As many as 240 people have been killed in the recent bloody backlash against nonviolent civil disobedience in the Niger Delta. The killing started on December 30 when soldiers opened fire in Yenagoa, the capital of Nigeria's main oil-producing Bayelsa State, during an Ijaw youth protest. The Ijaw are Nigeria's fourth-largest ethnic group.
The youths' plan was to stage a series of nonviolent occupations and protests against gas flares, pipelines and other oil installations and demand the withdrawal of the oil companies operating in the delta. "Operation Climate Change," as the youths dubbed it, has been amazingly effective at demonstrating the seriousness of the local communities. With their oil well occupations, 40 percent of production in the region has been shut down intermittently for the past four months by the activists. Almost two-thirds of Nigerian oil flows from Ijaw territory.
The Nigerian military prompted the shutdowns by declaring a state of emergency and creating a Naval Special Security Task Force to police the delta in order to "protect oil installations against vandalisation." This task force is eerily similar to the Rivers State Internal Security Task Force, which oversaw the Nigerian government's crackdown on the Ogoni people, another Niger Delta community that is fighting the Shell Corporation. Unconfirmed reports indicate the Nigeria military has been using Shell helicopters to bomb Ijaw towns.
Tanks, warships and hundreds of troops have been sent into Beyelsa State. Soldiers have scoured villages, searched cars, and arbitrarily imprisoned and tortured individuals in search of the organizers of the protests. Although the state of emergency has technically been lifted, the task force remains operational.
"This is a serious backward step for Nigeria. These killings in Bayelsa State raise concerns that the current government is returning to the repressive methods used by the Abacha regime," says Peter Takirambudde, a spokesman for Human Rights Watch.
Oronto Douglas, a spokesperson for the Ijaw Youth Council explained, "All we want is dialogue. What they want is force. We are asking the multinational companies to withdraw from Ijaw areas immediately."
Over 300 organizations worldwide and dozens of notable individuals, from David Suzuki of Canada to Bishop Samuel Ruiz of Chiapas, endorsed a letter backing the Ijaw's demands. "We ask the companies to cease their activities in the region until all military and paramilitary units are removed, all activists released from prison and the situation is peacefully resolved," said the letter, which was sent to the chief executive officers of all the multinational oil companies operating in Nigeria.
Shell, in particular, has been receiving pressure from other places, with an occupation of its international headquarters in London (see sidebar) and an announcement from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People on Ogoni Day, January 4, that it would have to shape up or ship out of Ogoni land, not far from Ijaw territory, by the end of this year. On January 6, Shell declared "force majeur" and closed one of its two main export terminals as a result of community unrest. Over 200 soldiers were protecting Forcados terminal, but it had to be closed "because no oil was coming in from the hinterlands," said Paul Ekadi, president of the Ijaw National Council in the US.
If immediate solidarity actions aren't taken in support of the Ijaw, their struggle could easily go the way of the Ogoni's. The Ogoni refugees are one of the little known stories in the fight against oil in Nigeria. Since the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Ogoni leader, many Ogoni have fled their homeland in order to avoid torture and death. Eight hundred of them are in a refugee camp in Benin, West Africa. "We left home and are living in exile here in Benin and Togo in some of the worts parts of Africa. It is the fault of Shell and the government."
The Ogoni's plight as refugees is relevant to recent events. The Ogoni, like the Ijaw today, were well-organized, successful and committed to nonviolent civil disobedience. But military brutality overpowered the Ogoni. The Ogoni refugees know that their experience is a case study in what could happen to the Ijaw. They sit and listen to the radio in the camp. They shake their heads because they've already lived this story. "They are the next ones in this refugee camp," said one refugee.
We must learn from the Ogoni experience to assure that the cycle of suffering stops. The Ogoni yesterday. The Ijaw today. There must be no one turned into a corporate refugee tomorrow.
In January, Project Underground released Shell-Shocked Refugees, a 32-page passport-style booklet featuring interviews with the Ogoni refugees. It not only explains their plight from their own perspective but gives you action to take to undo the injustice.
To order the report or for the latest updates on the crisis in Nigeria, contact Project Underground, 1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94703; (510) 705-8981; listproc@essential.org.