Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to pay 15.5 million US dollars to settle the ten-year legal battle surrounding the death of the Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.

Relatives of Mr Saro-Wiwa hold the Anglo-Dutch multinational partly responsible for his execution 14 years ago.  For years he was regarded as the voice of the Ogoni people and their non-violent protest campaign in the Niger delta region. The campaign focused primarily on the environmental damage caused by oil extraction.

Following a show trial, Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed by the authorities in 1995 along with eight other activists.His relatives claim that Shell had been pressuring the Nigerian military junta of the time to take action against the activists.

Shell denies the accusation and insists the out-of-court settlement of the case is not an admission of guilt, but a humanitarian gesture. One-third of the money will go into a fund for the Ogoni.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs issued a joint statement: "We hope that this settlement provides another building block in the efforts to forge a legal system that holds violators accountable wherever they may be and prevents future violations."

 The lawsuit accused Shell of other human rights abuses in the Niger Delta region as well as those   connected with the 1995 hangings. 
 

Radio Netherlands Worldwide's human rights programme The State We're In focused on the plight of the Ogoni people ahead of the trail - listen here.

Compensation

"We litigated with Shell for 13 years and, at the end of the day, the plaintiffs are going to be compensated for the human rights violations they suffered," said Paul Hoffman, a lawyer for the victims' families.

"Had we tried the case and won, the plaintiffs were still looking at years of appeals," he said.

Mr Hoffman said that five million US dollars would go into a trust for the benefit of the Ogoni people. The rest of the money would go to lawyers' fees and compensation for the families.

"Shell has always maintained the allegations were false," said Malcolm Brinded, Shell's executive director for exploration and production.

"While we were prepared to go to court to clear our name, we believe the right way forward is to focus on the future for Ogoni people, which is important for peace and stability in the region," he said.

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

Environment
The original lawsuits were brought under a 1789 US statute, the Alien Tort Claims Act, allowing noncitizens to file cases in US courts for human rights abuses occurring overseas.

The lawsuits sought unspecified damages from Shell for backing the jailing, torturing and killing of the protesters as well as for polluting the region's air and water.  Nigeria is the world's eighth biggest oil exporter.

The protesters, who campaigned nonviolently for a fairer share of Nigeria's oil wealth for the poor and against environmental damage by the industry, had been convicted of murder in a trial that human rights groups labeled a sham.

Protests led by Saro-Wiwa forced Shell in 1993 to abandon its oil fields in Ogoniland, a tiny part of the Niger Delta whose people Saro-Wiwa represented.

Reached by phone in London, Wiwa's son, Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr., 40, who was a plaintiff in the case, said the settlement was a vindication for his family.

"We felt we had already got the victory," he said of the settlement. "We got the precedent that a corporation can be used for human rights violations in a U.S. court."

A multinational company has never been found liable of human rights abuses by a U.S. jury, but a few have settled out of court. The Shell case would have been the third to go to trial and the second involving a major oil company.

In December, a federal jury in San Francisco cleared Chevron Corp of liability sought by Nigerians for a violent clash on an oil platform off their country's coast more than a decade ago.

The ethnic Ogoni rights group MOSOP on Tuesday  hailed Shell's out-of-court settlement deal for the family of slain activist  Ken Saro-Wiwa, but insisted on environmental justice for the Ogoni people. 

"We welcome the 15.5 million dollars compensation for the illegal killings  of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other eight Ogoni leaders," said Bariara Kpalap,  spokesman for the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People. 

"But Shell has to address the issue of environmental pollution, neglect and  degradation in Ogoniland," Kplalp added.

* Reuters, ANP, AFP