Kidnapped oil workers list Nigeria captors’ demands

By Tom Ashby

LAGOS (Reuters) – Four foreign oil workers kidnapped by
militants in Nigeria spoke to Reuters by telephone on their
sixth day in captivity on Monday, reading out their captors’
demands and warning against attempted rescue.

The kidnappers have staged a series of attacks on oil
pipelines, platforms and workers over the past three weeks,
denting supply from the world’s eighth largest exporter and
driving up world prices.

The four hostages — an American, a Briton, a Bulgarian and
a Honduran — said in what appeared to be prepared statements
that they were being treated well, but that any attempted
military intervention or rescue could cost them their lives.

“I’d like to contact my family and let them know that I am
alright and everything with us is good,” said a man who
identified himself as Harry Ebanks from Honduras. “The only
thing (is) the environment is not good with us because there is
a lot of mosquitoes and it is dangerous for us.”

The Briton, who identified himself as Nigel Watson-Clark,
read out a list of five demands by the Movement for the
Emancipation of the Niger Delta, with a 48 hour deadline.

“The Nigerian government should not make any military
intervention. Okay? They should not make any attempt to rescue
us as it has been made clear that it may result in the loss of
our lives,” he said.

A man identifying himself as Patrick Landry, a U.S.
citizen, said: “No military intervention is a must. This
climate in the conditions we’re in is not conducive to us,
especially as I am an older man and my health is not good.”

He added: “I’d like y’all to contact my family and let them
know that I’m alright, these people are treating me good, but
the climate is not what it should be.”

Royal Dutch Shell evacuated 330 workers from four oil
platforms after the latest attack on Sunday, and is considering
more withdrawals amid uncertainty over where the militants will
strike next, a senior oil industry source said.

The militant group has vowed to stop all oil exports from
Nigeria and advised workers to leave the delta or die.

DEMANDS

The group demands local control of the Niger Delta’s oil
wealth, payment of $1.5 billion by Royal Dutch Shell to the
Bayelsa state government to compensate for pollution, and the
release of three men including two ethnic Ijaw leaders, the
British hostage said.

“If the Nigerian government does not meet these demands in
48 hours, whatever happens is in their own doing,” he said,
asking Britain to put pressure on Nigeria to negotiate.

Analysts say the violence is also part of growing regional
rivalry in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, ahead of
presidential elections in 2007.

Brigadier-General Elias Zamani, who leads a military task
force of thousands in the delta, told Reuters that he had not
yet located the hostages, but that he was gathering information
on the kidnappers.

Four soldiers and eight militants were killed in a
firefight on Sunday at Shell’s Benisede platform, he said.

Two attacks last week hit Nigeria’s oil output by 226,000
barrels a day, or 10 percent, but it has since recovered to
leave a 5 percent shortfall.

The possibility of a major Shell staff pullout raises the
prospect of deeper output cuts and will increase pressure on
President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government to crack down on the
militants.

Violence against oil workers is frequent in the Niger
Delta, which accounts for almost all of Nigeria’s 2.4 million
barrels a day output and where an estimated 20 million people
live in poverty alongside a multibillion-dollar industry.

Ruled by military dictators for most of its history since
independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria returned to civilian
government in 1999, but ethnic militia and organized thuggery
remain a feature of political life.

Much of the rhetoric of militant Niger Delta groups is
echoed by regional politicians, who have demanded a greater
share of the oil wealth and the right to pick the ruling party
candidate for elections in 2007.

“This is a period when both sides who claim power in
Nigeria are going to extremes,” said Pini Jason, a newspaper
columnist, in reference to the country’s North/South rivalry.