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Bowoto v. Chevron Is Back In U.S. 9th District Court, Northern California, San Francisco, Feb 6th 2009 and for the purpose of the plaintiffs explaining why a new trial is needed.  The plaintiffs (Bowoto) believe that the core idea that claims Chevron acted in violation of the Alien Tort Act was not understood by the jury, but given the nature of the incident -- tresspassing by Bowoto -- it's hard for me to see how they can make that claim.

Today features jury instructions and closing arguments in the trail of Bowoto v. Chevron. In the accounts of the trial, I've noticed an interesting pattern of the perspective of what I know call "White Activist Guilt". From that perspective, Chevron is the rich, bad "white" company, and the Nigerian militant groups attacking that company's employees and facilities are all good, non-violent folks.   This is the kind of view that has been presented by blogger Scott Gilmore , and others.  But his blog's arguably the best one solely dedicated to the Bowoto trial, so I'll start there. The story he tells of a peaceful demonstration by Bowoto is just not true. But the real story of this case is the poor Nigerian economic development and that government's neglect in making life better for Nigeria's poor, who've formed militant groups to take whatever wealth they can. 

This video presents Day One of the case of Bowoto v. Chevron at U.S. District Court, Northern California, San Francisco. Here Larry Bowoto from Nigeria is accusing Chevron of harming him and his mates and violating their civil rights, and Chevron's counter is that Bowoto and his mates entered there oil production facility and attempted to kidnap Chevron employees. In calling the Nigerian Military police, a skermish unfolded where Bowoto and his mates were alledgely harmed. In this video Chevron's Don Campbell presents Chevron's side of the case; there was no spokesperson for Botwoto's side available.

The SF Sentinel now reports a story we first broke at this blog where Larry Bowoto , the Nigerian man who claims he was shot by persons employed by Chevron, and whom Chevron points to as the person who held their employees hostage for several days, has dropped his lawsuit claim of human rights violations. The Sentinel observes: It is looking more and more likely that Bowoto and 150 of his compatriots took over the Chevron oil platform off Nigeria in a hostage takeover — which is far different from their claims of human rights abuse. The trial is in September.