Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) circulated a letter in Congress
requesting hearings on the role of Chevron and 
other U.S. multinationals in human rights abuses 
in the countries where they operate.

March 5, 1999

Dear Chairman Gilman:

We urge you to initiate a congressional investigation into the allegations of killings of innocent civilians, human rights abuses, and harassment of environmental activists by the Nigerian security forces in collaboration with U.S. multinational oil corporations in the Niger Delta, beginning in May of 1998 and continuing to the present day.

There is growing evidence of direct collaboration between U.S. oil companies and Nigerian security forces in the continuing repression of protesters in Nigeria's Delta region. We now have information that this violence against civilians was committed with the knowledge and direct complicity of one of our nation's largest multinational corporations, Chevron, which has admitted to supplying and piloting the helicopters used to transport Nigerian troops in an attack on protestors in May, and again to supplying helicopters and boats used in a raid on two villages, Opia and Ikiyan, in the Niger Delta in January of this year.

In a meeting with Congressman Dennis Kucinich on February 25, 1999, Chevron officials conceded that on May 28, 1998, Chevron's general manager for public affairs in Nigeria, Sola Omole, requested Nigerian troops and transported them by Chevron helicopter to its oil platform, Parabe, from Chevron's central flow station in Escravos. The call for troops came in response to a three day occupation of the platform by between 120 and 200 unarmed demonstrators trying to force the company to negotiate about environmental and economic grievances.

Chevron acknowledged that its pilots operated the helicopters and that its chief of security accompanied the troops in the helicopters. Chevron acknowledged that the protestors were unarmed, and claimed that Chevron requested the military after the unarmed youths refused to leave. Chevron conceded two unarmed youths were shot to death in this incident, but claimed they were killed after trying to disarm the troops. However, Chevron has no forensic evidence to support this claim, and there is strong evidence to suggest the opposite may be true-namely, that the military shot the youths from behind.

Chevron further conceded that they held the bodies of the two youths for a month, while they negotiated with the families of the deceased over the issue of compensation. Chevron provided only burial expenses, and did not admit to fault or liability in the killings.

In another incident, which Reuters, A.P., eyewitnesses, and Chevron officials all confirmed took place on January 4, 1999, Chevron again provided the helicopters, boats, and other hardware which the Nigerian security forces used to attack the villages of Opia and Ikiyan, resulting in the razing of the village and massacre of civilians. Four people were killed. At least 67 are missing and presumed dead. In conversation with Congressman Kucinich, Chevron officials claimed this incident took place following a confrontation between armed villagers and security personnel at one of their oil rigs. They also claimed that their helicopters were commandeered by the military.

These are only the latest reported incidents in a spate of recent killings of Niger Delta demonstrators protesting endemic poverty and environmental degradation of their communities in the Niger Delta as oil operations pollute the land, water, air and food supplies of indigenous peoples. Since the government crackdown began New Year's Eve 1998, over 100 unarmed residents -- mostly ethnic Ijaws, whose traditional lands account for some 70 percent of Nigeria's oil operations -- have been killed by government troops, villages have been deserted, women and children raped, and shoot-on-sight orders allegedly issued for environmental leaders.

Historically, widespread protests and calls for economic and environmental justice in the Niger Delta have resulted in the killing of environmental protesters and activist leaders. This was the case in the Ogoni crisis of 1993-6 in which 2,000 Ogonis were killed and poet-activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed, together with eight other protesters.

We believe that there is growing evidence that U.S. oil companies are accepting extra-judicial killings and other human rights abuses as just another cost of doing business in Nigeria. We would never wink at this sort of behavior by oil-backed military regimes in the Middle East or ethnic cleansing operations in Central Europe, and we can't tolerate it in Africa. If the United States of America wants oil from Nigeria to keep flowing, then the U.S. must make sure that investments and corporate activity there weigh in on the side of creating a stable, representative democracy instead of a brutal oil republic.

Important issues of fact in these two incidents remain in dispute or are unknown. Moreover, the company has issued conflicting statements about the Parabe killings. A Congressional investigation into the role of U.S. companies in the Niger Delta in environmental and human rights abuses would resolve these important issues of fact and give both the companies and their critics an opportunity to make their cases and clear the air. Such an investigation, launched now, would send a powerful signal to President-elect Olusegun (General) Obasanjo, who is scheduled to take office in May, and to the multinational corporations operating in Nigeria: that U.S.-based oil companies are not buying oil at the price of human lives, human rights and democracy.

Sincerely,

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich
Rep. Donald M. Payne
Rep. Maxine Waters
Rep. Cynthia A. McKinney
Rep. David Bonior
Rep. John Conyers
Rep. Luis Gutierrez
Rep. Marcy Kaptur
Rep. Barbara Lee

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