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The Latest News from the Niger Delta
Shell appeal over Nigerian executions rejected By Patti Waldmeir in Washington and David Buchan in London Published: March 26 2001 16:11GMT | Last Updated: March 26 2001 23:12GMT A lawsuit alleging Royal Dutch/Shell's involvement in the torture and murder of Nigerian environmentalists by government forces of the former military regime moved nearer to trial on Monday when the US Supreme Court refused to intervene to stop it. Without comment, the justices refused to intervene in the legal battle between Shell and relatives of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Nigerian playwright executed in 1995 on murder charges, and other victims. Saro-Wiwa led a protest against the oil company's operations in the Ogoni region of Nigeria. The Supreme Court refused to consider Shell's argument that the dispute had no significant connection to the US and should not be heard in a US court. The effect of its decision will be to allow the lawsuit to proceed in the US. Shell said in London it was considering its next steps but noted that the court had not ruled on the merits of the case. The lawsuit was filed in 1996 under an 18th-century law, passed to deal with piracy but in recent years revived in human rights cases, that allows US courts to hear suits by non-citizens claiming violations of international law. A federal trial judge had earlier dismissed the case on the grounds it should be heard in Europe, where the Anglo-Dutch oil group is based, rather than in New York. But a federal appeals court reversed his ruling, and its decision on Monday was in effect upheld by the Supreme Court. A similar case has been brought against US oil company Chevron, which is also operating in Nigeria. The case alleges Chevron's complicity in a 1998 incident in which two people died after Nigerian security forces using the US company's helicopters took control of an offshore oil rig that had been occupied by environmental activists. The case also alleges Chevron's complicity in a 1999 police attack on villages in the oil-bearing Niger delta. The companies have since instituted community development programmes, with Shell spending about £38m a year and employing a department of 130 social workers in the delta region. Return to top COMMUNITIES VOW TO RESIST PROPOSED WEST AFRICAN GAS PIPELINE Tuesday, April 04, 2000 10:27 PM Besides, the participants mostly representatives of communities, environmental right activists, academics, researchers, journalists and government officials from Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana, resolved that issues of resource control must first be democratically addressed particularly as regards the Niger Delta before oil firms can embark on a project of WAGP magnitude. The meeting organised by the Oilwatch Africa Network and Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria was designed to bring stakeholders including WAGP sponsors including the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), Shell Petroleum Development Corporation, SOBE-GAS of Benin, SOTO GAS of Togo, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), and environmentalists and communities together to discuss the impact of the project on the local communities and their natural environment. However, the Managing Sponsor, Chevron, despite its earlier promise that its senior officials would attend the meeting sent a letter from its Houston, United States office that it was no longer attending, a situation which Mr. Oyibo Kolade an Ilaje, described as "a confirmation of Chevron's disdain for the host communities and the environment" The WAGP is designed to transport gas from Escravos, Nigeria to end users in Benin, Togo and Ghana. The equities of the six sponsors of the project are NNPC, 25 per cent, CNL, 36.7 per cent; SPDC, 18 per cent; GNPC, 16.3 per cent; SOBE-GAS, 2 per cent and SOTO-GAS, 2 per cent. The communiqué issued at the end of the meeting and signed by the Chair, Oilwatch Africa, Mr. Nnimmo Bassey noted that "although the WAGP was conceived before 1996 and a memorandum of understanding of WAGP signed as far back as August 1999, the projects sponsors are yet to conduct an all-inclusive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study, contrary to local and international environmental regulations like principle 17 of the Rio Declaration. It also lamented that the processes that led to the project was done exclusive of inputs from communities that would be affected by the WAGP, stressing that "the entire WAGP project has been shrouded in secrecy by its sponsors who are behaving as if neither the people nor their communities count. "It is so bad that even information emanating from the designated Managing Sponsor of the project, has been scanty and self-contradictory. For instance, information made available to groups in Nigeria, Ghana and Togo on the pipeline route are contradictory. The communiqué pointed out that though Chevron Nigeria Limited is the Managing Sponsor of the WAGP, the power of decision making neither rests with it nor other members of the consortium but with Chevron Global Technology Services based in Houston, U.S.A . Claims that the project is capable of creating 20,000 jobs, the participants argued, was faulty, as the fact was that it would dislocate 50,000 families. Specifically, the meeting stated that "the consortium's claim that WAGP will lead to a reduction of gas flares in Nigeria is inconsistent with its lead role as part of the oil industry lobby opposed to gas reduction and supportive of fossil fuel exploitation", adding: "it is not clear whether the flaring of associated gas which is being flared in Nigeria's Niger Delta really be reduced as a result of this project". It also warned that the project if executed as presently conceived would exacerbate the existing crisis in the Niger Delta over the matter of resource ownership, control and management. Consequently, the forum rejected the WAGP citing fears of local communities over the absence of an all-inclusive EIA, the grave environmental devastation that could result from the project like deforestation, explosion breaking up of habitats and wildlife corridors, blocking of water bodies, cultural dislocation and economic impoverishment of the people. The meeting also resolved to: * Set up a network of communities to be affected by the project as well as oil society groups working on the WAGP; * Petition the World Bank not to support or promote WAGP in any way unless the legitimate fears of the local communities have been addressed; * Challenge the WAGP politically and legally until the objective fears of the local people are met and * Condemn the concept of carbon credit and state that Chevron and other members of the consortium have never been environmentally friendly in their operations. In his welcome address, the Chair of Oilwatch Africa Network and Director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria, Nnimmo Bassey regretted that "so far information has not been disclosed to the local communities as to the nature of the project, the objectives of the project, the environmental impact of the project on their social, economic, religious and political space". While pointing out that the processes of oil and gas exploration, extraction and transportation have enormous adverse impact on the environment and the local populations, Bassey said: "It has been our experience that the local communities are overlooked in the equation of planning, prospecting, and exploitation of the products and also in the enjoyment of the accruing benefits". He expressed the hope that sponsors of the project would use the meeting to allay the fears of local communities to the project. In his paper on "Extractive Industries and African Societies", leader of the Chikoko Movement Mr. Oronto Douglas traced activities is as old as man's existence on planet earth. He however, lamented that since multinational companies from the North swooped on African resources there has been reckless tapping of natural resources without regard for the ecosystem or the local communities. Besides the over carbonisation of the society, Douglas noted that extractive activities by transnational companies either in the oil-rich Niger Delta, the Ashanti Gold field or the Diamond mines in East Africa among others, have been the major cause of violence in the continent. According to him, most of the companies in accordance with the various undemocratic governments in the continent have developed laws to alienate communities from their God-given resource and those to repress them anytime they ask questions. The Executive Director, Anpez Environmental Law Centre, Port Harcourt in her paper "EIA processes for projects in the oil and Gas sector" stressed the need for an all-inclusive EIA study before any project saying it is a process of "balancing development on environmental capability; economic equity with social equity" Return to top IPS-English RIGHTS-NIGERIA: Oil Giants Once Again Accused of Abuses Return to top By Danielle Knight WASHINGTON, Jan 27 (IPS) - Despite spin by multinational oil companies to revamp their negative image in Nigeria, a new report released here this week accuses big oil of working closely with an abusive military and destroying the environment, livelihoods and public health in the oil-rich Delta region. As reports of new oil spills and violence between the military and civilians continue to pour out of Africa's most populous nation, "Oil for Nothing," by San Francisco-based Global Exchange and Essential Action, a Washington-based advocacy group, says multinational oil companies should be held accountable in the Niger Delta. The report - written as the result of a visit in September
