Yahoo: Nigerian rebels release six of nine foreign hostages
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Nigerian rebels release six of nine foreign hostages, Wed Mar 1
WARRI, Nigeria (AFP) - Nigerian separatist guerrillas released six of their nine foreign hostages but warned that they would step up attacks aimed at shutting down the country's oil industry.
The militants also said they would not hand over the remaining captives, two Americans and a Briton, until two ethnic Ijaw leaders are freed from jail and the oil giant Shell pays a hefty sum to compensate polluted villages.
Delta State Governor James Ibori welcomed the released captives -- Macon Hawkins of the United States, Egypt's Bardese Mohammed and Aly Shady, Tony Santos of the Philippines and Thailand's Muado Somsak and Arak Suwana -- to his lodge in the city of Warri.
The ailing Hawkins, who suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, was released on his 69th birthday, after 13 days in the Niger Delta swamps.
"We are very pleased that six of the hostages have been released. I want to thank everyone that has assisted in this effort. I want to thank the captors for deeming it fit to release six out of the nine," Ibori said.
"But I want to appeal to them to release the others. I want to tell them that there is no political gain for holding on to the remaining three for more days any longer," he added.
"We would have been celebrating today if all of them had been released."
The ex-hostages did not speak to the media.
Earlier, a statement from the rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) had confirmed Hawkins's release and promised that five more of the oilmen would soon be on their way to Warri.
"He was released to a group of foreign journalists found to be touring the Niger Delta. No ransom for him or any other hostage has been demanded or received," a statement from the group's e-mail address said.
"He was released on account of his age and poor health with a stern warning not to return to the Niger Delta unless as a visitor," it added.
The remaining hostages are Cody Oswald and Russel Spell from the United States and British security expert John Hudspith.
The nine oilmen were seized on February 18 when armed militants stormed a pipe-laying barge operated by their employer, the US engineering firm Willbros, during a series of attacks around Shell's Forcados oil terminal.
The MEND spokesman insisted that the remaining captives would not be freed until the group's demands are met.
They have demanded that the energy giant Shell pay 1.5 billion dollars (1.2 billion euros) in damages to polluted Ijaw communities and that the government release two prominent Niger Delta leaders from jail.
"We demand the intervention of a neutral arbiter in the resolution of this conflict and reiterate our objective of totally destroying the ability of the Nigerian government to export crude oil," the statement said.
"This objective, the world has now understood is feasible. We will commence with attacks in another area of the Niger Delta with an aim to ensuring the total discontinuation of export of onshore crude oil," it warned.
While Nigeria's federal government has condemned the hostage takers as criminals, the Ijaw chief chosen to head the committee to negotiate their release praised them and their struggle for a greater slice of oil revenues.
"The point has to be made that the young men who were involved in the kidnapping are responsible people fighting for the liberation of their people," Chief Edwin Clark told reporters at the governor's lodge.
"I hope this time around, concrete measures will be taken by government to look into their demands," he added.
Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil exporter, producing 2.6 million barrels per day, but Shell has been forced to cut its output by 455,000 barrels per day since the start of the hostage crisis because of attacks on its plants.
The US oil giant Chevron said Wednesday that it had shut down one of its oil production plants in the Niger Delta.
Chevron spokesman Michael Barrett said the firm had shut the Makaraba flow station after an unexplained leak on a crude oil pipeline connecting the plant to the Escravos export platform caused a minor spill.
The shutdown will cost Nigeria 13,000 barrels per day in lost output.
The cause of the damage has not been explained, but a Shell source told AFP that overnight the militants had continued to dynamite evacuated oil plants a short distance further south, near the rebels' suspected base.
WARRI, Nigeria (AFP) - Nigerian separatist guerrillas released six of their nine foreign hostages but warned that they would step up attacks aimed at shutting down the country's oil industry.
The militants also said they would not hand over the remaining captives, two Americans and a Briton, until two ethnic Ijaw leaders are freed from jail and the oil giant Shell pays a hefty sum to compensate polluted villages.
Delta State Governor James Ibori welcomed the released captives -- Macon Hawkins of the United States, Egypt's Bardese Mohammed and Aly Shady, Tony Santos of the Philippines and Thailand's Muado Somsak and Arak Suwana -- to his lodge in the city of Warri.
The ailing Hawkins, who suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, was released on his 69th birthday, after 13 days in the Niger Delta swamps.
"We are very pleased that six of the hostages have been released. I want to thank everyone that has assisted in this effort. I want to thank the captors for deeming it fit to release six out of the nine," Ibori said.
"But I want to appeal to them to release the others. I want to tell them that there is no political gain for holding on to the remaining three for more days any longer," he added.
"We would have been celebrating today if all of them had been released."
The ex-hostages did not speak to the media.
Earlier, a statement from the rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) had confirmed Hawkins's release and promised that five more of the oilmen would soon be on their way to Warri.
"He was released to a group of foreign journalists found to be touring the Niger Delta. No ransom for him or any other hostage has been demanded or received," a statement from the group's e-mail address said.
"He was released on account of his age and poor health with a stern warning not to return to the Niger Delta unless as a visitor," it added.
The remaining hostages are Cody Oswald and Russel Spell from the United States and British security expert John Hudspith.
The nine oilmen were seized on February 18 when armed militants stormed a pipe-laying barge operated by their employer, the US engineering firm Willbros, during a series of attacks around Shell's Forcados oil terminal.
The MEND spokesman insisted that the remaining captives would not be freed until the group's demands are met.
They have demanded that the energy giant Shell pay 1.5 billion dollars (1.2 billion euros) in damages to polluted Ijaw communities and that the government release two prominent Niger Delta leaders from jail.
"We demand the intervention of a neutral arbiter in the resolution of this conflict and reiterate our objective of totally destroying the ability of the Nigerian government to export crude oil," the statement said.
"This objective, the world has now understood is feasible. We will commence with attacks in another area of the Niger Delta with an aim to ensuring the total discontinuation of export of onshore crude oil," it warned.
While Nigeria's federal government has condemned the hostage takers as criminals, the Ijaw chief chosen to head the committee to negotiate their release praised them and their struggle for a greater slice of oil revenues.
"The point has to be made that the young men who were involved in the kidnapping are responsible people fighting for the liberation of their people," Chief Edwin Clark told reporters at the governor's lodge.
"I hope this time around, concrete measures will be taken by government to look into their demands," he added.
Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil exporter, producing 2.6 million barrels per day, but Shell has been forced to cut its output by 455,000 barrels per day since the start of the hostage crisis because of attacks on its plants.
The US oil giant Chevron said Wednesday that it had shut down one of its oil production plants in the Niger Delta.
Chevron spokesman Michael Barrett said the firm had shut the Makaraba flow station after an unexplained leak on a crude oil pipeline connecting the plant to the Escravos export platform caused a minor spill.
The shutdown will cost Nigeria 13,000 barrels per day in lost output.
The cause of the damage has not been explained, but a Shell source told AFP that overnight the militants had continued to dynamite evacuated oil plants a short distance further south, near the rebels' suspected base.
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