[From today's Boston Globe]
US oil has idea for Nigeria fields
Companies may fund police to deal with raising violence
By Atiya Hussain, Reuters, 09/07/99
NEW YORK - US oil companies doing business in Nigeria are considering an unusual role - providing funding and training to
the police.
The idea comes at a time of rising violence in Nigeria, Africa's
biggest oil producer, as groups protest environmental damage and
unequal distribution of oil wealth.
Oil companies face increased scrutiny into their roles in the
West African country. Two of the biggest oil operators, Chevron
Corp. and Royal Dutch/Shell Group, face lawsuits in US courts on
charges of complicity with Nigerian security forces in the deaths
of protesters.
''US companies are considering some modest efforts to provide
training and nonlethal support for Nigerian police officials for
their area of operations, and we are investigating ways'' to
include nongovernmental organizations ''and outside police
associations into that effort,'' said David Miller, board member
and former president of the corporate umbrella group Corporate
Council on Africa, in congressional testimony on Aug. 3.
Miller turned down a request for an interview.
Oil industry sources said that there has been talk about taking
on a bigger role in training and funding Nigeria's police. Such a
move, they say, will help foster democracy in the country and is
crucial in light of the modest sums of aid the US government has
promised Africa's most populous country.
US oil companies doing business in Nigeria include Chevron, Mobil
Corp., Texaco Inc., and Exxon Corp.
Human rights groups, noting that the United States never imposed
oil sanctions on the late dictator, General Sani Abacha, argue
that Washington has been a corporate facilitator. Abacha's sudden
death in June 1998 ended his reign of 4 1/2 years, paving the way
for elections.
President Olusegun Obasanjo, who heads Nigeria's first
democratically elected government in 15 years, faces resentment
in the southern Delta, source of 90 percent of its 2 million
barrels per day of high quality crude oil.
Kidnappings are on the rise, as are disruptions of company
operations by residents protesting the Delta's environmental
degradation and lack of economic development. Human rights groups
say oil companies will face even more criticism if they take a
direct role in training and funding police operations.
''We would be extremely resistant. They have not displayed any
remorse or regret, particularly over the use of military force in
Nigeria,'' said Steve Kretzmann of Project Underground, an
environmental group.
In February, after Human Rights Watch accused both Chevron and
Shell of having aided the military in abusing human rights and
killing Nigerians, Ohio Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich
called for a government investigation into whether oil companies
hindered the democratic process in Nigeria.
The companies have denied the allegations.
In May, US human rights groups filed suit against Chevron in San
Francisco, charging that it was responsible for the deaths of two
protesters who had confronted Nigerian soldiers and police at a
Chevron-operated oil rig off the Niger Delta in May 1998.
Shell, whose US subsidiary, Shell Oil Co., is one of the biggest
operators in the United States, is fighting a suit that accuses
it of complicity in the hangings of Ken Saro-Wiwa and John
Kpuinen by the Nigerian military. Saro-Wiwa was leader of the
Movement for Survival of the Ogoni People and Kpuinen was deputy
president of the group's youth wing.
Rights groups agree Nigerian police require training but are wary
of corporate involvement.
''Other than possibly providing resources to a broader effort at
police training, one which was carefully crafted and carefully
monitored and which vetted out those implicated in abuses in the
past, I'm not sure what other role these companies would have to
play,'' said Janet Fleischman, Africa director at Human Rights
Watch in Washington.
This story ran on page A04 of the Boston Globe on 09/07/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.