1999 by a delegation of nine US human rights and environmental activists
- was released this week amid protests in front of a major Chevron
refinery in California, which is being accused of releasing dangerous
pollutants. "Oil for Nothing" will be circulated to While "Oil for Nothing" examines the impacts of Royal Dutch Shell, Mobil, Elf and Agip, it focuses on the connection it sees between Chevron's operations and military repression. "Far from being a positive force, these oil companies act as a destabilizing force, pitting one community against another, and acting as a catalyst - together with the military with whom they work closely - to some of the violence racking the region today," says the report. Oil is the single most important sector in the country's economy, providing over 90 percent of its total exports. In the Niger Delta, youths continue to attack Western oil installations, demanding that oil companies and the government supply them with schools, better roads and political representation. Over the last 40 years, billions of dollars in profits have been earned each year through oil. And although the government is a 55-60 percent shareholder in oil operations and earns billions in royalties each year, local infrastructure and the environment are in "shambles," says the report. "Everywhere we visited, we witnessed the destruction of the local environment, and the oppression of communities affected by what can accurately be described as an outlaw oil industry," it says. High unemployment, failing crops, declining wild fisheries, polluted waters, dying forests and vanishing wildlife are "draining the very lifeblood of the region," says the delegation's report. According to interviews with villagers, leaky and corroded pipelines are inspected by oil workers but not repaired, and the companies often blame the damage on sabotage, whether warranted or not. In October 1998, a pipeline leak caused an explosion that killed 700 people. "Even the rainwater is acidic and poisoned," says Oil for Nothing. The report urges consumers to boycott Shell and Chevron until the companies clean up all spills "according to international standards", pay communities the demanded compensations for environmental damage, and update and modernize equipment. It says companies need to "renounce any efforts to control communities, and any relationship with the military and policy in this regard." "Oil for Nothing" calls on companies to provide sanitary water systems and electricity in communities where oil operations are carried out. Nigeria is extremely diverse and has approximately 300 different ethnic groups, each with its own language, culture, customs and traditional forms of government. "Oil for Nothing" charges that oil corporations and the government and military benefit from, and in some cases exploit, ethnic differences in the Delta. In August 1999, for example, the Elf Oil Company, of France, reportedly paid 40 youths 2,000 dollars each to aggressively break up a protest by 5,000 women who had shut down the neighboring Elf facility for one day. The delegation also interviewed individuals who said the US- based Chevron was involved in an armed attack on May 25, 1998 of protestors who had allegedly occupied a Chevron oil platform to protest the company's refusal to meet with community leaders. Two protestors were shot dead and several others were seriously injured in the attack, allegedly carried out by helicopters housed at a Chevron facility in the Delta. Chevron security officials were on board the helicopters at the time of the attack, according to the report. In an interview appearing in the report, Bola Oyimbo, one of the leaders of the platform protest, was later arrested by Nigerian authorities and said he was tortured. While in custody, he says he was told by a soldier involved in the attack that Chevron paid for the assault. "When they brought us to the naval base, the Chevron representative handed them their money and actually there was a row between them...(because) that was not the amount they had agreed on," Oyimbo recalls. In May 1999, several of the injured protestors and the families of one of the deceased filed a lawsuit against Chevron in US Federal Court in San Francisco, where the corporation is based. According to the report, the US lawyers handing the case, who were in Nigeria at the time of the delegation's visit, said Chevron has also aided an attack last January "that left churches, homes, wells, and fishing equipment burned." The lawsuit claims that this military attack, launched in response to protests against alleged environmental destruction, occurred at the request of Chevron personnel and utilised Chevron helicopters, boats and personnel. "We cannot tolerate these kinds of egregious, unconscionable human rights abuses by US corporations operating abroad," says Walter Turner, president of Global Exchange's Board of Directors, who was part of the delegation. He says Chevron must immediately cease any cooperation with the Nigerian military and that the company should commit itself to real community development and environmental clean-up in the Niger Delta. "Unless that happens, communities living near Chevron facilities - whether in Richmond, California or in Africa - have no reason to trust the company's word," says Turner. Upon being advised that Chevron had been involved in human rights abuses in Nigeria, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Ohio, called for a Congressional investigation last year into the claims, but never received a response from the House International Relations Committee. Chevron maintains that company helicopters and boats were not used to attack communities or protesters. Chevron spokesman Fred Gorell has explained that the company operates a joint venture partnership with the Nigerian government, which holds a 60 percent majority interest. "As the majority partner, the government has the right to and does on occasion make use of the joint venture's leased equipment for purposes they deem necessary," said a written response by Chevron. "Oil for Nothing" is not the first such scathing criticism on the impact of oil companies in the oil-rich Niger Delta region. Last February, Human Rights Watch released a 202-page
report called "The Price of Oil," which charged oil corporations with
complicity in human rights abuses by the military because they had
failed to In describing how Nigerian security forces had beaten, detained, and even killed people protesting against oil corporations, Human Rights Watch said the companies failed to publicly condemn these abuses when they had the opportunity. Corporations began receiving strong international criticism for their operations in Nigeria in 1995 when rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other members of the Ogoni ethnic minority were executed by the state for their campaign against pollution caused by Shell. The company argued it made a last minute plea for clemency, but critics say Shell did too little too late and its oil royalties helped prop up a brutal regime. The remains of Saro-Wiwa and the eight other Ogoni activists,
previously held by the state, are to be identified and exhumed on
Jan 30, at the Wiwa family's request and with Nigerian President Olesegun
Obasanjo's permission. The deceased will then be given an official
