Nigeria: No Democratic Dividend for Oil Delta

Nigeria: No Democratic Dividend for Oil Delta

(New York, October 22, 2002) - The end of military rule in Nigeria has
brought little benefit to the people living in the oil producing
communities of the Niger Delta, Human Rights Watch said in a new report
released today.

Despite the change from military to civilian government in 1999, there
is still widespread deployment of army, navy and paramilitary Mobile
Police at oil facilities across the delta. Much greater sums of money
are flowing from the federal government to the delta region, but
ordinary people living in the delta see little if any benefit from these
funds, Human Rights Watch said.

Discontent among the people of the delta remains high, with both the
government and the oil companies. Occupations of oil facilities and
other protests directed at the oil companies continue unabated.

The 40-page report, "The Niger Delta: No Democratic Dividend," considers
several recent violent incidents around oil facilities, and concludes
that both the government and the oil company have failed to fulfill
their responsibilities. Security forces continue to commit human rights
violations with impunity in response to protests and acts of violence at
oil facilities. The oil companies remain complicit in many such abuses
despite their stated commitment to respect human rights.

"The Nigerian government still seems to support oil production at any
cost," said Bronwen Manby, deputy director of the Africa Division of
Human Rights Watch and author of the report. "And the oil companies too
often go along with whatever the government does - or even make things
worse."

In one case examined in the report, naval personnel carried out a
reprisal raid on a village where oil company employees were taken
hostage, destroying several dozen houses and killing several people. In
another, money paid by an oil company to a community representative has
apparently been used by that person to "hire" police to harass and
arrest members of an opposing faction in the village.

The international oil companies have in recent years also greatly
increased the amount of money they spend on community development
projects and compensation. But in most cases they have taken
insufficient care to monitor the use made of their money. In particular,
they have failed to ensure that it does not reinforce factional violence
between those who benefit and those who do not. The oil companies also
continue to fail to monitor closely security force activity at or near
their facilities or where work is being carried out on their behalf, or,
in many cases, to intervene with the authorities when abuses are
committed.

Among the recommendations of Human Rights Watch:

· The government should fully investigate and prosecute members of the
security forces and the responsible civilian authorities who are
implicated in human rights violations in the oil producing areas. These
include those responsible for abuses in Ogoniland from 1993 to 1998,
including the 1995 execution of author Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other
minority rights activists, and at Odi in November 1999, when soldiers
destroyed the town, in Bayelsa State, killing hundreds of people.
· Members of the Group of 8 (G8) industrialized countries should take
steps towards the creation of a binding code of conduct for
multinational oil companies headquartered in the G8 countries or member
states of the European Union. It should be based on initiatives to
develop such codes within the United Nations, the U.S./U.K. Voluntary
Principles on Security and Human Rights and appropriate human rights
standards. The G8 should require transnational corporations to publish
all net taxes, fees, royalties and other payments made to the Nigerian
state.
· Oil companies should monitor the behavior of both public law
enforcement agencies and private security deployed at or near to oil
facilities, and raise concerns privately and publicly with the
appropriate authorities. They should also ensure credible third-party
audits of payments of any kind given to community representatives.

"This week is the anniversary of an army massacre of more than two
hundred civilians in Benue State, in central eastern Nigeria," said
Manby. "Just as in the case of the destruction of Odi and the abuses in
Ogoniland, there has been no accountability for these killings, and
President Obasanjo has refused to take action against those alleged to
be responsible."

Until Monday, October 21, 2002, the report "The Niger Delta: No
Democratic Dividend," will be available online at
http://docs.hrw.org/embargo/niger1002/ using the username: nigerdelta
and the access-code: hrw2k2.

Beginning October 22, the report will be online at
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/nigeria3/.

For more information, please contact:

In London, Bronwen Manby: +44-20-7713-2789
In New York, Peter Takirambudde: +1-212-216-1834
In Brussels, Jean-Paul Marthoz: 322-732-2009

--
Jeff Scott
Africa Division
Human Rights Watch
Phone: +1-212-216-1834
Fax: +1-212-736-1300
http://www.hrw.org/africa/index.php
en français, http://www.hrw.org/french/africa/