'Dozens dead' in Nigeria clashes

Villagers fleeing violence in Nigeria's oil-rich western Niger Delta say dozens of people have been killed in clashes between soldiers and rival gangs of ethnic militants.

Fighting between two local communities, the Ijaw and Itsekiri, has been raging for more than a week, drawing in thousands of soldiers.

The refugees described soldiers and militants burning down dozens of villages and firing indiscriminately.

The violence prompted the US oil company, Chevron Texaco, to suspend operations in the region on Thursday - slashing output levels in Africa's biggest producer by 13%.

Some reports said the Anglo-Dutch company Shell had also confirmed it would not be able to meet its contractual obligations on Friday.

Refugees from both communities, retreating from the swampy region south of the town of Warri, told of scores of deaths. Ruth Tinghala described soldiers firing "horizontally" and torching homes and shops.

Ijaw leaders and refugees say 50 fighters were killed in battles with navy and army forces in the village of Okorenkoro on Thursday alone.

They say a state of siege has been imposed on the Ijaw community, with navy gunboats and troops imposing a 24-hour blockade on the creeks around their villages, according to the AFP news agency.

Military officials have previously denied attacking civilians, and stressed they used minimum force when possible.

On Thursday, Chevron Texaco evacuated hundreds of villagers by air from areas affected by the violence.

On Wednesday, President Olusegun Obasanjo issued a strong warning that the current high level of violence in the country was posing a threat to the success of next month's elections.

The Ijaw are demanding more political representation and compensation from oil companies operating in the area. They say the oil industry has polluted their fishing communities.

A militant Ijaw leader has said that protests against the Itsekiri and the oil companies will continue until the government addresses the issue.

Our correspondent Dan Isaacs says that this is extremely unlikely ahead of the elections and he says it is difficult to see how an effective poll can take place in this part of the southern Delta under the present circumstances.

He adds that even if the unrest subsides, many hundreds, perhaps thousands of people have been displaced and election officials will be extremely wary about operating in such an unstable region.

THE KAIAMA DECLARATION
by
IJAW YOUTHS OF THE NIGER DELTA
BEING COMMUNIQUE ISSUED AT THE END OF THE ALL IJAW YOUTHS CONFERENCE
WHICH HELD IN THE TOWN OF KAIAMA THIS 11TH DAY OF DECEMBER 1998.

INTRODUCTION

We, Ijaw youths drawn from over five hundred communities from over 40 clans that make up the Ijaw nation and representing 25 representative organisations met, today, in Kaiama to deliberate on the best way to ensure the continuos survival of the indigenous peoples of the Ijaw ethnic nationality of the Niger Delta within the Nigerian state.

After exhaustive deliberations, the Conference observed:

a. That it was through British colonisation that the IJAW NATION was forcibly put under the Nigerian State

b. That but for the economic interests of the imperialists, the Ijaw ethnic nationality would have evolved as a distinct and separate sovereign nation, enjoying undiluted political, economic, social, and cultural AUTONOMY.

c. That the division of the Southern Protectorate into East and West in 1939 by the British marked the beginning of the balkanisation of a hitherto territorially contiguous and culturally homogeneous Ijaw people into political and administrative units, much to our disadvantage. This trend is continuing in the balkanisation of the Ijaws into six states-Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom States, mostly as minorities who suffer socio-political, economic, cultural and psychological deprivations.

d. That the quality of life of Ijaw people is deteriorating as a result of utter neglect, suppression and marginalisation visited on Ijaws by the alliance of the Nigerian state and transnational oil companies.

e. That the political crisis in Nigeria is mainly about the struggle for the control of oil mineral resources which account for over 80% of GDP, 95 %of national budget and 90% of foreign exchange earnings. From which, 65%, 75% and 70% respectively are derived from within the Ijaw nation. Despite these huge contributions, our reward from the Nigerian State remains avoidable deaths resulting from ecological devastation and military repression.

f. That the unabating damage done to our fragile natural environment and to the health of our people is due in the main to uncontrolled exploration and exploitation of crude oil and natural gas which has led to numerous oil spillages, uncontrolled gas flaring, the opening up of our forests to loggers, indiscriminate canalisation, flooding, land subsidence, coastal erosion, earth tremors etc. Oil and gas are exhaustible resources and the complete lack of concern for ecological rehabilitation, in the light of the Oloibiri experience, is a signal of impending doom for the peoples of Ijawland.

g. That the degradation of the environment of Ijawland by transnational oil companies and the Nigerian State arise mainly because Ijaw people have been robbed of their natural rights to ownership and control of their land and resources through the instrumentality of undemocratic Nigerian State legislations such as the Land Use Decree of 1978, the Petroleum Decrees of 1969 and 1991, the Lands (Title Vesting etc.) Decree No. 52 of 1993 (Osborne Land Decree), the National Inland Waterways Authority Decree No. 13 of 1997 etc.

h. That the principle of Derivation in Revenue Allocation has been consciously and systematically obliterated by successive regimes of the Nigerian state. We note the drastic reduction of the Derivation Principle from 100% (1953), 50% (1960), 45% (1970), 20% (1975) 2% (1982), 1.5% (1984) to 3% (1992 to date), and a rumored 13% in Abacha's 1995 undemocratic and unimplemented Constitution.

i. That the violence in Ijawland and other parts of the Niger Delta area, sometimes manifesting in intra and inter ethnic conflicts are sponsored by the State and transnational oil companies to keep the communities of the Niger Delta area divided, weak and distracted from the causes of their problems.

j. That the recent revelations of the looting of national treasury by the Abacha junta is only a reflection of an existing and continuing trend of stealing by public office holders in the Nigerian state. We remember the over 12 billion dollars Gulf war windfall, which was looted by Babangida and his cohorts We note that over 70% of the billions of dollars being looted by military rulers and their civilian collaborators is derived from our ecologically devastated Ijawland.