burial on April 24 in Ogoni, Nigeria. Return to top ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS ACTION'S (ERA) ENVIRONMENTAL TESTIMONIES #20... THE PAINS OF PARABE ASSAULT Return to top MARCH 2 , 2000 SUBJECT: PAINS OF PARABE MASSACRE LINGERS ON DISPATCHLINE: ILAJE, ONDO STATE IN THIS TESTIMONY LARRY SPEAKS OF HIS EXPERIENCES SINCE THE PARABE INCIDENCE. SHOT BY CHEVRON… DECLARED DEAD When I was shot by Chevron on the Parabe platform, I was left for dead in a pool of my blood. I was unconscious for hours until two Chevron nurses came and took me to Escravos for treatment. From there I was taken to Eku Baptist Hospital. I was there for a month and few weeks. Chevron only visited me once throughout the time I was there. After that visit, they told the hospital officials to declare that I was dead. Chevron on their own part also announced that "the youth taken to Eku hospital had died". I got this information from sources in the hospital and decided to leave before I was killed by Chevron. Before this announcement, Chevron was paying my bill but immediately after the announcement, they stopped paying and instructed the hospital not to give me a doctor’s report. I cannot ascertain if Chevron has paid the hospital the balance. I visited another hospital in Lagos where I was again operated upon but still I didn’t feel any better. My hand is almost paralysed. I can’t do anything with the hand presently. The last time I visited the hospital, I was asked to appeal to Chevron to take me abroad for treatment since they couldn’t help any further. Moreover the expenses would be too much for me to bear. I feel so useless. I have spent so much money already. Right now I am koboless (penniless). In fact I have been living by the mercy of friends and relatives. For how long will I continue to do that? RENDERED USELESS BY CHEVRON Since after I was shot on Parabe, I have not been able to work. My hand is condemned and deformed. I can’t stand up for up to 30 minutes because of the injuries I sustained on my buttocks. The pain is so severe that I don’t know what to do. If only help can come from somewhere. Last month, (February 2000) I went to the hospital again and I was operated upon. They couldn’t detect more bullets but they said the two veins in my hand have been destroyed (collapsed). I still have severe pains. As I am discussing with you now I feel pains. I feel like a condemned and abandoned person. Since Parabe episode neither Chevron nor government has cared to ask about my welfare. Perhaps that was why they announced that I was dead. I want to use this avenue to tell the world I am still alive although I am more or less dead since my body does not function properly. But I still believe that with some help I will regain my health. HELP ME! It has been difficult for me to feed my family. I have five children. The eldest is 11 while the youngest is 2 and my wife is presently pregnant. My children are all schooling and I can’t afford to pay their school fees anymore. I have no father and my mother is presently sick in the hospital. I don’t know who will help me. I have cried and cried but help seems to come from nowhere. I can’t deceive you, my friends and relatives have tried but you see they have their own needs to cater for. I wonder how my wife will survive in her present condition. She is 7 months pregnant now. I pray she will deliver safely. But after delivery I don’t know how I will get the resources to take care of her. I want to use this medium to appeal to every concerned person to come to my aid. It is painful seeing myself in this condition everyday. Its even more painful knowing I cannot help myself. Please come to my aid. I can’t see my family suffer. All I need is proper treatment and I will be able to work again and fend for my family. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ WHAT YOU CAN DO
Return to top
Return to top New York, December 22, 1999 Human Rights Watch today called on the Nigerian government
to initiate criminal proceedings against soldiers "It looks like the new civilian government in Nigeria is using the same methods as the old military governments," said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. "The new regime has made progress in some areas of human rights, but these latest events in the delta cast doubt on President Obasanjo's real intentions." On November 20, at least several hundred soldiers were
deployed to Odi, where a gang of armed youths had killed a dozen policemen
in recent weeks. The soldiers made no apparent attempt to arrest the
suspected In Choba, in Rivers State, on October 28 soldiers dispersed demonstrators outside the premises of Willbros Nigeria Ltd, a subsidiary of an American contractor to the oil and gas industry, based in Oklahoma. The soldiers killed four people and raped a number of women from the community. The Nigerian federal government dismissed the reports of rapes, asserting that photographs alleged to show the soldiers assaulting the women were staged, and the police have refused to investigate. Human Rights Watch found the women's claims of rape to be fully credible, and believes that contesting the accuracy of the photographic evidence is an inappropriate response by the government to serious allegations of human rights violations. There has been increasing unrest in the Niger Delta in recent years, as local people have demanded greater control over the natural resources, chiefly oil, found beneath their land. "The government and oil companies have legitimate concerns
over protest when it takes criminal forms. Hostage-taking or the killing
of security officers deserve a serious response," said Takirambudde.
"But this kind of brutality from the army is certain to make the situation
worse. It will fuel arguments that there is nothing to be gained by
attempting to dialogue with the new civilian government, and that
people must take to Human Rights Watch called on the Nigerian government to: * Undertake an immediate process of criminal investigation of the events in Odi and Choba with a view to instituting court martial proceedings for murder, rape, and other offences against those responsible for the army operations in each case, including both perpetrators and their commanding officers, where appropriate. * Appoint independent and public judicial commissions
of inquiry into the events in Odi and Choba with a wide mandate to
examine the causes and consequences of the army operations and to
make recommendations for * Undertake an immediate consultation process with a wide range of respresentatives of opinion in the delta with a view to ensuring that in future clear distinctions are drawn between legitimate political demands and criminal acts and that those allegedly responsible for criminal offences are arrested and tried according to Nigerian law. The organisation called on Willbros to: * Send staff from company headquarters to investigate the alleged rapes, killings and assaults by soldiers outside its premises on October 28 and 29, 1999; take steps to protest abuses with the appropriate authorities and urge that appropriate criminal and disciplinary action be taken against those responsible; review security arrangements to ensure that similar abuses cannot happen in future; and review its relations with the Choba community, consulting widely to develop means of improving that relationship. The background report can be found on the Human Rights
Watch website at: http://www.hrw.org/press/1999/dec/nibg1299.htm Return to top
Return to top December 22, 1999 ERA said instead of continuing with a military response to what clearly demands a political solution, the Obasanjo government, like those before it, has once again demonstrated that the Niger Delta people do not matter, only their resources do. Vice President Atiku Abubakar had last Friday while receiving a team of executives from the transnational oil corporation Esso-Mobil Oil Company expressed government desire to establish the Special Squad. ERA accused the government of establishing the squad to further violate the democratic rights of the Niger Delta peoples, saying going by the records on the ground, the Nigeria Army and the Police are not trained to keep law and order but to maim, kill, loot, murder and rape. "The security forces burnt down several Ogoni villages, murdered Ijaw youths at Kaiama and in Yenagoa, raped women in Choba, razed down Odi and continue to extort money from innocent people along the East-West Road", remarked Nnimmo Bassey, ERA Director. Specifically, ERA noted that: 1.. the idea of a special police, its training and equipment is not the original idea of the Obasanjo government. Early this year, American oil corporations, namely: Texaco, Mobil and Exxon had even offered to train members of the Nigerian police to enable them "protect oil operations" in the Niger Delta of Nigeria; 2.. considering the ethnic policy of the government in re-deploying security personnel of Niger Delta origin out of the area, there is legitimate fear that the Special Security outfit will be disadvantaged ethnically against the peoples of the Niger Delta. The recent invasion of Odi was carried out by troops from a section of the country, although commanded by a Lieutenant-Colonel from another section of the country; 3.. the activities of the Special outfit will not be different from that of the Rivers State Internal Security Task Force which terrorised the Ogoni between 1994 and 1998. Over 2000 Ogonis are known to have been killed and over 27 villages attacked. It will also not be different from the activities of Operation Salvage which has been operating in Bayelsa State and which in collaboration with the oil companies like Shell and Agip attacked several communities, including: Ikebiri, Okpoama, Imiringi, etc. The logical conclusion that presents itself to mind is that the Special Squad will be a terrorist outfit that will be used by the oil companies and government to subjugate the Niger Delta peoples; 4.. the issues in the Niger Delta are ACCESS, USE and MANAGEMENT of resources. The people have been denied ownership and control of their resources. All attempts should be geared towards a democratic return of the resources to the people; 5.. there is also the urgent political matter of entering into genuine dialogue with the people of the Niger Delta and other Nigerian ethnic nationalities about the NATURE and STRUCTURE of the Nigerian federation. Especially so because the federation as presently constituted do not treat all citizens as equals. A clear manifestation of this was the decision to raid Odi on the strange excuse that policemen have been murdered when in some parts of the country such acts have become routine. Return to top
