“The State Held Back Documents” Aftenbladet.no - 29.01.2008
Three days before the court case started, the North Sea divers were at last able to access 60,000 documents which the state had held back.
The North Sea divers’ lawyer, Marius Reikerås spent a large part of the first day of the case describing what he considers to be deliberate delays to the case by the state. It has taken several years to bring the matter to court, and the obtaining of documentation has given the plaintiffs a big headache.
Pioneer divers
The divers, who are members of the North Sea Divers Alliance, participated in deep sea diving and other diving operations in the North Sea during the pioneer time of Norwegian oil industry.
They say that the state has breached the European Human Rights Convention, and that the state should have known that deep sea diving put life and health at risk.
“We’re talking about a profession which is susceptible to fundamental breaches of human rights. Therefore it is with great disappointment that we find the state doing what it can to delay the case,” said Reikerås.
The introductory speeches are expected to take several days. Interest from the media was great on Monday.
The lawyer says that Oslo district court will over the next four months, deal with the most serious human rights case in recent times.
At the last minute
On Friday, three days before the case between the North Sea Divers Alliance and the state department, the North Sea divers gained access to 60,000 documents in the case.
“It is the state who for the most part is in possession of the documents of the case. And as it turns out, the divers have had to fight for years against bureaucracy. It has been extremely difficult to obtain documentation in this case, ” said Reikerås, who also claimed to have obtained instructions showing that the department is keeping back essential information.
Material for concern
“In those documents we have access to, which are so-called “non-problematic”, there is a lot of material for concern. What lies in those we haven’t had access to we can only imagine,” said Reikerås, with about 20 of the 24 pioneer divers, those who in the North Sea Divers Alliance, behind him.
Most of them appeared in court, dressed in the same, grey jumpers.
“We have been waiting a long time, and have prepared well. It’s good we have started now,” says the spokesman for the divers, Rolf Guttorm Engebretsen to Aftenbladet.
On Sunday night, he and eight fellow divers slept in the offices of North Sea Divers Alliance at Grønland in Oslo. There will be several more nights to come in the offices. Time is alloted to the court case right up until May.
“But we will probably take turns in being here. We hope this will be the end of it now, and that we will avoid an appeal,” says Engebretsen.
He thinks that information will transpire in the case that will cause Norway to be seen in a poor light.
Effort
The lawayer, Reikerås will attempt to prove during the case that the state with full knowledge has dealt experimentally with a professional trade group.
“As early as 1969, the Norwegian Labour Authority had contact with one of the world’s leading experts on pressure and decompression sickness. The state was informed about the serious health problems that could follow diving,” said Reikerås, and sited a list of health problems far more numerous than the plaintiffs gathered in Oslo district court on Monday.
Reikerås thinks that the case is an acid test when it comes to basic human rights.
“The foundation is whether or not the state was aware of the risks the divers were exposed to. As an extention of this matter, the court must assess what the state did to protect the life and health of the divers,” continued Reikerås.
He produced several examples of documentation which he considers prove that the state knew that diving in deep water was dangerous.
“They gambled”
“They gamled with people’s life and health, and performed qualified guess-work. The North Sea Divers were living guinea pigs,” considers Reikerås.
He also claims to be able to prove that documentation from the nazis, who had performed human experimentation in concentration camps, was gathered by the Norwegian state at that time.
“Information was received from experts all over the world, but a lid was put on the information. Instead, the divers were allowed to continue, and in this way they secured Norway thousands of billions in revenues. We have the oil fund because of them,” asserts Reikerås.
Hopes to get medical help
Pioneer diver, Engebretsen hopes to get the right to specialized medical help.
“I want to see a special program for diving medicine. Many of us have medicated ourselves. I want to be repaired. And I want salary compensation for those years I haven’t been able to work which should last until retirement,” he says.
Lawyer Reikerås thinks the divers have the support of the people.
“These are men who performed a job on the brink of the impossible. Their health was played with and experimented with. Only in this way could one get to the oil. The price we pay for the welfare we have today is for very many extremely high,” said Reikerås.