http://allafrica.com/stories/200312170040.html
Money And Oil At Root of Delta Violence, Rights Group Says
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
NEWS
December 17, 2003
Posted to the web December 17, 2003
Lagos
Ethnic loathing may have been the spur to the ferocious
violence between rival ethnic militias in Nigeria's Niger Delta
this year, but the object was control of government resources
and money from stolen crude oil, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said
on Wednesday.
"Although the violence has both ethnic and political
dimensions, it is essentially a fight over the oil money, both
government revenue and the profits of stolen crude," said
Bronwen Manby, deputy director of HRW's Africa Division and the
author of the 29-page report entitled "The Warri Crisis:
Fuelling Violence."
The report details fighting around the southern oil town of
Warri involving rival militias of the Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo
ethnic groups. It said the conflict, which began in 1997, had
killed hundreds of people this year and left thousands
displaced.
Both Ijaws and Urhobos allege their Itsekiri rivals are
favoured by government in the distribution of election
constituency boundaries and oil benefits.
The international human rights group urged the Nigerian federal
government to provide more honest and accountable
administration in Delta State of which Warri is the capital. It
also called on President Olusegun Obasanjo to crack down on the
theft of oil from pipelines, saying the massive profits from
this illegal trade had been used to flood the region with guns.
"Efforts to halt the violence and end the civilian suffering
that has accompanied it must...include steps both to improve
government accountability and to end the theft of oil," Manby
said.
HRW specifically called for a re-run of this year's general
elections in Delta State, saying the levels of fraud and
violence which accompanied voting meant minimum international
standards for an acceptable election were not met.
The group also recommended that Nigeria adopt a system of
"certifying" legally obtained crude oil by using chemical
processes to identify cargoes of stolen crude in the
international market.
Several oil company executives have said this would discourage
the powerful gangs which siphon off up to 10 percent of
Nigeria's oil production and ship it out by barge to tankers
waiting offshore in an illegal trade known as "bunkering."
HRW recalled that some of the worst fighting in the delta
occurred during the general elections in April and May this
year. The conflict drew in government troops and forced oil
companies operating in the area to temporarily close 40 percent
of Nigeria's oil production of about two million barrels per
day.
According to the rights group, being in government in Nigeria
affords individuals unhindered control over state resources.
With Delta State, the centre of the violence, accounting for 40
percent of Nigeria's oil production and being constitutionally
entitled to 13 percent of the oil revenue, the elections were
fought with violence and fraud with eyes on these funds, it
said.
HRW believes some of the estimated US$ 750 million to $US one
billion profits from bunkering are channelled into the
procurement of weapons used in the delta violence.
It said many local politicians were closely involved with the
gangs that control the bunkering. It also accused them of
engaging the ethnic militias to ensure they were elected and to
defend their illegal operations.
Dan Iremiju, leader of the militant Itsekiri National Youth
Council, agreed with the report that most of the fighting in
the delta this year had centred on the activities of oil
thieves. He alleged that elements in the Nigerian navy had been
providing protection to Ijaw gangs tapping oil from the
pipelines for years.
"Much of the fighting was between two business partners, the
naval unit in Warri and the illegal oil dealers," he told IRIN.
"I don't know what went sour in the relationship."
But militant Ijaw leader, Dan Ekpebide, disputed claims that
any of the fighting was over money from illicit oil deals.
"Ijaw people here are saying they've been kept out of the
political system and denied access to the resources in their
area," Ekpebide said. "What they're fighting for is political
freedom, justice, equity and fair play."
Ekpebide said he believed the Niger Delta was awash with guns
because of government militarisation of the oil region.
"The soldiers and police are trading off arms for small amounts
of money...People have easy access to military weapons because
of the military presence," he said.
Government officials were not available for comments on the HRW
report.
Copyright © 2003 UN Integrated Regional Information Networks.
All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
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