US Administration Warns Maryland Ag

[sbillenness@xxxxxxxx]

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  CONTACT:
 March 13, 1998         Stephen Mills (202) 675-6691
                        Dan Seligman (202) 675-2387
 
Clinton Administration Warns Maryland Against Passing Nigeria Sanctions
Bill Sierra Club Calls Move an Affront to State's Rights

Washington, DC -- Providing further evidence that today's foreign policy is
being driven by the interests of multinational corporations rather than
American elected officials, the Clinton administration this week warned
Maryland state legislators against passing a bill aimed at sanctioning
Nigeria for its human rights and environmental abuses because of concerns
that the bill would violate provisions of an international trade agreement.

"The Clinton administration's response to Nigeria's brutal persecution of
environmental activists has been weak at best -- this latest action adds
insult to injury," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director.  "We
can't let trade bureaucrats take away our right to protect the
environment," he added.

On Wednesday, Ambassador William C. Ramsay, the State Department's Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Energy and Economic Sanctions met with the
president of the Maryland House and Senate chambers.  Ramsay warned that
Maryland's Nigeria sanctions bills (S.B. 354 and H.B. 1273) , would run
counter to provisions of  the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs
(GATT), an international trade agreement signed in 1994.  The new GATT
rules bar trade discrimination even against countries with egregious human
rights and environmental records such as Nigeria.

"Had we been bound by trade rules during our struggle to free South Africa,
Nelson Mandela might still be imprisoned," said Randall Robinson, President
of TransAfrica, an influential African American lobby group. "I hope that
the Maryland legislators will not be intimidated by the administration's
strong-arm tactics.

The Maryland Nigeria sanctions bill is  modeled after South African
anti-apartheid legislation passed by the assembly in the 1980's.  The bill
would prohibit state contracts with Nigeria or with any institution that
does business in Nigeria.

"If  trade bureaucrats are allowed to override state's rights, we will have
lost a vital part of American democracy" said Sierra Club's Senior Trade
Fellow Dan Seligman. "We can't let our friends in Nigeria down by
abandoning this legislation in the name of free trade," he added.

On Nov. 10, 1995,  Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni  minority-rights
advocates were hanged by the Nigerian military following a trial which
lacked any independence or impartiality. The Ogoni had been protesting

Shell's environmental devastation of their land and water.  Key witnesses
for the prosecution subsequently recanted their testimony and have signed
sworn statements indicating that they were bribed by the Nigerian military
and Shell to testify against Saro-Wiwa. Another 20 Ogoni,  arrested with
Saro-Wiwa, languish in jail under gruesome conditions.  The Ogoni region of
Nigeria is now a closed military zone where Saro-Wiwa's supporters are
routinely jailed and tortured.

"Maryland and other local municipalities are passing sanctions bills
because the administration has failed utterly to address these issues at
the federal level," said Stephen Mills, Director the Sierra Club's Human
Rights and the Environment Campaign. "The Clinton administration must not
compound this failure by attempting to infringe upon the Constitutional
rights of the people of Maryland or any other state who chose to exercise
their right of free speech by engaging in boycotts or sanctions efforts,"
Mills added.

Following execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Sierra Club Board of Directors
voted to boycott Shell Oil until the company cleans up it pollution in
Ogoniland.  The Sierra Club is also actively supporting a federal Nigeria
sanctions bill, H.R. 1786.  "The Nigeria Democracy Act" is sponsored by
Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ10).

The Sierra Club is calling for the Clinton administration and Congress to
institute economic sanctions against Nigeria including an energy embargo.
Such a policy, the Club believes, would cut off oil revenues which keep the
brutal dictatorship in power.

For more information, please visit the Sierra Club's Human Rights and the
Environment Campaign website at
http://www.sierraclub.org/human-rights/nigeria.html, or the Sierra Club's
Trade program at http://www. sierraclub.org/trade.
 
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