Shell wants peace with Ogonis

Oil giant Royal/Dutch Shell says it wants peace and reconciliation with the Ogoni people so that it can resume operations in southeastern Nigeria’s Niger Delta, news organisations reported on Wednesday. Speaking before the Human Rights Commission in the capital, Abuja, the managing director of the Shell Petroleum Development Company, Ron Van den Berg, said that his company had been making moves to settle its differences with the Ogonis. In June, Shell and the International Finance Corporation proposed a US $30-million loan fund to improve job opportunities in the Delta. The main beneficiaries will be contracting firms to Shell that are owned by indigenes of the Niger Delta or employing people from the area. However, relations between the oil company and local people remain poor. In 1993, Shell abandoned its operations in Ogoniland in the face of militant local opposition led by the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP). MOSOP members say the region’s communities have suffered years of neglect, environmental damage and denial of access to the oil wealth found on their land. An oil spill in April at Yorla oil field, one of Shell’s abandoned sites in Ogoniland, has only heightened tension. Berg blamed the oil spills there on sabotage and vandals, saying that the indigenes should be held accountable although Shell has been responsible for the clean-up operations, a Nigerian daily, ‘ThisDay’ reported. MOSOP President Ledum Mittee told the commission that “the situation has gone from bad to worse. Last month, at least one person was shot dead over a dispute with Shell,” the daily reported. Shell has also been accused in the past of condoning serious human rights abuses, including the 1995 execution of MOSOP leader Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists by former military ruler Sani Abacha. Both Shell and Ogoni representatives have been appearing before the human rights commission, set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo to look into the wrongs of the past.