DATE=8/4/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=NIGERIA HOSTAGES (L)
NUMBER=2-265143
BYLINE=PURNELL MURDOCK
DATELINE=ABIDJAN
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A hostage crisis at two oil installations
continues in southeastern Nigeria despite promises by
armed militants to release their captives and evacuate
the oilrigs. V-O-A's Purnell Murdock has the story
from our West Africa Bureau.
TEXT: Officials at the Royal Dutch/Shell oil company
had expected the hostage crisis to end Thursday.
Officials say the armed militants who seized Shell's
installations in Baylesa State on Monday agreed to
release their captives after receiving promises that
their grievances would be addressed.
But by late Thursday, the militants and their hostages
were still occupying the oilrigs.
Shell officials say there was a breakdown in
communications between the militants and their
representatives who negotiated an end to the takeover.
The representatives were to arrive at the oilrigs and
inform their comrades of the settlement. But boats
carrying them could not get through the thick mangrove
swamps surrounding the isolated installations. Shell
officials say the gunmen refused to leave until their
representatives returned to the facilities.
The officials say they are hopeful the boats can reach
the oil rigs Friday.
The ethnic Ijaw militants are holding 165 workers
hostage. Shell officials say the workers are in good
condition and have not been threatened.
The gunmen seized the installations to demand
employment and compensation for oil taken from the
Niger Delta region.
Oil companies operating in Nigeria are frequently
targeted by local villagers angry at what they
consider exploitation of their natural resources.
The seizure of the rigs is the latest in a series of
hostage crises in the oil-rich Niger Delta region.
On July 21st militant youths protesting job losses in
Warri State kidnapped two Chinese oil workers on a
boat. Both were freed after the Nigerian navy stormed
the vessel. On April 7th, Nigerian youths seized 40
workers of the French oil company Total/Fina/Elf. All
were released after negotiations.
Oil production has also been hampered by vandalism
along pipelines.
Hundreds of people died last month in Delta State in
fires ignited accidentally by local villagers
siphoning gasoline from damaged pipelines.
Shell is the largest of the multi-national oil
companies operating in Nigeria. Its production
accounts for nearly one-half of the nation's output of
more than two-million barrels a day. (Signed)
NEB/WPM/GE/JBM
04-Aug-2000 09:50 AM LOC (04-Aug-2000 1350 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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