'Oil is a curse'
2005-05-04 21:33
Luanda - A civic rights group from Angola's oil-rich Cabinda province said on Tuesday that oil had been a "curse" for the region and called on US giant ChevronTexaco and others to recognize the dire humanitarian conditions of the people who live there.
"Oil is a veritable curse for the population of Cabinda - a source of problems and not solutions," said Raul Danda, who heads the Mpalabanda rights group, the most influential in the northern enclave.
"We are calling on ChevronTexaco and others who profit from our oil to recognize that Cabinda is also home to people with feelings and desires, and that the oil is theirs," said Danda in an address to be delivered at a conference in Sao Tome.
"Stop looking at Cabinda like a big oil field," he said, lamenting that ChevronTexco was making "extraordinary profits" while the people of Cabinda "live in misery, harrassed and suffering daily attacks."
He warned inhabitants of Sao Tome and Principe, another oil-rich former Portuguese colony, over the problems stemming from the "black gold".
"The politicians will make this oil their personal wealth, leaving the population in a nightmare of misery," he said.
A 27-year-war ended in Angola in 2002 but the army is still battling separatists in Cabinda, where oil production has been ongoing for the past 40 years, offering little in return to the poor region.