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Nigeria: Delta Crisis Reports
Nigeria: Delta Crisis Reports
Date distributed (ymd): 990613
Document reposted by APIC
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: West Africa
Issue Areas: +political/rights+ +economy/development+
+security/peace+
Summary Contents:
This report contains two documents on the crisis in the
Niger Delta Region: (a) a summary of the latest report (May
1999) from Human Rights Watch / Africa, and (b) a June 10
report from Nigeria by Africa Fund Human Rights Coordinator
Michael Fleshman.
For additional news and background sources see:
http://www.africapolicy.org/action/nigeria.htm
http://www.africapolicy.org/featdocs/west.htm
http://www.africapolicy.org/featdocs/westnews.htm
A variety of commentary from different Nigerian and
international groups focusing on the Delta can be found on
the Shell-Nigeria-Action Listserv Archive:
http://www.essential.org/listproc/shell-nigeria-action/
+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor,
New York, NY
10118-3299 USA.
TEL: 1-212-290-4700, FAX: 1-212-736-1300
E-mail: hrwnyc@hrw.org; Web Site Address: http://www.hrw.org
NIGERIA: CRACKDOWN IN THE NIGER DELTA
May 1999
Copies of the full report are available on the Human Rights
Watch website at <http://www.hrw.org>.
For further information:
Bronwen Manby, London +44 171 713 1995
Peter Takirambudde, New York +1 212 216 1223
I. INTRODUCTION
The Niger Delta has for some years been the site of major
confrontations between the people who live there and the
Nigerian government's security forces, resulting in
extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, and draconian
restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression,
association, and assembly. These violations of civil and
political rights have been committed principally in response
to protests about the activities of the multinational
companies that produce Nigeria's oil and the use made of the
oil revenue by the Nigerian government. Although the
succession by Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar as head of state in
June 1998 brought a significant relaxation in the repression
the late Gen. Sani Abacha inflicted on the Nigerian people,
human rights abuses in the oil producing communities continue
and the basic situation in the delta remains unchanged.
When he took office, General Abubakar canceled the "transition
program" established by General Abacha—which had apparently
been designed to install the military head of state as a
"civilian" president, released political prisoners, and
instituted a fresh transition program under conditions of
greater openness. Local, state, and national elections were
held in December 1998 and January and February 1999, and were
intended to lead to the inauguration of a civilian government,
headed by president-elect and former military head of state
Olusegun Obasanjo, on May 29, 1999. Since the death of Abacha,
and in the context of the greater competition within the
political environment encouraged by the elections, there has
been a surge in demands for the government to improve the
position of the different groups living in the oil producing
areas. In particular, members of the Ijaw ethnic group, the
fourth largest in Nigeria, adopted the Kaiama Declaration on
December 11, 1998, which claimed ownership of all natural
resources found in Ijaw territory. There has also been an
increase in incidents in which protesters have occupied oil
industry flow stations and stopped production or taken oil
workers hostage.
In February 1999, Human Rights Watch published a 200-page
report, The Price of Oil: Corporate Responsibility and Human
Rights Violations in Nigeria's Oil Producing Communities,
which examined human rights violations connected to the
suppression of protest at oil company activities. The report
went to press before details of a security force crackdown in
the Niger Delta in late December 1998 and January 1999 were
available. The current short report describes those events, on
the basis of interviews conducted in the delta region during
February 1999. We conclude that the military crackdown in
Bayelsa and Delta States in late December 1998 and early
January 1999 led to the deaths of several dozens of people,
and probably more than one hundred; the torture and inhuman
treatment of others; and the arbitrary detention of many more.
These abuses took place as a response to demonstrations held
by Ijaw youths in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa State, and
Kaiama, a community an hour away by road. The demonstrations
were initially peaceful, and the majority of those killed were
unarmed. Some were summarily executed. In another incident,
two communities in Delta State were attacked by soldiers,
using a helicopter and boats commandeered from a facility
operated by Chevron, following an alleged confrontation that
took place at a nearby Chevron drilling rig. More than fifty
people may have died in these incidents. Chevron has asserted
that it had no choice in allowing its contractors' equipment
to be used in this way. The company did not issue any public
protest at the killings; nor has it stated that it will take
any steps to avoid similar incidents in the future.
Soldiers remain deployed in the riverine areas of Bayelsa and
Delta States. While there are genuine security concerns
relating to kidnappings of oil workers and to inter-community
conflict, especially in Delta State, these soldiers are
responsible for ongoing human rights violations. These
violations range from routine extortion of money at roadblocks
to arbitrary detention and torture. On a few occasions,
individuals have also been summarily executed.
The recent elections were deeply flawed in many parts of
Nigeria, but the elections held in the South-South zone, the
area including the oil producing communities of the Niger
Delta, were particularly problematic. Observers noted
widespread electoral irregularities in Rivers, Bayelsa, and
Delta States, those most troubled by recent protests.
