Magnetonium wrote:

Some good news for environmentalists. Well, 15 million is pocket change for Shell, but at least they settled, thus acknowledging their involvement in the murder of those innocent people. Next time you buy Shell gasoline, remember - there's some blood of innocent Africans in it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8090493.stm

Shell settles Nigeria deaths case

Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to pay $15.5m to settle a lawsuit which accused the oil firm of complicity in rights abuses in Nigeria.

The case, due for trial in the US next week, was brought by relatives of a group of anti-Shell activists executed in 1995 by Nigeria's military rulers.

The families say Shell helped the government to punish the campaigners.

But the company insists it did nothing wrong and said the payment was part of a "process of reconciliation".

Shell official Malcolm Brinded said: "This gesture also acknowledges that, even though Shell had no part in the violence that took place, the plaintiffs and others have suffered."

'Victory' for campaigners

Among those executed was Ken Saro-Wiwa, a prominent writer.

He and other activists had formed a group in 1990 aimed at showing the world the environmental damage they said Shell's drilling was causing in the Niger Delta.

But the campaigners were jailed on charges of ordering the 1994 murder of four local leaders.

After a trial, they were hanged.

Their relatives have pursued Shell through the courts ever since.

Ken Saro-Wiwa's 40-year-old son, Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr, said his father would have been happy with the result.

He told the Associated Press that Shell's settlement represented a "victory for us".

cerebral wrote:

At the moment I am watching Ross Kemp - In search of pirates, in particular the episode about the Niger Delta.

This settlement is good news, but the whole area has been so devastated that oil companies need to be doing a lot more to actually clean up their mess. What a mess.