PUMP IT UP! Last month in the Ecuadorian Amazon provinces of Sucumbios and Orellana thousands of striking construction workers and local residents protesting against the new oil pipeline were attacked by the country's armed forces. Three children were killed by asphyxiation from tear gas, close to forty people were arrested and over three hundred people were wounded after the military crackdown ordered by President Gustavo Noboa. Demonstrators occupied over 60 oil wells and 5 refineries-halting all construction on the pipeline bringing oil production to a near standstill and erected roadblocks. Nearby in the highland cloud forests of the Mindo, people continue to put their lives on the line by tree-sitting to block the pipeline's passage. The government declared a state of emergency for the provinces in defence of the oil multinationals, immediately suspending civil rights, and invoking the military to break up the demonstrations while the local radio stations were kept off the air. Meanwhile on Monday Indian tribal leaders from Ecuador began the lengthy and expensive process of taking Chevron-Texaco to the US courts. This groundbreaking environmental class-action lawsuit, the first filed by foreigners in a U.S. court, is being watched closely to see if federal courts find American corporations accountable to crimes abroad. "We simply want Chevron-Texaco to pay to clean up the damage it caused." The lawsuit asserts that Texaco installed defective drilling technology that led to the spillage of millions of gallons of toxic wastewater over a 20-year period. Rather than pump the poisonous water back into the ground - as is the industry standard, and as Chevron-Texaco does in the United States - they dumped it into hundreds of unlined pits. From the pits, the wastewater contaminated with oil and heavy metals slowly poisoning the rivers and wetlands of Ecuador. "To Chevron-Texaco, the clean-up costs represent a small fraction of its annual profits," said prosecuting lawyer Joseph Kohn, "To our clients in the Amazon, this is a matter of life or death." " Texaco and Occidental Petroleum have extracted more that $60 billion dollars worth of oil from these provinces in the last 30 years, yet 90% of the region's population lives in poverty. Despite the huge profits from oil the locals surprise, surprise have seen none of the loot and all of the pillaging has left them impoverished and sick with cancer. www.amazonwatch.org * At the end of last month a court gave the go ahead for the families of Ken Saro-Wiwa to take Shell/Dutch Petroleum to court for participation in crimes against humanity, torture, summary execution, arbitrary detention, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. Environmentalist activist and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, and eight other Ogoni activists were hanged by the Nigerian military government in 1995. The 'Ogoni Nine' had opposed Shell's pollution and oil development in the Niger Delta. Saro-Wiwa told the military tribunal that sentenced him to death, "Shell is here on trial. The Company has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come..." Judith Chomsky, Attorney for the prosecution commented , "Shell had direct involvement in human rights violations against the Ogoni people. Any company that profits from crimes against humanity should be brought to justice wherever they are." Lawsuits have also been filed against Exxon-Mobil by people from Indonesia's embattled Aceh province, Members of ethnic minorities in Myanmar (formerly Burma) against Unocal And Chevron-Texaco (again) by other Nigerian groups: www.earthrights.org/shell/appeal.html
