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----Original Message Follows----
From: "Cop Watch" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: (en) On Shell and the current situation in the Niger Delta
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1999 13:22:52 -0500 (CDT)
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Shell fights fires as strife flares in delta The first of a two-part
series looks at the rapidly growing fight for Nigeria's oil wealth
John Vidal in Port Harcourt Wednesday September 15, 1999
The Niger delta, which provides more than 80% of Nigeria's income, 8%
of US oil imports and 22m tons of oil a year to the EU, faces a new
crisis as violence flares and resentment builds up against Shell and
other western oil companies, which extract oil worth an estimated 94bn
a year from below the villages of some of the world's poorest people.
The oil companies, rights activists and environmental organisations
report a rapidly disintegrating society plagued by summary executions,
shootouts, inter-ethnic violence, pollution, riots, occupations of oil
facilities and demonstrations.
The companies warn that unless the new civilian government acts quickly
the industry will be hit hard, and some campaigners warn that chaos in
the delta could lead to the break-up of Nigeria.
President Olusegun Obasanjo admits that the unfair distribution of oil
wealth has led to "grave injustice". He is sending troops to control
hotspots, but this is only exacerbating the tension: the armed forces
are accused of human rights abuses, extortion and torture.
Shell, by far the largest oil operator in the region, says the
situation is tense and the company is "firefighting in all
directions". "What is happening is alarming," said a senior executive
in Port Harcourt, Bobo Brown. "Social disintegration is taking place.
"Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni [the author hanged by the military regime
in 1996 for opposing Shell, and his people] served a warning shot to
the region and the rest of Nigeria. They were the tracer bullet ahead
of a night of battle which is starting to take place now and is centred
on environmental and human rights. The momentum is building."
Palpable tension
Travelling through the delta is a depressing and eerie experience: in
devastated communities with next to no work and no access to
electricity or hospitals the tension is palpable. Oil spills, due to
either sabotage or neglect, are being reported at least twice a week
and giant flares light the night sky as oil company helicopters fly
overhead. In Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa state, the army patrols
the streets as gangs of youths congregate.
The scale of the chaos is only now becoming clear. In the past year
more than 200 people have been killed in oil-related riots or in
largely unreported clashes with the state police and the military.
Shell says there have been 50 kidnappings of its workers or contractors
in the past six months, and its operations are disrupted at least once
a day.
In the same period 150 Shell installations, depots and pumping stations
have been occupied, closed down or halted, mostly by youth movements
demanding aid, compensation for oil spills, or work.
Chevron, Mobil, Texaco and Agip are less affected by the civil
commotion because they work mainly off shore, but they all admit there
has been an escalation of kidnappings and disruptions.
Ethnic unrest
Much of the trouble centres on the 11m Ijaw, the largest ethnic group
in the region. Inspired by the Ogoni, its youth groups are leading a
non-violent struggle for the right to share their land's oil wealth.
All the oil companies have been banned from operating in Ijaw
territories. But several splinter groups have turned to extortion,
hijacking, sabotage and kidnapping for private gain.
"Many live in the maze of creeks in the delta, armed with everything
from guns to machetes and bows and arrows. Others are disaffected
university graduates," said Azibaola Robert of the Human and
Environmental Rescue Organisation in Port Harcourt.
After a lull this year when democracy was restored to Nigeria, the
trouble is now spreading to all the minority ethnic groups in the
delta. "The Ijaw, Itsekari, Ogba, Ikwerre, Urhobo and Andoni are now
all opposed to the oil companies and demanding change," Mr Robert
said. "They have had enough of pollution, grinding poverty and
promises. They see they have no tomorrow. They are entering a new stage
in their struggle for self-determination."
Meanwhile the police and the security services, who are working with
the oil companies to clamp down on the youth groups, fear that the
unrest will continue to grow. A Rivers state police document obtained
by the Guardian says the police are preparing for a big conflict.
Calling rights activists and environmental and community groups "the
enemy", it says the safety of oil workers cannot be guaranteed. State
intelligence services, it says, report that Ijaw activists "intend to
close down all oil installations and force all expatriate staff to
leave and stop work at all flow stations". This is denied by the Ijaw
youth council.
An army brigade has been placed on red alert, the report says, and more
than 2,500 police have been mobilised to join the guards employed by
the companies.
The oil companies and the campaigners agree that violence is growing
rapidly. This week 50 young people from the Egbesu group based in
Yenagoa were re ported killed by the security services.
"It was genocide," said Isaac Osuoka of the youth council. "Nigerian
soldiers are stripping, torturing and harassing innocent people. They
have been rounding up people in the streets for identification. Those
identified as Ijaw were then driven away in military trucks for summary
execution."
Human Rights Watch claims that there is some evidence of companies
accepting human rights abuses as a cost of doing business in Nigeria.
In January four people died when military forces used helicopters and
other equipment belonging to Chevron to attack two communities in the
western Niger delta after a peaceful occupation of an oil facility.
Several thousand people died at Warri last October when fire broke out
after a pipeline was ruptured.
This summer seven helicopter gunships were moved to the delta and 500
soldiers were sent to one community at the invitation of Mobil after
youths seized a helicopter and 14 rifles. Elsewhere Chevron was forced
to shut down part of its operation after an occupation.
"People eat, breathe and think poverty," said Anyakwee Nsirimovu of the
Institute of Human Rights. "There is now a great yearning for
self-determination across the delta. People are not ready to lose the
momentum. They are willing to the point of dying to continue their
struggle. What happens here will determine whether Nigeria continues to
exist or not."
********
The A-Infos News Service
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