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02/25/2006:

"Shell told to pay Nigeria's Ijaw"

A Nigerian court has ordered oil giant Shell and its partners to pay $1.5bn to the Ijaw people of the Delta region.

The Ijaw have been fighting since 2000 for compensation for environmental degradation in the oil-rich region.

They took the case to court after Shell refused to make the payment ordered by Nigeria's parliament.

Ijaw militants have staged a spate of attacks against Shell facilities recently and are holding seven foreign oil workers hostage.

Following the violence, Shell - the biggest oil producer in Nigeria - has halved its output from the country.

Shell says it believes there is no evidence to support the claim, and will appeal against the ruling.

A statement said: "We remain committed to dialogue with the Ijaw people."

Lawyers for the Shell Petroleum Development Company argued in the federal court in Port Harcourt that the joint committee of the National Assembly that made the order in 2000 did not have the power to compel the oil company to make the payment.

But Judge Okechukwu Okeke ruled that since both sides had agreed to go before the National Assembly, the order was binding on both sides.

Ijaw community leader Ngo Nac-Eteli said that if Shell wanted to buy time by taking the case to the appeal court, the company would not be allowed to operate on Ijaw land until the case was settled.
bbc.co.uk


Nigerians Make Demands, With Hostage's Support
OKERENKOKO, Nigeria Feb. 24 -- Nigerian militants who last week abducted nine foreign oil workers, including three Americans, demanded Friday that their government commit to jump-starting development in their chronically poor, southern region, which derives little apparent benefit from its vast oil fields.

"We are not troublemaking people," one of the militants told a group of reporters, "but if they want trouble, we will give them trouble."

The militants allowed one of the American hostages to speak to the journalists. Despite the weaponry arrayed around him, Macon Hawkins, 68, of Kosciusko, Tex., appeared to be in good spirits and said he and the other hostages were safe. But he urged President Bush and the United Nations to help resolve the increasingly violent standoff between the Nigerian government and the people of this restive area.

"They get nothing out of the oil, and they produce all of the oil," Hawkins said of the Niger Delta residents. "They're tired of it, so they're going to fight, and they're going to fight until death."

He added, "Tell President Bush we want to get this thing settled."

Hawkins joked with the journalists about the group's conditions in captivity, which include air-conditioned rooms to sleep in and noodles for meals. He said he had been provided with medicine to control his diabetes and that the other eight hostages were being treated so well they were getting "fat and sassy."