Although Chevron has been operating in Ilaje, Nigeria, since 1962, producing an estimated 276,000 barrels of oil each day, the people of the region have complained that all they have received in return for putting billions of dollars of oil revenue into the pockets of Chevron and the Nigerian government is a secondary school building, two jetties and a watering hole, which broke down soon after it was commissioned.

Ilajeland is an impoverished community in spite of its substantial oil wealth. The people lack such basic necessities as piped water, electricity, hospitals and schools. Infant mortality in the area is one of the highest in Africa. The attempts by community leaders to draw the attention of the Nigerian government and Chevron officials to their plight has been met with indifference.

Poverty aside, the people of Ilajeland, whose main support is subsistence fishing, were worried that Chevron's oil exploration and production activities are taking a terrible toll on the environment on which they rely for survival. Olarenwaju Esan Malumi, the community's spokesman says, "Our fresh water was opened to the ocean by numerous canals dug by Chevron, and now there is no fresh water for us to drink. Gas flaring has left our economic trees leafless. Our occupation, which is fishing, has been disrupted by frequent oil spillage, and these coupled with Chevron's seismic activities, have depleted fish life in our waters."

In May after their efforts to get the ear of senior Chevron officials were exhausted, Malumi and other Ilaje community leaders decided to make one last attempt to dialogue with the multinational. This time they sought intervention by using a military administrator who wrote and invited Chevron officials to a meeting with the community leaders. Chevron ignored the request. The community's youths felt they had had enough. On May 25, 200 of them, drawn from all 42 communities in Ilajeland, embarked on a peaceful protest to occupy a Chevron oil platform in Parabe, not far from their community. Bola Oyinbo, 33, leader of the Ilaje youths, led the peaceful action.

A Chevron-backed naval officer directed Oyinbo to a man in charge of the multinational on the platform. Oyinbo politely told Mr. Davies that he wanted to speak with the managing director of Chevron, George Kirkland, to directly relay to him the grievances of his people. Not a single Chevron employee on the platform was interfered with, nor was work interrupted. All Oyinbo and his colleagues wanted was Chevron's CEO in front of them.

After a series of consultations between the two parties, Deji Haastrup, the company's community relations manager, arrived by helicopter on the following day to speak with the youths who were still occupying the platform. Oyinbo directed Haastrup to Ikorigho, one of the Ilaje villages where community leaders were waiting. On May 27, Haastrup went to Ikorigho, and the leaders gave him a list of their demands. They wanted a restoration of their environment, which after three decades of oil exploitation had been devastated. They asked for the construction of an embankment since the company's incessant canal construction had altered the hydrological balance of the area. They also asked for social amenities which they said were due after providing Chevron with billions of dollars worth of oil. Finally, they demanded compensation for economic trees, land and fishing streams polluted by the company. During the meeting, Haastrup claimed he did not have the authority to enter into any agreement with community leaders and that he would return two days later after consulting with his superiors at Chevron's headquarters in Lagos, the country's capital.

Bola Oyinbo and the other youths who were still waiting at the Chevron oil platform in Parabe had high hopes when the news of the meeting between Haastrup and their leaders reached them in the evening of the 27th. But Haastrup and his superiors had altogether a different thing in mind.

During the morning of May 28, the youths on the platform woke up to the deafening noise of helicopters overhead. Oyinbo described what later happened. "As the helicopters landed one after the other discharging soldiers, what we heard was gunshot and fire. In fact they started shooting commando style at us even before they landed. They shot everywhere. Arulika and Jolly fell. They died instantly. Larry who was near Jolly rushed to his aid, wanting to pick him up. He was also shot at. More soldiers came and more shooting followed. Some of my colleagues jumped overboard into the Atlantic. Others ran into the platform. There was pandemonium. They shot tear gas at us. White men flew the helicopters."

Shooting blanks and real bullets, the gunfire went on for over an hour. After the smoke cleared, the surviving Ilaje youths counted their dead and wounded. Arulika Irowainu and Jola Ogungbeje had been shot through the head. They died instantly and the soldiers grabbed the corpses and threw them into their helicopter in an attempt to conceal the evidence. At least 30 of the youths received gun shot wounds in the stomach, legs and arms. Several who plunged into the sea to get away from the bullets nearly drowned.

Bola Oyinbo and ten others were taken into custody because Chevron officials lodged a false charge claiming the protesters were pirates who had taken over the oil platform by force. The youths were detained on a charge of piracy and kept in dehumanizing conditions in a military cell for 26 days. They were released on June 26, following pressure mounted by several human rights and environmental organizations in Nigeria.

Unfortunately, situations like these are often silenced. Chevron's public relations machinery in Nigeria is awesomely efficient. While Shell and Mobil take all the blame for environmental devastation in the Niger Delta, Chevron manages to project the image of a caring and environmentally responsible company. This is a result of an astute manipulation of the media and the construction of "environmentally friendly" edifices like the Nigerian Conservation Foundation Center in Lekki, a suburb of Lagos, But the reality in such devastated areas as Ilajeland is a far cry from the picturesque environmental paradise of Lekki. Bola Oyinbo who is still recuperating from wounds he sustained says, "Chevron has been waging a war on our land and forests and water for several years. Go to Awoye community (a district of Ilajeland) and see what they have done. Everything is deadïmangroves, tropical forests, fish, fresh-water streams, even our wildlife."

The people of Ilaje, long suppressed and expropriated, have embarked on the path of peaceful protest and are demanding a new political and economic arrangement in Nigeria that will guarantee the sustainable development of their natural resources, the protection of their ecosystem and the empowerment of local people so that they will be able to shape their lives and determine their future.

Following the death of the military dictator General Sani Abacha in June 1998, there were hopes that his successor, General Abdulsalaam Abubakar would adopt a more conciliatory approach and address the long standing social and environmental problems of the oil producing communities of the Niger Delta. This, however, has not happened. As the Parabe massacre has shown, the Nigerian military junta and the western oil companies are still in the business of killing the local people, stealing their oil and leaving environmental carnage in their wake.

Ike Okonta works with Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria.