Shell faces Dutch
court over Nigeria spills
11 Oct 2012
Activists and Nigerian
plaintiffs hope case will bring "an end to the corporate crimes committed
by oil giants".
Shell broke the law by not repairing leaks
that destroyed the lands of Niger Delta farmers, a Dutch court heard
in a case that could set a precedent for global environmental responsibility.
The four Nigerian
farmers, backed by lobby
group Friends of the Earth, have brought the Anglo-Dutch oil giant into
court thousands of miles away from their homes with a civil suit that
could open the door for hundreds of similar cases.
"Shell knew for a
long time that the pipeline was damaged but didn't do anything: they
could have stopped the leaks," lawyer Channa Samkalden told the court on
Thursday, accusing Shell of having "violated its legal obligations".
The case relates to damage
caused in 2005 and was initially filed in 2008, demanding that Royal
Dutch Shell clean up the mess, repair and maintain defective pipelines to
prevent further damage and pay out compensation.
In a landmark ruling, the
Dutch judiciary in 2009 declared itself competent to try the case despite
protests from Shell that its Nigerian subsidiary was solely legally responsible
for any damage.
"The spills that
happened in the years between 2004 and 2007 all happened as the consequence of
illegal theft and sabotage."
"We say there was
a spill, it wasn't our fault, we cleaned up nevertheless and that's what
happened," Castelein said.
Environmental groups
accuse Shell of double standards and treating spills in Nigeria differently
from pollution in Europe or North America.
Friends of the Earth
however said the scale of Nigeria's oil pollution was twice that of the five
million barrels dumped in the Gulf of Mexico after the explosion on BP's
Deepwater Horizon rig in 2010, in the biggest ever marine spill. Shell however
disputes the Nigerian figure and puts it much lower.
Al Jazeera's Yvonne
Ndege, reporting from Abuja, said the court proceedings are taking place in the
Hague because the plaintiffs have "failed to get their case heard
within the Nigerian judicial system".
(DO- forum non
convenience; exhaustion of domestic remedies)
Co-plaintiff, Friends
of the Earth, blames endemic corruption for the lack of legal action in Nigeria
itself.
Al Jazeera's Ndege
said if the court rules in favour of the plaintiffs it would be a historic step
that "basically means the parent companies, often based in the West, in
Europe or the United States, will be held responsible for any oil damage and
pollution caused by their subsidiaries, wherever they may be".
