Shell condemned
protests and demonstrations were held across the world in support of the struggle for the rights of Ogoni tribals, whose land has been exploited by oil and natural gas transnational Shell in Nigeria. Human rights activists and environmentalists picketed petrol stations selling Shell products on November 10 in New Delhi, Mumbai, Washington, dc , Vancouver (Canada), the Netherlands and Germany at the second death anniversary of Nigerian human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.
In London, environmentalists protested against the Queen's planned visit to Shell on its hundred-year celebrations just one day after Saro-Wiwa's death anniversary.
Shell has a bad environmental and human rights record. It is heavily implicated in potentially catastrophic climate change and is a member of the Global Climate Coalition in the us , a group actively lobbying against attempts to reverse climate change.
Buckingham Palace had stated that the Queen was acting on the advice of her government in persisting with the visit.
Mark Brown, spokesperson for 100 Days, a network of groups and individuals who have come together in an initiative to challenge the oil industry in the countdown to the Kyoto climate conference commented: "This advice makes a mockery of New Labour's supposed commitment to the environment and an ethical foreign policy. Human rights transgressions and systematic environmental destruction are the bedrock of Shell's vast wealth and longevity. There is nothing to celebrate.'
Although guilty of environmental damage throughout the world, Shell Oil is infamous for its exploitation of Nigerian oil reserves. It has laid pipelines through villages, creating frequent oil spills, destroying once fertile land, polluting rivers, and increasing respiratory diseases. The Ogoni people of the oil-rich Niger delta organised themselves in peaceful protest and successfully forced Shell to virtually abandon Ogoniland in 1993.
However, Shell continued operations. When the Ogonis organised peaceful protests, demanding that Shell clean up the spilled oil and share the profits with the Ogoni, the Nigerian dictatorship