Activists Climb Building And Hang Modern Work Of Art To Protest Shell Oil's Support of Nigerian Military Government
WASHINGTON, January 24 -- Greenpeace activists today forced Shell Oil to cancel a planned dinner reception at the Phillips Collection art gallery in Washington, and added their own work of art to the museum, unfurling on the outside of the building a 7 x 14 foot rendition of Edvard Munch's expressionistic "The Scream" with a modern message: "Stop Shell In Nigeria."
While environmental, human rights, labor and Nigerian activists were demonstrating outside the gallery, two Greenpeace activists climbed over the side of the gallery's roof two stories up and descended several feet to display the large painting.
"We are here today to tell Shell to clean up its act and not simply its corporate image," said Greenpeace's Steve Kretzmann in Washington. "As we have learned from dealing with South Africa in the 1980s, the best way to change an oppressive regime is for corporations to pull out and stop the flow of money. We must boycott Nigerian oil and get Shell out of Nigeria."
As the demonstration began, Shell cancelled the PR dinner for top journalists, congress members and lobbyists. The dinner was apparently an attempt by Shell to retrieve its ailing public image.
Greenpeace is part of the International Roundtable on Nigeria, a broad coalition of human rights, environmental, labor, and religious organizations calling for an immediate oil embargo against Nigeria to isolate the brutal dictatorship of Sani Abacha. Shell's collusion with the Nigerian regime in last November's execution of nine Nigerian activists, including Nobel- prize nominated writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, has spurred worldwide condemnation of Shell, and driven South African President Nelson Mandela to spearhead the call for an oil embargo.
Dr. Owens Wiwa, brother of Ken Saro-Wiwa, arrived in the United States January 24. He will be travelling to New York, Washington, Toronto, and San Francisco to document human rights and environmental abuses in his Ogoni homeland at the hands of the Nigerian government and international oil companies. According to Dr. Wiwa, Shell offered to negotiate Ken Saro-Wiwa's release from a Nigerian prison if international protests were called off.
Oil accounts for over 90% of Nigeria's exports and 80% of government revenues, and Shell produces fully half of Nigeria's total oil output. Sadly, many local communities have suffered environmental damage from Shell's drilling and production activities. Of the 110 countries in which Shell operates, nearly 40% of the company's oil spills and leakages occured in Nigeria.
CONTACT: Steve Kretzmann, cell phone on-site, 202.714.6981
Deborah Rephan, 202.319.2492