Following the completion of the election process, the
government of General Abubakar appointed a committee to
consider the needs of the Niger Delta, which has recommended
the immediate disbursement of 15.3 billion naira, U.S.$170
million, on development projects and the establishment of a
Niger Delta Consultative Council, made up of government
figures and representatives of the oil companies, to oversee
development projects. General Abubakar's government has also
held discussions with selected leaders from, in particular,
the Ijaw ethnic group, in relation to this plan.
The crisis in the oil producing regions will be one of the
most pressing issues for the new government of Nigeria when it
takes office on May 29. The level of anger against the federal
government and the oil companies among the residents of the
oil producing communities means that further protest is
likely, as are further incidents of hostage taking and other
criminal acts. The crackdown in the Niger Delta over the New
Year indicates the extent to which the current government,
which has otherwise showed increased respect for human rights,
is still prepared to use military force to crush peaceful
protest, rather than to seek to address the issues being
protested. Yet any attempt to achieve a military solution will
certainly result in widespread and serious violations of
Nigeria's commitments to respect internationally recognized
human rights. To avoid a human rights crisis, the incoming
government must allow the peoples of the Niger Delta to select
their own representatives and to participate in decisionmaking
concerning the future course of the region. The flawed
nature of the elections makes it all the more essential that
attempts to address the grievances of the delta communities
involve discussions with individuals who are freely chosen by
the communities of the delta and with a mandate to represent
their interests, rather than with individuals chosen by the
government as representative. In addition, the government must
take steps to reestablish respect for human rights and the
rule of law, and to end continuing human rights violations
resulting from the deployment of soldiers in the delta region.
The oil companies operating in Nigeria also share a
responsibility to ensure that oil production does not continue
at the cost of violations of the rights of those who live in
the areas where oil is produced. Given the deteriorating
security situation in the delta, it is all the more urgent for
the companies to adopt systematic steps to ensure that the
legitimate protection of company staff and property does not
result in summary executions, arbitrary detentions, and other
violations. Systematic monitoring and protest of human rights
violations by the government, and steps to ensure that the
companies themselves are not complicit in such human rights
violations, are more important than ever.
II. RECOMMENDATIONS
Human Rights Watch made extensive recommendations in our
report The Price of Oil: Corporate Responsibility and Human
Rights Violations in Nigeria's Oil Producing Communities. In
addition to the steps set out in that report, Human Rights
Watch makes the following recommendations to the Nigerian
government, the oil companies, and the international
community.
To the Current Military and Incoming Civilian Nigerian
Governments:
- Appoint judicial inquiries into the events in Yenagoa and
Kaiama, Bayelsa State, during late 1998 and early 1999, and
into the attacks on Opia and Ikenyan, Delta State, on January
4, 1999. Publish the reports, institute criminal and
disciplinary proceedings, as appropriate, against those
responsible for violations of human rights, and pay
appropriate compensation to the victims and their relatives.
- Institute an immediate, inclusive and transparent process
of negotiation with freely chosen representatives of the
peoples living in the Niger Delta to resolve the issues
surrounding the production of oil.
- Replace soldiers carrying out policing duties in the Niger
Delta area and elsewhere with regular police. Immediately
withdraw military units suspected of or known to have
committed abuses, and, following judicial inquiries, withdraw
units identified as abusive.
To Chevron Nigeria Ltd:
- Publicly condemn the human rights violations carried out
at Opia and Ikenyan by the Nigerian military and make clear to
the Nigerian government that equipment owned by Chevron or its
contractors will not be made available to the army in future
unless proper safeguards are in place to ensure that similar
gross violations of human rights do not occur, including
written agreements relating to the commandeering of oil
company facilities or equipment.
- Develop written guidelines on the provision of security
for Chevron facilities and cooperation with government
security forces, including rules ensuring the proportionate
use of force as well as proper authorization and human rights
safeguards should the military seek to commandeer the
company's equipment.
To Multilateral Institutions and Nigeria's Bilateral Trading
Partners:
- In discussions with the current and incoming Nigerian
governments, insist on the need for investigation and
punishment of human rights violations committed in connection
with the incidents described in this report, for compensation
to be paid to the victims, and for a negotiated solution to
the crisis in the Niger Delta.
- Insist to oil companies operating in Nigeria that they
should adopt measures (including those recommended in Human
Rights Watch's report The Price of Oil) to ensure that human
rights violations are not committed in connection with their
operations.
The Africa Fund
50 Broad Street, Suite 711
New York, NY 10004 USA
Tel: (212) 785-1024 Fax: (212) 785-1078
Nigeria Transition Watch
Dateline: Lagos, Nigeria, June 10, 1999
Report on the Crisis in the Niger Delta
by Michael Fleshman, Human Rights Coordinator, The Africa Fund
The violence that has devastated the city of Warri near
Chevron's Escravos tank farm is only the most recent and most
tragic manifestation of the rage sweeping the impoverished
communities of Nigeria's oil fields after decades of
repression and exploitation by military dictatorships and
western oil companies. Since the current violence began in
late May, 600 homes have been destroyed, as many as 300 people
have died and thousands more have fled the city center and
outlying residential districts to escape attacks by hundreds
of young men in military uniforms armed with machine guns and
assault rifles. The days old civilian government of newly
elected President Olusegun Obasanjo rushed thousands of troops
into the area and declared a dusk-to-dawn curfew on June 8 in
an effort to contain the fighting. The Nigerian press reported
yesterday, June 9, that a tense calm had been established,
punctuated by sporadic clashes between the opposing sides and
with the security forces on the outskirts of town.
