FW: Ain't Privatization Grand...

Lisa & Ian Murray seamus at accessone.com
Tue Sep 7 21:10:17 PDT 1999


[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.



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