Return to top ABUJA, Oct 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Export-Import Bank plans to disburse $100 million as loans to the private sector in Nigeria, bank President James Harmon said on Thursday. Harmon told the Nigerian Economic Summit, an annual forum of government and the private sector in the capital Abuja, 11 banks had been chosen to disburse the loans to small and big businesses. "The Exim Bank chose to open its financing programme in Nigeria because we believe there have been attempts to promote transparency and good governance," he said. The loans fund could be increased to $500 million or $1 billion later, he added. Foreign investment confidence in Nigeria has improved since President Olusegun Obasanjo took office in May to end 15 years of military rule in Africa's most populous country. Return to top ENERGY-NIGERIA: Army Supports Troop Deployment In Oil-Rich Region Return to top 18-Oct-99 LAGOS, Oct 18 (IPS) - Nigeria's military has urged the government of President Obasanjo Olusegun to deploy troops in the oil-rich Niger Delta to protect the country's oil installations from saboteurs. The call to deploy the troops follows a recent breakdown of the Kaduna Refinery, which, oil workers allege, was an act of sabotage. At a recent two-day seminar on ''Threats to Nigeria's Oil Industry'', held at the National War College in the capital Abuja, representatives of the army, the navy and the air force, alleged that ''both internal and external forces were threatening Nigeria's oil industry''. The seminar, organised to examine the problems facing Nigeria's oil industry, urged the government to enter into dialogue with the aggrieved and restive youths in the Niger Delta. Last week, the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) was shut down following a breakdown of the firm's Fuel Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU), a major nerve centre responsible for the cooling of the plant. FCCU has a capacity to produce 2.5 million litres of petrol daily. Before it was closed down, the plant was producing between 300,000 and 400,000 litres of petrol per day. Officials of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) have met the management of the Kaduna Refinery to seek a permanent solution to the incessant breakdown of the plant. Nigeria has four refineries with a total capacity of 470,000 barrels per day (b/d). The new Port Harcourt Refinery has an installed capacity of 150,000 b/d; the Old Port Harcourt Refinery 60,000 b/d; Warri Refinery 110,000 b/d and the Kaduna refinery 150,000 b/d. However, during the military regime of the late head of state, General Sani Abacha, who ruled Nigeria between 1993 and 1998, all the refineries were either shutdown or operating below capacity due to non-servicing of the plants, leading to massive importation of petroleum products. Long queues became a normal occurrence in filling stations with officials, in cohort with fuel attendants, ripping government and motorists off millions of dollars. At that time, a can of 25 litre petrol fetched between 20 and 30 US dollars instead of the official five dollars. Since the execution of Nigeria's leading rights activist, Ken Saro-wiwa, along with eight other minority Ogoni leaders, agitation for the control of the oil wealth by the inhabitants of the Niger Delta had heightened. Many youth and militant groups have since sprung up disrupting oil exploration activities, attacking multi-national oil companies and seizing foreigners working at the oil installations. Some ethnic groups - the Ijaws, the Itshekiris and the Ilajes - have also been on each others throats over ownership of lands in the region. As a result, hundreds of lives have been lost in skirmishes between the three ethnic groups. In mid-September, the multi-billion-dollar Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NNLG) project in Bonny, Niger Delta, came under siege by youths demanding compensation from the managers of the project. Only the intervention of President Obasanjo, who visited the troubled region during the crisis, saved the situation but not without the disruption of the shipment of gas to Europe, scheduled to start on Oct 1. Business activities were also paralysed at Port Harcourt Refinery on Monday, when youths from Eleme and Okrika clashed over ownership of the oil area, leading to the death of one person. In his paper, Air Commodore J.O. Okeiye, Chief of Air Operations, says because of the peculiar terrain of the Niger Delta the military should be involved in guarding the oil installations in the region. He says the involvement of the armed forces, in collaboration
with the police, in guarding the area, will reduce the pressure on
the police deployed in the troubled region. Return to top WORLD BANK COULD RESUME AID TO NIGERIA: WOLFENSOHN Return to top World Bank President James Wolfensohn said yesterday the Bank was considering the implementation of a fresh funding program for Nigeria, after he met political leaders of the country last week, Dow Jones reports. "We could recommence lending programs to Nigeria and we are considering doing that," Wolfensohn said, noting that before financial aid could be restored, Nigeria must persuade its Paris Club creditors that it had a plan to deal with its debt. Nigeria owes foreign creditors $29 billion of which payment of $18 billion is in arrears, notes the story. "What is necessary is to have a new balance between a new Nigerian government and a re-establishment of confidence in the international creditor community," Wolfensohn said. "Our objective is to try and help Nigeria win that confidence." Wolfensohn, who was in Nigeria last week, said President
Olusegun Obasanjo had Return to top URHOBO COMMUNITY
EXPELS SHELL Return to top October 3rd The Urhobo National Assembly (UNA) the umbrella organisation of all the Urhobo people world wide today 2/10/99 at 3:45 p.m. stopped all oil exploration activities in the Ughievwen group of Communities where an oil spill-fire destroyed a large area of fragile ecosystems on September 17. (See ERA Field Report # 39 of September 21, 1999: "Engulfed in Shell’s Flames"). According to the people, the Royal Dutch Shell will remain expelled from the affected communities of Ekakpamre, Ighwrekreka, Ughevwughe, Ekrejegbe and Otor-Edo until an independent investigation by experts from China, Iraq, Iran, Syria, South Africa or North Korea into the explosion had been satisfactorily conducted and the results made known to the United Nations. The Urhobos, in a world press conference and rally attended by over one thousand five hundred people affirmed that as a nation within the Nigerian State they have a right to justice. In a huge banner hung in front of the Ekakpamre town hall where the people gathered, the powerful assembly said: Urhobo National Assembly DEMANDS A THOROUGH INVESTIGATION ON THE RECENT GAS/OIL SPILLAGE IN EKAPKAMRE AND ENVIRONS. URHOBO NATIONAL ASSEMBLY REJECTS SHELL'S BLACKMAIL OF SABOTAGE. SHELL CANNOT BE THE INVESTIGATOR AND THE ACCUSER.URHOBO NATIONAL ASSEMBLY URGENTLY REQUIRES INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATORS. URHOBO NATIONAL ASSEMBLY WANTS THE AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT RESTORED IMMEDIATELY AND ADEQUATE COMPENSATIONS PAID THE VICTIMS OF THIS GRAVE DISASTER.URHOBO NATIONAL ASSEMBLY WILL NOT TOLERATE ANY MISGUIDED UTTERANCES FROM THE OIL COMPANIES ON THIS GRAVE DISASTER.THIS IS NOT JESSE OIL PIPELINE FIRE DISASTER. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. A source close to the leadership of UNA said they had
to exclude experts from the United States and Europe in the investigation
because of the "OIL QUESTION WHICH MAKES TRUTH AN ENDANGERED
SPECIE AMONG SOME EXPERTS IN THOSE COUNTRIES WHO CONSUME AND DRILL
OUR OIL. THEY LIE BECAUSE OF OIL. THEY KILL BECAUSE OF OIL. WE NOW
HAVE TO LOOK ELSEWHERE FOR JUSTICE," he said. The people are
also demanding for immediate clean up of all polluted land and compensation
in the sum of one hundred billion Naira (about one billion dollars). Return to top NATIONAL POST Return to top August 30, 1999 Olusegun Obasanjo, the president, head of the country's
