine Item Reporting of Payments to Security ForcesChanges in externally or internally mandated accounting procedures could help toimprove transparency and thereby allow the public to hold corporations accountable fortheir security arrangements with foreign governments. In the case of Chevron, line itemreporting of payments to the Nigerian government and, in particular, the military wouldmake it possible to trace the flow of cash as human rights situations develop and areresolved.Companies are already required to review each payment to foreign governments for thepurposes of compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; the requirement to reportthose payments would not be unduly burdensome.Review of Security Operations to Eliminate or Reduce Dependence on GovernmentSecurity ForcesPage 25 of 29
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