Judge: African villagers can sue Chevron

Judge: African villagers can sue Chevron

	Published : Fri, 17 Aug 2007 00:30 By : Agencies Print this Story

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A group of nine Nigerian villagers can have a jury decide if Chevron Corp. is responsible for two government military attacks that left protesters dead and two villages destroyed, a judge has ruled.

The villagers' lawsuit claims that San Ramon-based Chevron controlled Nigerian government security forces who were called in to police protests in 1998 and 1999. In both cases, the protesters were rallying against the pollution of fishing grounds and farms in the Niger Delta.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston refused to toss out the suit, as Chevron had requested, instead ruling Wednesday that the villagers have enough evidence to present a jury with a case against the oil giant for the 'alleged atrocities.'

Two people were killed in the first incident, in May 1998, and others injured when the Nigerian military was called in to take back a barge and oil platform that had been occupied for three days by more than 100 protesters. The plaintiffs' lawyers said the villagers were peaceful and preparing to leave when they were attacked.

Chevron said its workers were held hostage for days and that the protesters were rioting and threatening the responding troops with violence.

In January 1999, four villagers were gunned down and two villages burned to the ground, the plaintiffs said, when protesters went to a Chevron oil rig and demanded compensation for the pollution it had caused. They claimed the company enlisted government troops to punish them.

But Chevron said the oil rig had come under an armed attack, and that the government forces were protecting the company's workers.

The company claimed that in both cases, the troops were not under its control. Chevron maintains that the troops were called in to deal with an emergency.

'While we regret the loss of lives associated with the hostage taking, the claim that any Chevron company intended for the Nigerian law enforcement personnel to harm anyone is beyond farfetched,' Chevron said in a statement.

The company also argued that some of the individual victims and representatives from the two villages that were destroyed had already settled with the company. In exchange for signed releases, the company made payments in Nigerian currency, rice, beans and blankets.

'There is some indication that the ... release was signed under duress or undue influence,' Illston wrote of the releases signed by village representatives.

'As the supplies provided along with the money (blankets, pillows, and mattresses) indicate, at the time the document was signed, the communities and their members may have been literally fighting for their survival.'

The case is Larry Bowoto, et al. v. Chevron Corporation, No. C99-02506.