first democratically elected government in 15 years, faces a rising
tide of resentment in the southern Delta region, source of 90% of
Nigeria's two million barrels per day of high-quality crude oil. Kidnappings
are on the rise, as are disruptions of company Shell, whose U.S. subsidiary, Shell Oil Co., is one
of the biggest operators in the United States, is fighting a case
accusing the company of complicity in the hangings of Ken Saro- Wiwa
and John Kpuinen by the Nigerian military. Mr. Saro-Wiwa was leader
of the Movement for Survival of the Ogoni People and Return to top
DEMOCRACY NOW Return to top Yesterday, the congressional subcommittee on
Africa convened a hearing on Nigeria. Among the issues discussed were
environmental devastation, human rights, and the role of oil companies
such as Chevron in backing the repressive actions of the Nigerian
government. Return to top Village Voice Return to top April 1, 1999 Spurred by reports of killings and other human rights abuses, a group of House members is asking for a congressional investigation into the operations of Chevron in Nigeria. In a March 5 letter sent to Benjamin A. Gilman, who chairs the House International Relations Committee, representatives Dennis Kucinich, Maxine Waters, Cynthia McKinney, and Donald Payne said, "We now have information that . . . violence against civilians was committed with the knowledge and direct complicity of one of our nation's largest multinational corporations, Chevron. . . ." According to their letter, Chevron officials conceded in a meeting with Kucinich that the company requested troops on May 28, 1998, after more than 100 demonstrators refused to leave an oil-drilling platform in the Niger delta, located in the resource-rich but desperately poor southern part of the country. Delta residents have been demanding a fair share of the oil wealth, an end to environmental destruction, and control of their homelands. The demonstrators were unarmed youths and the company allegedly transported Nigerian troops to the platform aboard Chevron choppers, accompanied by Chevron's chief of security. According to the House members' letter, Chevron admitted that two youths were shot and killed, but claimed that their deaths occurred after they tried to disarm the troops. The bodies allegedly were held by the company for a month while it negotiated with the families over compensation. Although Chevron provided burial expenses, it did not admit fault. In another incident noted in the letter, on January 4 of this year, Chevron confirmed reports that it had provided choppers, boats, and other hardware used by Nigerian security forces to attack the villages of Opia and Ikiyan, where civilians were murdered. An eyewitness account of an attack on January 2, released by Human Rights Watch, described how a soldier "used his knife to cut off the bottom of [the local chief's] ear," adding, "The soldier took it and told him he should eat it." According to Human Rights Watch, another witness told of seeing a Chevron chopper flying low, opening fire on civilians, followed by the arrival of Chevron boats loaded with soldiers, who raked civilians with machine-gun fire. "In conversation with Congressman Kucinich," the letter states, "Chevron officials claimed this incident took place following a confrontation between armed villagers and security personnel at one of their oil rigs. They also claimed that their helicopters were commandeered by the military." In its own letter to Gilman, Chevron said its employees had been held hostage by intimidating protesters, and added that the company does not own boats or helicopters in the delta, although its partner, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation - a government company - makes use of "the Joint Venture's leased equipment for purposes deemed necessary." The company said it deplored violence, feared the kidnapping of its own employees, and was committed to "mutually beneficial relationships with all of the communities in which we have operations." Gilman told Kucinich and his group that full committee hearings are out of the question, although they were welcome to try to persuade subcommittees to open an inquiry. Undeterred, Kucinich promises that if the House committee refuses to act, he will conduct unofficial hearings to look into possible criminal activities by Chevron. Return to top Return to top RIGHTS-NIGERIA: Questions on Role of US Oil Giants InterPress Service 16-Feb-99 WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (IPS) - The role played by U.S. oil giants in Nigeria - in the many incidents of human rights abuse, killings of civilians and harassment of environmental activists - should be the subject of a Congressional investigation, says one US lawmaker. "Such an investigation launched now, would send a powerful signal...that our oil companies are not buying oil at the price of human lives, human rights and democracy," Rep.Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Ohio, said here. Kucinich's call for a hearing came in a letter to the House International Relations Committee after reports that the California-based Chevron oil company supplied helicopters and other equipment to the Nigerian military regime. Nigerian security forces have cracked down on protestors - mostly of the Ijaw ethnic minority - who have demanded suspension of oil drilling activities. In a protest campaign, Ijaw youths have occupied oil platforms and taken company workers hostage. The Ijaw say the foreign corporations are polluting their land and that the oil-rich Delta region remains poor even as oil royalties flow to the government. According to U.S. and Nigerian non-governmental organisations (NGOs), about 250 protectors have died in recent clashes with the military. The confrontation, along with the kidnapping of employees of Anglo Dutch Shell, Chevron and other oil companies, has prevented production of nearly 400,000 barrels of oil a day, about one- quarter of Nigeria's total production. When hostages were taken, or company property occupied by demonstrators, corporations called in the military who immediately cracked down on the protestors. In May last year, Nigerian troops used Chevron's helicopter to move against demonstrators occuping an offshore drilling platform. The troops shot and killed two of the demonstrators and wounded other, activists alleged. In the beginning of January, troops attacked the Ijaw villages of Opia and Ikiyan and set houses ablaze, according to the Environmental Rights Action, a Nigerian-based organisation. Several people were killed in the incident. It added "One thing is certain, the soldiers came with Chevron helicopters and Chevron boats," The corporation admitted to providing the military with access to its helicopters, boats, and other hardware, but said it had "no choice." Fred Gorell, spokesman for the California-based corporation, said the military have access to company equipment because the government owned 60 percent of a joint oil project against the company's 40 percent. "The fact is, because Chevron and all companies are minority partners with the government, law enforcement has the opportunity to use Chevron helicopters because they have the controlling interest," he told IPS. Gorell said a high percentage of Chevron's onshore facilities in Nigeria were now shut "until the situation in the Niger Delta is peacefully resolved." Kucinich and environmental and human rights groups said these explanations were "unacceptable." "By continuing to operate with impunity behind the shield of such military repression, US oil companies are accepting extra- judicial killings and other human rights abuses as just another cost of doing business in Nigeria," Kucinich said. His letter said that the U.S. government had a responsibility to act since this country obtained about half of all imported oil from Nigeria. "If we want oil from Nigeria to keep flowing, then we must make sure our investments and corporate activity there weigh in on the side of creating a stable, representative democracy instead of a brutal oil republic," says Kucinich. Shareholders of the corporation planned to file a resolution holding the company accountable for its participation in human rights abuses. Franklin Research and Development, a socially responsible investment firm, and other shareholders of Chevron, requested the board of directors to review its code of business conduct in light of the reports from Nigeria. Project Underground, and other U.S. activist groups have organised protests outside company headquarters in San Francisco. About 50 students from a local high school, some of whose parents are employed by the corporation, are also participating in the demonstrations. "Chevron needs to take responsibility and action now,'' said Danny Kennedy, director of Project Underground. ''If Chevron Managers have no control over whether or not their equipment is used for murder, they should