The immediate cause of the crisis was a 1997 decision by now
deceased dictator General Sani Abacha to relocate a Local
Government Authority (effectively a town council) in Warri
from a district occupied by the majority Ijaw people to that
of the minority Itsekeris. The move was made to bolster the
despised dictator's political fortunes and to punish the Ijaw
community for its increasingly visible opposition to his
regime. Resentment in the Ijaw community boiled over on
Inauguration Day, May 29, when Ijaw activists protested the
installation of an Itsekeri politician at the head of the
disputed LGA, triggering clashes between the communities and
spilling over to the Urhobo community, whose young men have
also battled armed Itsekeri youth.
Western press reports and the oil companies have focused on
the ethnic character of the violence to portray it as "tribal
warfare" unrelated to the decade-long struggle by the various
minority peoples of the Niger Delta oil fields against the oil
companies and military rule. Nothing could be further from the
truth. Nigerian human rights and environmental activists,
trade union and religious leaders and elected officials say
that the failure of both theAbacha and Abubakar military
regimes to redress local grievances, the deliberate
manipulation of ethnic tension by the military and gross
economic exploitation and environmental destruction of the
minority communities by the oil companies have driven the
indigenous peoples of the region to the very edge of survival
and fueled a desperate competition between them for what
little resources are available.
Warri, like other towns in the oil fields, presents a harsh
contrast of staggering wealth and appalling poverty.Heavily
guarded oil company compounds with paved streets, swimming
pools, satellite telephones and supermarkets sit yards away
from villages without electricity, running water or a school.
By law, Nigeria's oil wealth and the land above it is owned by
the Federal government, not by the local communities. For
decades Nigeria's ruling generals and the oil companies have
extracted billions of dollars a year from these communities
and returned virtually none in the form of jobs, health care,
or education.
Oil spills and decades of pollution and acid rain from gas
flaring have destroyed the livelihoods of the indigenous
people. Compensation for the devastating effects of oil
production is always inadequate, often unpaid, and commonly
stolen by corrupt traditional leaders beholden to the Federal
government in far-away Abuja for their positions, and to oil
company patronage for money.
The small sums of money doled out by the national government
to LGAs for salaries and administration are often the only
real source of income in local communities, making control of
local governments a life-and-death matter, dividing
communities along ethnic lines and weakening collective action
against abusive government and corporate policies.
The reality of the current tragedy was summed up in an
commentary in the current edition of the respected weekly
Tempo newspaper. "The animosity, actually, is not among the
feuding communities. Rather it is a sort of resentment against
the state which exploits the oil -- yielding billions of
dollars -- and leaves the area underdeveloped. And when such
animosity lasts too long, the concerned people start
suspecting one another of collaborating with the enemy or of
being too passive with him. Hence the inter-communal clashes,
which only justice in the sharing of oil revenue can solve in
the long run."
The outstanding head of the Nigerian oil workers union
Pengassan, former prisoner of conscience Milton Dabibi, told
me last night that only the immediate intervention of the
Obasanjo government, and the establishment of a credible
dialogue between the communities, the government and the oil
companies on a fundamental restructuring of economic and
political institutions in the region can bring an end to the
bloody crisis in Nigeria's oil fields. In recent weeks he has
traveled extensively throughout the Niger Delta, including
Warri, to establish just that dialogue. His initiatives
deserve the full backing of the international community. But
to date the major multi-national producers, Shell, Mobil and
Chevron have refused to support it.
Dabibi had high praise for President Obasanjo's efforts to
resolve the Warri crisis. The President is expected to fly to
Warri on Friday to meet with leaders of the communities in
Warri to end the fighting. But until the legitimate demands of
the peoples of the Niger Delta for control of their land and
resources, for economic and social justice and for an end to
repression are met, the political fires raging in the Delta
will continue to burn.
Michael Fleshman is traveling in Nigeria for a month. Founded
in 1966 by the American Committee on Africa, The Africa Fund
works for a positive U.S. policy toward Africa and supports
African human rights, democracy and development.
Contact: The Africa Fund, 50 Broad Street, Suite 711, New
York, NY 10004 USA.
Tel: (212) 785-1024. Fax: (212) 785-1078.
E-mail: africafund@igc.org
Website: http://www.prairienet.org/acas/afund.html.
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the
Africa Policy Information Center (APIC). APIC's primary
objective is to widen the policy debate in the United States
around African issues and the U.S. role in Africa, by
concentrating on providing accessible policy-relevant
information and analysis usable by a wide range of groups and
individuals.
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