Activist: Civilian deaths in Nigeria’s oil delta by Jon Bambrell, Associated Press – Fri Dec 3, 4:19 pm ET

WARRI, Nigeria – Nigerian warplanes bombed a village near a militant camp and soldiers opened fire with machine guns, killing as many as 150 people, human rights activists and witnesses said Friday.

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Oghebejabor Ikim, national coordinator for the Forum of Justice and Human Rights Defense, told The Associated Press civilians have suffered a heavy toll in the military operation that began Wednesday. He said as many as 150 had died around the village of Ayakoromo, though he could only offer a list of 14 names of those dead who have already been identified. The lawyer said many people remained hiding and mourning in the region’s winding creeks.

The attacks on a village in the Niger Delta continued Friday as the military tried to kill or capture a militant called John Togo who runs the attacked camps and who officials said gave up on a government-sponsored amnesty program. The amnesty program for militants brought an uneasy calm to a region vital to U.S. oil supplies, which is now threatened by new militant attacks and government offensives that put civilians at risk.

In a statement issued late Friday, a military spokesman said any civilian building targeted by soldiers had been used by militants as cover, meaning they became “a military target.”

The military “wishes to state categorically that it did not carry out any genocide in Ayakoromo, neither was Ayakoromo or any other community its target,” the statement from Lt. Col. Timothy Antigha said.

The statement did not offer any death toll for the operation targeting the village and surrounding communities.

“I can describe it as a killing spree of innocent civilians,” Ikim said. “Houses have been burnt. Women are raped. There are killings. Is that how to get at John Togo?”

There appeared to be confusion about whether those in Ayakoromo initially fought back when the military began their assault Wednesday afternoon. Ikim said all of Togo’s fighters left the area before the fighting, while a witness in a nearby village told the AP by telephone that “there was shooting from both sides.”

The witness said the military had returned several times to launch new assaults, calling in heavy machine gun fire from patrolling Navy vessels and dropping bombs from military aircraft. One attack took place Friday morning, he said.

“We could only hear the sound — boom boom boom — everywhere,” he said. “Everyone (was) running.”

The man spoke on the condition of anonymity as he remained fearful of being targeted by military forces for speaking publicly about the attacks.

Amnesty International issued a statement Friday saying one eyewitness who spoke to its researchers said he saw soldiers transferring more than 20 bodies from boats to military vehicles.

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Nigerians and their Allies demand Respect for Human Rights, Increased Investment in Local Community Development

Tunde Okorodudu speaking outside the Chevron Shareholder meeting

May 27,2009 – San Ramon, CA, Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting today became a referendum on the company’s global operating practices, with hundreds rallying outside the meeting against the oil giant’s environmental and human rights record, and representatives of Chevron affected communities inside the meeting speaking directly to the company’s senior executives, board of directors and key shareholders. Present were representatives or allies from communities in Nigeria, Burma, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Iraq, Canada, the Philippines and Richmond, California.

Inside the meeting Tunde Okorodudu, a pro-democracy activist and former Senatorial candidate for Delta South, in the Niger Delta of Nigeria pronounced powerfully, “what is bad for my people is also bad for business. Communities where Chevron extracts oil have made it known to the company for many years that they were suffering as a result of Chevron’s operations. When villagers ask for jobs, environmental remediation for pollution the company caused, electricity, investment in education and healthcare and environmental audits and mitigations, Chevron responded with minimal investments in community projects that have not dented the community needs.”

“Chevron has known for years that an insurgency was building among frustrated residents of the Niger Delta as a result of the lack of development and environmental harms caused by oil development,” said Okorodudu.  “And now, the company’s practices in the Niger Delta have contributed to harm their bottom line, with the attack yesterday of a major oil pipeline in Abiteyeye, which the Wall Street Journal reports reduced Chevron’s output by 100,000 barrels per day.” The company’s 10k report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in February 2009 states that its Nigeria oil production for 2008 was 154,000 barrels per day. This means that the current instability has reduced the company’s production by almost two thirds.

Laura Livoti, founder of Justice in Nigeria Now said “Chevron has a responsibility to its shareholders. In order to ensure security and stability for its operations the company must step up and promote development and adequate living standards in the communities from which they are making their profits.”

In addition, Okorodudu addressed the current humanitarian crisis in the Delta stemming from the Nigerian military’s attacks in Delta and Rivers State which have uprooted and displaced villagers, with reports of civilian deaths and starvation as a result. Okorodudu declared “the company must end its relationship with the notoriously brutal Nigerian military. As a 40% partner with the Nigerian government it must bear some responsibility for the destructive actions by the military and its brutal and notorious Joint Task Force (JTF)”.

Outside the meeting protestors carried colorful placards parodying Chevron’s Human Energy advertisements with beautiful photos of a Nigerian villager that read “I will give my baby contaminated water: Chevron refuses to clean up its mess in Nigeria” and  another  with a photo of a Nigerian boy reading ”I will continue fishing even though the fish are gone: Chevron pollutes fresh water in Nigeria.”

The coalition of groups and Chevron affected communities yesterday released an alternative annual report and a series of parody ads that address the company’s worldwide issues. The entire report and advertisement series can be found at www.TrueCostofChevron.com

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

The former chief hostage negotiator for New York City police, testifying as an expert in a trial over the shootings of Nigerian villagers on a Chevron oil barge, said Monday that the villagers were not holding employees hostage and that the company should not have summoned the Nigerian military.

“This probably was not a hostage situation. It was more like a civil disobedience or a sit-in,” Hugh McGowan, who now teaches classes to law enforcement officers nationwide on hostage negotiations, told a federal court jury in San Francisco.  Go to Article

In May 1998, unarmed residents of the Niger Delta protested at Chevron’s offshore Parabe Platform, demanding that the corporation contribute more resources to the development of the impoverished oil region. Even though negotiations seemed to be moving, on the morning of May 28, the protesters were shot and some killed by Nigerian soldiers and Chevron security personnel who were transported to the platform on Chevron-leased helicopters.

In this clip from KTVU2News on Wednesday May 28, Bert Voorhees, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, explains the case against Chevron in front of Chevron’s headquarters at their Annual General Meeting. The meeting happened to be ten years to the day that the incident occurred on the Parabe platform in Nigeria. See other press coverage of the case in our Press Links section.

Link to Video: http://www.ktvu.com/video/16414404/index.html