immediately cease all operations." Last month more than 200 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including the Sierra Club and Human Rights Watch urged transnationals like Shell, Chevron, and Mobil to suspend their operations until the military withdraw from the Ijaw region. Shell has been under close scrutiny by international groups since 1995 when rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other members of the Ogoni minority - another Delta community - were executed by the state for their campaign against the corporation. (END/IPS/dk/mk/99) [c] 1999, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS) All rights reserved Return to top Return to top Kucinich Wants Probe of Nigeria, US Oil Companies in Brutality City News February 1999 By Deborah Burstion-Donbraye The implications of U.S. Oil Companies in violence against ethnic Ijaws in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta has drawn the ire and attention of U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Cleveland) who said such brutality would not be tolerated by the U.S. if the victims were anyone other than Africans. In a letter sent last week to the head of international relations and copied to the White House and the State Department, Kucinich requested a congressional investigation into human rights abuses, killings of civilians, and harassment of environmental activists by Nigerian military forces in collaboration with Shell and Chevron oil companies. The City News first detailed the problems in the area and its threat to the upcoming elections and handover by the military to civilian rule by May 29 in a 2,000 word article in its January 27 edition. The Niger Delta issue has brought scant attention from U.S. media despite human rights abuses and Nigeria's role as one of the world's largest oil producing nation and one of the major suppliers of oil to the U.S. In a brief phone interview, Kucinich said he wrote the letter after a constituent, whom he declined to name, provided a news article and request for assistance, and when eyewitnesses, and wire and radio services confirmed the problem was escalating. "We're told that Nigeria is on the glidepath to democracy; however, weeks before its elections, the military government has begun to brutally repress its own people with helicopter gunships and thousands of troops sent into the Niger Delta," Kucinich wrote. "Chevron provided the helicopters, boats, and other hardware which the Nigerian security forces then used to bomb villages, massacre innocent civilians, and terrorize those protesting against the environmental degradation of the Niger Delta. On January 31 and February 1, 19 unarmed youths were gunned down by the Nigerian navy after Shell summoned them to their Forcados oil platform. The youths were allegedly asking Shell for jobs, and were invited aboard the terminal by Shell officials before the Nigerian Navy opened fire," Kucinich wrote in his letter to Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, Chairman of the House International Relations Committee. "These were only the latest reported incidents in a spate of recent killings of Niger Delta demonstrators protesting oil operations polluting of their land, water, air and food supplies. Since the government crackdown began New year's Eve 1998, as many as 270 unarmed residents - mostly ethnic Ijaws have been killed by government troops, villages have been deserted, women and children raped, refugees harassed and killed, and shoot-on-sight orders issued for environmental leaders," he said in his letter. In calling for the probe, Kucinich wrote: "By continuing to operate with impunity behind the shield of such military repression, U.S. oil companies are accepting extra-judicial killings and other human rights abuses as just another cost of doing business in Nigeria. We would never wink at this sort of behavior by oil-back military regimes in the Middle East or ethnic cleansing operations in Central Europe, and we can't tolerate it in Africa. If we want oil from Nigeria to keep flowing, then we must make sure our investments and corporate activity there weigh in on the side of creating a stable, representative democracy instead of a brutal oil republic." "As the chairman of the House International Relations Committee, it is within your power to act meaningfully to stop the bloodshed in the Niger Delta by initiating a congressional investigation in U.S. oil company complicity in the murders of innocent civilians. Such an investigation, launched now, would send a powerful signal to General Abubakar, the elected government that is scheduled to assume power in May, and to the multinational corporations, that our oil companies are not buying oil at the price of human lives, human rights and democracy." No response has been received as of last weekend. This is not the first time Kucinich has taken the lead in international affairs involving U.S. companies. "Kucinich has long been active in the area of holding international companies accountable for their conduct," a source said. He most recently became involved with the drug trafficking problems in Burma and Unocal oil company. Return to top EXPLOSION AT NUN RIVER FLOWSTATION Return to top February 5, 1999 A flow line that feeds crude oil into the Shells Nun River Flowstation (Bayelsa State, Nigeria) exploded this afternoon. Eight workers of Alcon Engineering Company (an oil service company) suffered severe burns in the incident and are now receiving treatment at Yenagao General Hospital. The workers were said to have been working on a crude oil flow line. It should be noted that Shell Company had told the world that they had shut the Nun River Flowstation at the end of the ultimatum given them by Ijaw youths on the heels of the Kaiama Declaration. Attempts to reach Shell this evening were unsuccessful. It is not clear why workers had to work on a flowline that had crude oil flowing through it. THE HOSPITAL (and the horrors) It is doubtful if the Yenagao General Hospital is equipped to handle cases of this severity. Some youths with state inflicted bullet wounds could not receive adequate treatment at this hospital and limbs that developed gangrene had to be amputated. Some of the victims of the Yenagao shootings are still being chained to hospital beds with a 24-hours watch by military personnel. THE VICTIMS The victims of the explosion are: 1.. Sample Walson ERA DEMANDS THAT a.. Shell should honour its word and close down the Nun River Flowstation in conformity with the demands of their hosts. b.. Shell should employ good oil field practices in their exploration and exploitation business in Nigeria. Nigerian workers should not be exposed to avoidable dangers such as this. c.. Transnational Oil Companies should stop using the military to harass and intimidate local people, as is the case daily at the oil field dotting the Niger Delta. For more information/reports contact ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS ACTION/ FRIENDS OF THE EARTH (FoE, Nigeria) + OILWATCH AFRICA #214, Uselu-Lagos Road, P. O. Box 10577, Benin City,
Nigeria +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "All people shall have the right to (a) safe and generally satisfactory environment favourable to their development". (Article 24, African Charter of Human and People's Rights) Africa-Rights: Oil Giants under Pressure to Pull out of Nigeria Inter Press Service Return to top WASHINGTON, (Jan. 26) IPS - Human rights and environmental groups worldwide are demanding that foreign oil companies suspend their operations in Nigeria as reports of human rights abuses against protesters continue to pour out of the oil-rich nation. More than 200 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) -- including the Sierra Club, a U.S.-based environmental watchdog, and Human Rights Watch, also based here in the States -- are urging transnationals like Shell, Chevron, and Mobil to suspend their operations until the military withdraws from the oil-producing Delta region in southeastern Nigeria. "The best way for the oil industry to contribute to peace in Nigeria is to immediately suspend operations and to seek a meaningful dialogue that addresses the concerns of the Ijaw and other Delta minorities," says Danny Kennedy, director of the California-based Project Underground. Besides protesting at gas stations in the United States, Project Underground and other groups are hoping to increase pressure on the companies by placing an advertisement this week in "The Guardian," a Nigerian daily. Nigeria's army has been clashing with members of the Ijaw ethnic minority, who say the companies are polluting their land and that the Delta region remains poor even as oil royalties flow to the government. In October, members of the Ijaw community stopped the flow of one-third of the 2 million barrels Nigeria exports per day by occupying oil platforms and flow stations. Nigerian military authorities reacted by declaring a state of emergency in the area and deploying troops there on Dec. 30. Since then, NGOs here say, between 26 and 240 protesters have been killed in clashes with the government. They contend that U.S.