Captors pull out of talks
2006-01-27 21:13
Yenagoa - Nigerian militants said on Friday that they had pulled out of talks on the fate of four kidnapped western oil workers, as officials released the first picture of the hostages.
Despite optimistic messages from the authorities charged with finding the captive oilmen, the dangerous crisis in Africa's biggest oil export industry continued to push world crude prices back towards their historic high.
A series of attacks on oil facilities for the past two weeks had killed at least 22 members of the security forces and three Nigerian oil workers, and shut down more than eight percent of the country's oil production.
16-day-old hostage drama
In Yenagoa, a ramshackle boomtown surrounded on three sides by the winding creeks of Niger Delta, government spokesperson Ekiyor Welson continued to predict a rapid end to the 16-day-old hostage drama.
He said: "The hostages are safe. We're almost getting there. The negotiators have been able to make an agreement and very soon they will be released."
But, the kidnappers dismissed such talk and insisted that the men would not be released until their demands are met.
A statement said: "Those guys are not going anywhere. The Nigerian government still fails to understand that this is different.
Security sources
"They will not be released for any reason other than that specified in all our statements.
"We are not discussing with anyone for a while. This is in reaction to the Nigerian government's non-appreciation of the situation at hand."
Meanwhile, a photograph released by Nigerian security sources, showed British security expert Nigel Watson-Clark, Honduran engineer Harry Ebanks, US boat skipper Patrick Landry and their Bulgarian colleague Milko Nichev.
The four were kidnapped on January 11 by heavily armed ethnic Ijaw militants who stormed their supply vessel, the Liberty Service, as it worked in the EA offshore oilfield for the energy giant, Shell, off the delta coast.
Guerrilla fighters
Friday's picture, which was thought to be several days old, showed the men sitting on plastic chairs in a palm oil grove guarded by three Nigerian guerrilla fighters, one of whom was equipped with an assault rifle. The men appeared to be uninjured.
The gang had demanded $1.5bn from Shell to compensate Ijaw communities polluted by the oil industry and the release of two local ethnic leaders being held by Nigerian authorities.
Various e-mailed statements identified the hostage-takers as hardline elements of the 14-million-strong Ijaw ethnic group, seeking to seize control of the oil resources lying under their land in the delta region.
Since the kidnapping, armed gangs had blown up a major oil pipeline and attacked two oil facilities, killing a total of 22 police and soldiers and three Nigerian oil workers. It was not clear if the attacks were linked.