Niger
Delta rebels display hostage, demand military pullout
By
Dave Clark
AFP
OKERENKOKO,
Nigeria
Petroleumworld.com
02 26 06
Nigerian separatist militants showed one of nine foreign hostages
to reporters on Friday and vowed the oil workers would not be
released until the military pulls out of the Niger Delta.
The hostage, Macon Hawkins, a 68-year-old Texan, told reporters
that he and his colleagues were unharmed and had been well treated
since gunmen seized them from their pipe-laying barge seven days
earlier.
"We've got air-conditioned quarters. We are managing quite
well. I have diabetes and high blood pressure, but they brought
me medicine. All is well, let's hope it ends well," he said.
The white-bearded captive appeared remarkably relaxed and upbeat,
suggesting he had been picked to meet reporters because he was
the "oldest and ugliest" of the hostages and praising
the cooking at the kidnappers' hideout.
The rebels did not allow reporters to see their other prisoners
-- two more Americans, a Briton, two Egyptians, a Filipino and
two Thais -- but they did release photographs of all nine men
being held by armed fighters.
Hawkins was brought alongside the reporters' boat in one operated
by masked fighters in camouflaged body armour toting rocket-propelled
grenades and belt-fed machine guns, 50 kilometres (32 miles) west
of the oil port of Warri.
The creeks around the area, near the ethnic Ijaw town of Okerenkoko,
were patrolled by several similar open-topped war boats loaded
with armed men and flying the white banners associated with Egbesu,
the Ijaws' god of war.
"We are the MEND," barked a boat commander, his face
hidden behind a mask, referring to the Movement for the Emancipation
of the Niger Delta.
Throughout the afternoon, various militant commanders reiterated
the MEND's demands: the total withdrawal of Nigerian military
forces from the delta area and a direct political settlement with
the federal government.
Many demanded full independence for their region, or at the least
control over the vast oil resources under the Ijaws' land, and
the anonymous boat commanders urged the United States to oversee
negotiations.
"Since 1956, when they found oil in Oloibiri, the Nigerian
government has enslaved us," said one MEND commander, referring
to the first of the delta's several hundred oil wells, discovered
by Shell in an Ijaw community.
One fighter also expressed the fear that if the hostages are released,
the military task force sent to Warri to counter their threat
might launch reprisals against the Ijaw villages in the delta's
winding creeks.
"If we release these hostages, the federal government will
kill us. If the federal goverment sends people to kill us, we
will put these white men on our boats and let them face the fire,"
he warned.
The militants also demanded the release of two jailed Ijaw leaders,
separatist warlord Mujahid Dokubo Asari and ousted state governor
Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who is accused of embezzling hundreds
of millions of dollars.
Despite the fierce tone adopted by the fighters in the creeks,
the Delta State government -- which is leading efforts to negotiate
the safe release of the hostages -- remained upbeat.
"We have made progress, and we hope to have good news to
announce very soon," said Abel Oshevire, spokesman for Delta's
Governor James Ibori.
Hawkins expressed sympathy with the views of his captors about
development in the Niger Delta, saying: "They have no schools,
no hospitals, no running water.
"It's time for someone else to get involved, perhaps the
United Nations."
And he called on Nigeria to better share oil resources with the
people of the delta. "They get nothing from all this oil,
and they produce all the oil."
Of his captors, he said: "They're ready and they're going
to fight."
"Tell President (George) Bush I want to go home," he
called out, as the militants pulled their boat away and onto the
Escravos River, firing their assault rifles into the air and singing
Ijaw war songs.
The hostages were kidnapped last Saturday during attacks by boatloads
of militants on facilities around Shell's Forcados oil export
terminal.
Nigeria's federal government has branded the kidnappers criminals,
accusing them of using the cause of ethnic Ijaw separatism to
mask the business of stealing crude from illegally tapped pipelines
and smuggling it overseas.
Since last week's assault, Shell has suspended loading at its
Forcados terminal and evacuated the EA offshore oil field, cutting
the output of Africa's largest oil producer by 20 percent; 455,000
barrels per day.
AFP
02 24 06
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© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