- based oil companies have been involved in the killings by providing helicopters and other equipment to the military forces. The state of emergency has since been called off, but troops remain in the area, according to rights groups. "All we want is dialogue. What they want is force," says Oronto Douglas, a lawyer who is acting as spokesperson for the Ijaw Youth Council. "We are asking the multinational companies to withdraw from Ijaw areas immediately." In support of the protesters, the 200-odd organizations -- from the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe -- are demanding that Shell, Chevron, Mobil Oil, Texaco, Elf and Agip suspend their operations in Nigeria until "all military and paramilitary units are removed, all activists released from prison, and the situation is peacefully resolved. "We believe that over 40 years of devastating environmental pollution and double standards by the oil companies are the principal causes for the tension," ran a letter they sent to the companies on Jan. 4. "We believe that no responsible oil company can operate behind the terror of armed soldiers." Chevron spokesperson Fred Gorell told IPS that the San Francisco-based company believes Nigeria is taking positive steps toward democracy and that it is moving forward with addressing the issue of distribution of wealth. When asked about the government's use of Chevron's equipment in its crackdowns, Gorell said the military has access to company equipment because the Nigerian government owns 60 percent of a joint oil project. "The fact is, because Chevron and all companies are minority partners with the government, law enforcement has the opportunity to use Chevron helicopters because they have the controlling interest," he said. In May last year, after protestors occupied one of Chevron's oil platforms, security forces were called in and opened fire from a helicopter that was allegedly owned by the company. Two Nigerian activists were killed and several were wounded. Shell has also been under close scrutiny by rights and environmental groups since activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other members of the Ogoni minority -- another Delta community -- were executed by the state for their campaign against the corporation. While the Anglo-Dutch company said it made a last minute plea for clemency, groups argued that it was helping prop up the brutal dictatorship through billions of dollars per year in oil royalties. More than 2,000 Ogoni have died in clashes with the military since their campaign against the oil giant began. Thousands of others have fled the country. "The Ijaw are, like the Ogoni before them, demanding their rights to clean air, water and land by exercising their right to peaceful protest and assembly," the NGOs said in their letter to the transnationals. "Oil operations, backed by the state security apparatus, have denied the Delta communities these rights." As non-governmental organizations worldwide keep a close watch on the area, they say governments and the United Nations are not paying attention to the government repression against protesters. "The United Nations is so quick to send high-level officials to Yugoslavia, but there has been virtual silence on the parallel situation in Nigeria," says Daphne Wysham, a research fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies here. "Despite reports of slaughter which involved multinational oil corporations," she adds, "there has been virtually no response." Return to top IJAW YOUTH COUNCIL January 18, 1999 Return to top Being text of a press briefing by the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Today Monday 18, January, 1999 Gentlemen of the press, on behalf of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) an organ of all Ijaw Youths Conference, we welcome you to Bundu, one of the numerous slump settlements inhabited by the Ijaws and other suffering nationalities of the Oil rich Niger Delta. Our fist briefing was held in Ogbia near Oloibiri on of December 29, 1998. Between that Day and now we can report to you that we have been on the receiving end of injustice. Some of your colleagues were living witnesses to the bestialities and violence unleashed on parts of Ijawland, particularly Yenagoa and Kaiama. It is for these and other reasons that we have called this press briefing. The military invasion of Ijawland: On 30 December, 1998, armed soldiers on the orders of the Nigerian military dictatorship opened fire on peaceful dancers in a procession. Several people shot dead or wounded. This callous and very excessive display of naked state power was followed by a declaration of war of genocidal dimension on the Ijaw peoples. Kaiama, Mbiama, Imiringi and other Ijaw communities were invaded the next day. This was followed by widespread looting, senseless raping, and extra judicial executions. Gentlemen and ladies, even men of God were not spared. Rev. Atari Ado was beaten, chained and prevented from taking water for three days. Chief Torumoye Ajako had his ears chopped off with a dagger. He was, in an Idi Amin style, given his own ears to eat. You are also aware of the killing of a Traditional Ruler, Chief Sergeant Ofoniama and several youths in Kaiama and Odi. Add this to the raping of at least eight married women and four young girls aged between 9-13 years, and you will get a clearer picture. We condemn the military invasion. We are calling on the United Nations to come to the Niger Delta on a fact-finding mission. Recently UN investigators were in the Kosovo to look into the wanton massacre of 40 Albanians. Extension of Operation Climate Change: You will recall that the Ijaw Youth Council declared Operation Climate Change from 1 January 1999 to 10 January, 1999. The recent Council meeting of the IYC unanimously voted that Operation Climate Change be extended indefinitely. Four reasons were given by the council: a. The oil companies failed to peacefully and voluntarily close their facilities in compliance with our request. b. They invited the military to protect their installation while they continued to drill. c. Our climate remains unprotected as Nigeria continues to flare gas with reckless abandon. d. Oil is the source of intra and inter-ethnic conflicts in the Niger Delta, as well as the key factor motivating the unitarist positions of the military dictatorship. Two months mourning period declared: The Ijaws throughout Nigeria and abroad, from 14 January, commenced a two months of mourning for our colleagues who were butchered by soldiers loyal to the Abubakar junta. We pay respect to them today. We have also requested that the bodies of our slain colleague be returned to us for a befitting burial. So far, they have refused. Instead the Bayelsa State Administrator, Lt. Col. Paul Obi told us that we should return the bodies of 80 Soldiers that were said to have been killed in Kaiama and other parts of Ijawland. We responded with a question, "how can the unarmed harm the armed". We also hear from friendly soldiers that scores of their men have gone AWOL. We are pleading with the soldiers to get in touch with their units so that this yoke of oppression can be speedily removed from our shoulders. MILITARY MUST WITHDRAW: For the umpteenth time, Ijaw youths want to use this opportunity to call on the military to withdraw from Ijawland. Their presence is being viewed by our people as a declaration of war. We emphasise that the Kaiama Declaration is not a declaration of war. We insist on our rights to self-determination and resource control. This is our minimum demand. NEGOTIATION AND THE PROPOSED ABUJA PARLEY: We have said repeatedly that we are for dialogue. Though spin-doctors that are on the payroll of the transnational oil companies and the military dictatorship are preventing the press and the Nigerian people from examining our viewpoint. We say here that NEGOTIATION IS THE KEY TO SOLVING THIS ISSUE OF OUR SURVIVAL. However, we must point out that the condition for negotiation does not presently exist. We cannot negotiate in chains and under military occupation. We urge the government to create the condition for genuine dialogue. This include: a. The demilitarisation of Ijawland b. The extinguishing of all gas flares c. The setting up a government negotiating team to discuss the Kaiama Declaration with the Ijaws. On our part, we will set up a negotiating team of our elders, mothers and the youths. Any discussion with the Ijaws should take place in a neutral venue such as Lagos and not in Abuja. Abuja is too much a reminder of our impoverishment. The Ijaws and the government should agree on a team of arbitrators or mediators. We, therefore, urge our elders to shelve that Abuja parley because it is fashioned to further our present oppression. Let us remain united. The strategy of