Based on the foregoing, we, the youths of Ijawland, hereby make the following resolutions to be known as the Kaiama Declaration:

1. All land and natural resources (including mineral resources) within the Ijaw territory belong to Ijaw communities and are the basis of our survival.

2. We cease to recognise all undemocratic decrees that rob our peoples/communities of the right to ownership and control of our lives and resources, which were enacted without our participation and consent. These include the Land Use Decree and The Petroleum Decree etc.

3. We demand the immediate withdrawal from Ijawland of all military forces of occupation and repression by the Nigerian State. Any oil company that employs the services of the armed forces of the Nigerian State to "protect" its operations will be viewed as an enemy of the Ijaw people. Family members of military personnel stationed in Ijawland should appeal to their people to leave the Ijaw area alone.

I think it's over oil and money. Take a look:

Itsekiri, Ijaw Women Seize Shell, Chevron Delta Facilities

Vanguard (Lagos)

August 10, 2002
Posted to the web August 10, 2002

IN a rare show of solidarity, about 3,000 Itsekiri, Ijaw and Ilaje women, Thursday seized the Warri operational headquarters of two major oil producing companies in the country - Shell and Chevron-Texaco

However, Shell said last night in a release signed by the Corporate External Relations Manager, Mr. Donald Boham, that the protesters had vacated its Warri access area.

They were protesting alleged non-challant attitude of Shell and Chevron-Texaco managements to their welfare over the years.

The women had a rough deal with security agents in effecting the seizure, leaving 10 of them seriously injured. An Itsekiri woman was beaten to a state of coma.

She was rushed along with others to Shell Clinic at Ogunu for medical attention.

The women were teargassed and brutalised by the security agents in an attempt to disperse them.

The aggrieved women, many of them aged and even young ones mainly from the riverine oil-bearing communities stormed the main gates of Shell Petroleum and Chevron/Texaco as early as 6.30 a.m.

The protesting women defied the intimidating presence of armed soldiers and combat ready anti-riot policemen by chasing away the in-house security personnel of SPDC and Chevron/Texaco before seizing the oil companies.

The women reportedly mobilised from the various riverine communities of Itsekiri, Ijaw and Ilaje before moving into the oil city of Warri, Wednesday night to enable them storm the oil companies before the resumption of duties by the oil workers.

Once they arrived the two companies by 6.30 am, they dislodged the few security personnel on duty before assuming control.

The workers and contractors as well as suppliers who turned up for normal business activities later in the morning were ordered back.

The placards-carrying women waved green leaves and sang solidarity songs to protest long years of alleged criminal neglect and exploitation of their environment by the oil companies and Federal Government.

They barricaded the gates with canopies in a manner suggesting that they were prepared to stay there for as long as necessary. They came with their children and household items, vowing to stay on until the managements of the two oil companies wound discuss their plight.

At SPDC's Ogunu office, the protesting women carried a symbolic coffin of the company's Managing Director.

They had a face-off with security agents posted to SPDC's Ogunu gate during which about 10 of the women sustained varying degrees of injuries. An Itsekiri woman was beaten to a state of coma by the security agents at SPDC's gate opposite Federal Government College (FGC), Warri.

The injured woman was later taken to Shell Clinic, Ogunu for treatment.

A fresh detachment of soldiers and policemen was later sent to the locations around 4.00 p.m yesterday to dislodge the women allegedly on order from the above.

The security agents, especially the police employed tear-gas in a desperate attempt to chase away the women. The protesters, however, stood their ground. They insisted on reaching an accord on their demands with the companies' managements, before they would return home.

Leader of the Itsekiri group, Mrs. Elizabeth Ebiga told Vanguard at Chevron main gate that no amount of intimidation or security clampdown would compel them to abandon the legitimate course.

Ebiga who spoke in pidgin English lamented that the oil companies neither employed their kinsmen nor empowered them (the women and men) to live a decent life.

Leader of the Ijaw group, Mrs. Dorris Kaiaki said the operation of oil companies had resulted in premature death for a number of their people, especially as a result of environmental pollution and degradation.

Kaiaki requested the provision of basic amenities of life, such as light and water and more importantly employment opportunities for the people as the only way out.

Ilaje woman leader, Mrs. B. I. Ugbasanin lamented that while the oil workers enjoyed good life, the inhabitants of the oil-bearing communities wallowed in abject poverty.

Ugbasanin vowed that "all will not be well for the oil companies in our areas until they start treating us as human beings that deserve a good life."

The Commanding Officer of 7th Battalion, Effurun, Col. Gar Dogo warned that his men were solidly on ground to ensure safety of oil workers and equipment.

Dogo warned the indigenes of oil-producing communities against taking the law into their hands, stressing that "there are several legitimate and civilised ways to seek redress."

lProtesters vacate Shell

Meanwhile, Shell last night said in a statement: "A group of women protesters, who barricaded and denied some staff of Shell in Warri, access to their offices earlier yesterday have vacated the area, following an understanding reached with the protesters.

"The picketing, it is believed, follows from one held last month by contractor-staff drivers over welfare demands on their employers, who are contractors to SPDC. The protestors were mostly wives and relatives of these drivers.

"The incident, restricted to the gates of our Warri offices, did not affect production and export of crude oil.

"In the meantime, SPDC is making efforts to get the contractors to talk with their employees."

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