-Caveat Lector-
US oil has idea for Nigeria fields
Companies may fund police to deal with raising violence
By Atiya Hussain, Reuters, 09/07/99
EW 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.
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