the military dictatorship is to employ the lure of lucre to lacerate our ligament of unity. The Abuja parley is no better than the entertaining showmanship of the medicine salesman on a journey from Orile to Idumota. It holds out hope and promise of a cure but is incapable of healing the wounds of the Ijaws and other peoples of the Niger Delta. General Abubakar and Akhigbe are advised to stop playing games with our elders. SOVEREIGN NATIONAL CONFERENCE NOW We call on General Abubakar to allow the emergence of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC), which shall be composed of equal representation of the various ethnic nationalities that are agglomerated into the Nigerian State. Let us talk to one another. Let not the staccato of gunfire drown our peaceful pursuit of justice .Those who pull the trigger are those who have no just case to present. We shall remain faithful to our cause. ON KAIAMA WE STAND. Signed Oronto Douglas For and on behalf of the Collegiate Leadership of the Ijaw Youth Council Return to top Return to top Nigeria Guardian By Daphne Wysham BLOOD and oil are flowing once again in the Niger Delta. This time, it's the Ijaws - the fourth largest ethnic minority in Nigeria and the largest in the oil-rich Niger Delta - who are being targeted for repression. As many as 20 Ijaws have been reported killed by the security forces in Nigeria over the past few weeks for non-violently protesting against oil companies in the Niger Delta. Thousands of troops have been ordered into Ijawland, targeting key environmental and human rights activists. Dozens of people have been imprisoned, many with untreated gunshot wounds; thousands of civilians have fled from Yenagoa, the Bayelsa capital. Meanwhile, oil companies - Shell, Chevron, Mobil, Texaco and others - have continued operating behind the protective shield of the Nigerian government. After 40 years of environmental pollution, poisoned water, polluted land, incessant gas flaring (the single largest gas flaring in the world occurs in Nigeria), and with little invested in electricity, health care or other basic services in their communities, the Ijaw youths mobilised against the oil companies late last year. Just like the Ogoni before them, the Ijaw demanded their rights to clean air, water and land and the right to peaceful protest. On December 11, last year, the Ijaw Youth Council issued the "Kaiama Declaration", a call for solidarity from groups around the world to join the Ijaw in a non-violent campaign for environmental justice targeting the oil and gas companies operating on Ijawland. The Ijaw had had enough and asked the companies to extinguish their flares and leave the Delta by midnight, December 30, or warned they would shut down the oilfields. When the oil companies ignored their declaration, the Ijaw youths launched "Operation Climate Change" and shut down 40 per cent of the gas flares and oil flowstations in Ijawland. Their goal is to shut down all gas polluting flares. But the response from industry has been less than sympathetic. Allegedly, industry officials are privately urging a strong military response to the Kaiama Declaration. With little need for encouragement, the military has been brutal. On December 30, the Administrator of Bayelsa State, Lt.-Col. Paul Obi, declared a state of emergency, suspending all civil liberties and imposing a dusk-to-dawn curfew on the entire state. The administrator singled out the Ijaw youths - Chicoco (the pan-Niger Delta rights movement), Ijaw Youths Council and the Egbesu Boys of Africa - for unspecified "punishment". Though the state of emergency has been lifted, it remains unlawful to peacefully assemble in the Niger Delta. Thousands of troops have been massed in towns as Yenagoa, Brass and parts of the Isoko-Urhobo areas of Delta State. Oil giants like Shell, Chevron, Texaco and Mobil are among those who drill and export Nigeria's two million barrels of oil per day from the Niger Delta, making billions in profits from the land of the Ijaw, Itsekiri, Igbo, Urhobo, Isoko, Ibibio and other oppressed minorities. The United States is the single largest consumer of Nigerian crude; one in six barrels of oil entering U.S. markets comes from Nigeria. Ninety per cent of the oil revenue goes directly into the pocket of the Nigerian government. Though Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar has been praised by some leaders for pledging to leave office in May, and for allowing "democratic" elections to take place, the people of the Niger Delta are disenfranchised from the political process for clear economic reasons: their freedom directly threatens the revenue source for the Nigerian government, whether "democratic" or dictatorial. The Ijaw and other peoples of the oil-producing Niger Delta have been effectively gerrymandered out of any sort of representative democratic participation at the state and national level for clear economic reasons. They see the writing on the wall and the writing says "ethnocide", by slow, painful poisoning and destitution. With no recognition from within their country for their rights, they are pleading to the world for help as they face a clear danger to their life and environment. Wysham is of the Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, U.S.A. Return to top OGELE Return to top January 11, 1999 * Protesting Ijaw Women dispersed, beaten. At about noon today, a combined team of soldiers and mobile police violently dispersed over one thousand Ijaw women who were protesting peacefully in the streets of Port Harcourt against the recent killing of Ijaw youths and the raping of Ijaw women at Yenagoa, Kaiama and other Ijaw villages The protest march which was organised by the Niger Delta Women for Justice in conjunction with the Ijaw Youth Council was dispersed at Moscow Road, in front of the Earnest Ikoli Press Centre, the headquarters of the Rivers State Branch of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ). At least thirty four of the protesting women were arrested by the soldiers after the soldier shot continuously into the air as the women approached Government House where they planned to submit a protest letter to the Head of State and Commander in Chief of the Armed forces of Nigeria, General Abdusalami Abubakar, through the Military Administrator of Rivers State, Wing Commander Sam Ewang. Some of the women were beaten by the soldiers. Some others sustained injuries as they fell on the tarmac while fleeing from the rampaging soldiers. Out of the thirty-four women arrested, seven have been released by the soldiers. They include Nimi Aseribofagha, Stella Abel, Ebi, Seiyefa Robert, Mrs Judith Esaba, Nengi Spiff and Mrs Gladys Harry. Those still being held include Ayadibuo Esaba, Gloria Amasuoma, Biboere Amangala, Ebiere Zuokumo, Charity Sunday, Mrs. Joy Okuboere, Juliett Ebikeme, Kwekwere Pere, Susan Tamuno, Belema Robert, Sister Alice Otiotio, Beatrice Ayakeme and others whose identity is yet to be verified. One of those released, Mrs Nimi Aseribofagha narrated to OGELE her ordeal in the hands of the soldiers who stripped her naked and flogged her with koboko (cow hide whip) She is presently receiving medical attention at a private clinic in Port Harcourt where doctors are treating her of bruises covering her back, shoulders and buttocks. Meanwhile, the Collective Leadership of the Ijaw Youth Council maintains that "Operation Climate Change" will continue despite the repressive actions of the Nigerian military dictatorship. A member of the Collective leadership, Felix Tuodolo told OGELE that "the programme of peaceful direct action will continue until all gas flares in Ijawland are extinguished". Return to top Chevron Implicated in Alleged Massacre in Nigerian Villages Return to top January 8, 1999 ERA FIELD REPORT CHEVRON'S NEW YEAR GIFT: THE OPIA AND IKIYAN MASSACRE * TWO VILLAGES RAZED DOWN AND INHABITANTS SACKED INTRODUCTION Opia and Ikiyan are two Ijaw villages in Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria. Opia is a remote riverine village about 3 hours away by speedboat from Warri. Their main occupation is fishing and lumbering. Sedeco Forex, a drilling company with Chevron, the American oil giant, has a rig in the area called serial 4 rig among other rigs. DEADLY NEIGHBOURS On the 4th of January this year, members of Opia community sent some of their women to Serial 4 rig to request that Chevron provides some facilities in the community in the spirit of the new year having harboured them in their land, and so far have been good neighbours. Chevron sent the women away and requested that the men and youths of the community should come. They did. THE SACKING OF OPIA Chevron staff on the rig then sent a radio message to Escravos and while they were still on board the Serial 4 rig, soldiers came in Chevron helicopters at about 2 p.m. and razed down the village. Two hours later, more soldiers came on speedboats and opened fire |
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