More news on the military attacks in the Niger Delta:

Ijaw Peoples Council wants JTF to limit attacks to militants, Vanguard, Dapo Akinrefon, Nov 18, 2010

A Niger Delta group, Ijaw Peoples Congress, IPC, has called on the Commandant of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta to limit their attack to militants in Ughelli South and Burutu Local Government Areas of Delta State.

In a statement by its national president, Mr. Ekanpou Enewaridideke, the group expressed worry over the deployment of soldiers to the councils in the state, noting that the councils were in no way connected with the militants.

“We condemn in strong terms, any resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta and will assist in any capacity to curb the menace. Let the public know that Ayakoromo is a community of intellectuals, who are diametrically opposed to militancy in any form and therefore, do disassociate ourselves from any form of complicity or companionship with John Togo in the on-going battle between him and JTF soldiers.

“We wish to place on record that JTF soldiers should limit their attack to only John Togo’s camp. The commandant of JTF should carry out his military operation in such a way that innocent and harmless people and communities are not affected.

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“Already stray bullets have begun flying to Ayakoromo in invasive torrents and this must stop because Ayakoromo people are not part of the war,” he said. While urging the JTF commander to refrain from harming innocent people in the areas, he said what happened in Gbaramatu should not be allowed to repeat itself.

“We wish to say that communities such as Akparemogbene, Oyangbene, Ogbobabougbene, Okwagbe, Egbo-Idei, Ekameta, Egolegbene, Gbekebor, Eseimogbene, Newtown and many others are in the vicinity of Ayakoromo and these communities are peaceful and anti-militancy and will not applaud militancy in any form,” he said.

The Nigerian joint military task force (JTF) carried out a land, air, and marine assault in the Niger Delta, freeing 19 hostages and raiding two suspected criminal camps after several kidnappings and attacks on oil facilities.

“At the moment we have ongoing operations in several locations simultaneously,” JTF spokesman Timothy Antigha was earlier quoted by Reuters as saying before the hostages were freed.

The military had warned on Saturday it planned to carry out raids on suspected criminal camps in the Niger Delta and told civilians in the vicinity to leave.

A major military offensive would be the first in the heartland since an amnesty brokered by late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua began in August 2009.

JTF Attacks More Militant Camps, Frees 19 Hostages, Paul Ohia with Agency Reports, All Africa, 17 November 2010

World Capitalist Crisis and PanAfrican Resistance

and the launch of three books:

Barack Obama and 21st Century Politics
(by Horace Campbell, publisher: Pluto)
World Orders, Development and Transformation
(by Eunice Sahle, publisher: Macmillan)
Zuma’s Own Goal: Losing SA’s ‘War on Poverty’
(coedited by Patrick Bond, publisher: Africa World Press)

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 21st 9:30 am – 12:00pm

MUSEUM OF THE
AFRICAN DIASPORA (MOAD)

685 Mission Street in San Francisco at 3rd (BART: Montgomery or Powell Exit)

speakers:

Horace Campbell, Syracuse Univ. Eunice Sahle, UNC Chapel Hill, Patrick Bond, UKZN South Africa Patricia Daley, Oxford Univ.

This event was originally scheduled to be held at the African Studies Association conference. It has been moved to this location to support United HERE Local 2, which is in dispute with the St. Francis Hotel. The organizers affirm their support for these workers, honor their struggle, and ask for your solidarity.

This is a FREE event, open to the public RSVP requested by email or phone PriorityAfrica@yahoo.com or Tel: (510) 663-2255 -www.priorityafrica.org

Police violence injures and infringes on the free speech rights of Ogoni people at a candlelight vigil in remembrance of social and environmental activist and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists.

The Ogoni Nine

Police Open Fire at Ogoni Vigil in Port Harcourt

By Ben Amunwa, Remember Saro-Wiwa,  November 9, 2010

It’s the kind of text message you never want to receive. Sent from an activist in the Niger Delta on November 9th at 22.00, it reads:

Teams of heavily armed policemen stormed Saro-Wiwa’s No. 24 Aggrey Road, Port Harcourt, venue of the Saro-Wiwa candle light procession, shooting sporadically causing fear and panic.

[UPDATE 11/11/10: we have received further reports that police had beaten demonstrators with gun butts, kicks and horsewhips, leaving 12 people injured in the attack]. The crackdown shows utter contempt for the lives of Ogoni demonstrators, and infringes on their rights to freedom of assembly. Despite decades of non-violent protest, the Nigerian police continue to respond to demonstrators with brutal and excessive force. Similar repression occurred on 12th October last year when 13 people were shot and at least one person killed by police and army soldiers at Bundu Ama waterfront community in Port Harcourt, where residents were trying to protect their homes from government demolitions. On 5th April 2009, a number of well-known Delta activists were beaten and illegally detained by police. They were released following international pressure and interventions by civil society groups. On 26th May 2009, a rally in Ogoniland, timed to coincide with the landmark human rights lawsuit Wiwa v Shell in New York, was disrupted by police who arrested and detained five bus-loads of demonstrators. Women protestors were also beaten with rifle-butts and iron bars in January 2009, outside the gates of a Shell contractor.

Every year, Ogoni people assemble at 24 Aggrey Road in remembrance of Saro-Wiwa and his eight colleagues. In the 1990s, the building used to be known as the “Ogoni Embassy”. There is every indication that the protests will continue, because they have done so in defiance of police repression, military occupation and environmental devastation for well over 20 years. Perhaps one day, the government will stop using violence long enough to listen to the Ogoni’s message of human dignity and justice for all.

An afterthought contained in the text message reads:

“You can kill the Messenger, but you can’t kill the message” That was Ken Saro-Wiwa’s memorable words before he and other of his 8 comrades were hanged’

Remembering Ken Saro Wiwa on the 15th Anniversary of his Murder

Ken Saro Wiwa

Fifteen years ago Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists who led protests against Shell Oil company were hanged by the Nigerian government after a sham trial on trumped up charges.

Today as we remember Ken Saro Wiwa and his colleagues, we continue to fight for an end to human rights violations and environmental destruction by Big Oil in Nigeria.

The Ogoni Nine

Also today we share with you new revelations about Shell’s PR strategy after the deaths of the Ogoni activists.

“The documents offer a previously hidden insight into efforts by the company to deflect the PR storm that engulfed it after the Nigerian activist was hanged by the country’s military government. Shell faced accusations that it had colluded with the government over the activists’ deaths.” –Eveline Lubbers and Andy Rowell, The Guardian

The Guardian piece makes note that a Shell spokesperson said that the company’s environmental record had “improved greatly” in recent years, outlining the difference between the number of oil spills in 2009 (132) versus the average number between 2005 and 2009 (175 per year.)

For readers who want more background, there is a new series of podcasts marking the 15th anniversary of the execution of Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa produced by PLATFORM’s remember saro-wiwa project. JINN’s friend and partner on the ground Emem Okon, the Director of the Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre, who joined us in the Bay Area and in Houston last May is featured in Episode 1: “Fifteen Years of Not Getting Justice.”