16690 – Africa Research Bulletin

National Security

Nigerian-owned Dolphin Drilling, forty miles offshore. They were kidnapped by youths of the Bilabiri kingdom who accuse the company of refusing to negotiate on a range of issues. On June 6th, five Nigerian soldiers were killed in a raid on an oil field and five South Koreans were kidnapped. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said they might swap the hostages for a fellow activist and leader of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, who the government refuses to release on bail. Again, the hostages were released two days later. On June 20th, two Filipinos were kidnapped and again released. In the first half of 2006, an average of more than four hostages has been seized monthly in the Niger Delta, an unprecedented rate of kidnappings since the first stirrings of violent protest in the early 1990s in the region that produces most of Nigeria’s oil. The two Filipino hostages brought to 29 the number of oil workers seized and released since January in the increasingly volatile region. Armed and equipped with speedboats, militants operating by surprise have blown up pipelines and installations and seized foreign oil workers in the last months before retreating into the maze of creeks and rivers that make up the 70,000 sq km delta. Nearly all onshore operations to the west of the Delta, one half of the entire oil region, have been shut down. The attacks have cut Nigeria’s daily exports of 2.5m barrels by 500m barrels or 20% of total production. Instability in the Niger Delta of Nigeria, the world’s seventh largest oil exporter, is a contributory factor in record-breaking high oil prices which in 2006 tipped US $70 a barrel for the first time. Recent attacks by MEND, which have claimed most but not all of the attacks, have focused on the east of the Delta. The group aims to force a slash in oil exports by one million barrels a day until impoverished Delta residents win access to oil resources. The activists see billions of dollars of oil pumped from the Niger Delta every year, yet their people, who live atop that wealth, live without mains electricity and clean running water. Onshore oil facilities have been worst hit, as they are most easily accessible, with oil giant Royal Dutch Shell bearing the brunt of the assault. But even the offshore oilrigs that in recent years have sprung up in Nigeria’s waters in
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the Gulf of Guinea have not escaped the gunmen’s reach. According to Rose Umoren, an independent analyst who has written extensively on the Niger Delta, the rise in violence is a huge concern that is worrying both for President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government and for Western countries with huge investments in the region. ‘‘Militants in the Niger Delta are capturing expatriate [oil] workers at will – even planting a bomb right in an army barracks,’’ said Umoren. The inability of the government to check the situation might tempt Western countries to intervene militarily to protect their investments, she said. Already the US government has provided support to the Nigerian Coast Guard. In 2004 the US provided special boats to help tackle piracy, arms and oil smuggling. And a joint military training exercise by US and Nigerian troops in the southeastern city of Calabar focused on fighting in a water environment. But lessons imparted have so far failed to translate into effective control of the difficult Delta terrain. As the US increasingly looks outside of the troubled Middle East to feed its growing thirst for oil, African governments will face increased pressure to resolve such security problems, says John Bellamy Forster, professor of the University of Oregon, US. According to Forster, ‘‘the major US and Western oil corporations are all scrambling for West African oil and demanding security.’’ (Daily Champion,
Lagos, 6/6, IRIN, UN, 26/6)

to extract oil concessions too. (Libe´ration, Paris, 9/6)

Two bombs have gone off in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. One hit the house of the state’s deputy speaker, the other that of the Finance Commissioner. No further information was available. (This Day, Lagos, 23/6) Italians kidnapped p. 16658

RWANDA
‘‘Genocide’’ Ruling The decision has been taken to hasten the work of the UN Court, which is incredibly slow and expensive.
A UN-backed tribunal has ruled that Rwanda’s 1994 mass killings constituted genocide, effectively ending years of debate between different lawyers and prosecutors over the massacre. Some defence attorneys have challenged the existence of the genocide arguing that prosecutors have failed to prove the killing of more than one million people, met the legal definition of genocide. The appeal chambers of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ruled on June 16th that the mass slaughter was in fact common knowledge and a part of world history that could not be disputed. The tribunal’s ruling says that there is no reasonable basis for anyone to dispute that during 1994 there was a campaign intended to destroy in whole or at least in very large parts Rwanda’s Tutsi population. Some defence attorneys and suspects have disputed the existence of the genocide forcing the tribunal each time to establish the genocide actually occurred in Rwanda and thus delaying cases in the already backlogged court. The constant delays prompted prosecutors in December 2005 to request the tribunal’s appeal chambers to rule decisively on the matter. The tribunal so far has convicted 25 people and acquitted three others since it began operations in 1997. (R. Kigali
21/6: BBC Mon.)

Oil Concession The US and China are rivals, each hoping to exploit the most prolific oil fields. As their appetites increase, the militants become more sophisticated, using the internet to liaise. MEND’s arms and commando-style attacks suggest significant training, an analyst in the oil industry observed. Detonating a bomb in a barracks, thereby attacking the army ‘‘at home’’, instilled general unease. While conducting kidnappings 40 miles offshore, where workers presumed themselves safer, is a concerning advance in technique. According to Libe´ration, Paris, groups of Ijaw activists, who have acted as intermediaries between MEND and the authorities during negotiations, have obtained oil concessions. The Nigerian government confirmed the news and justified its decision as an attempt to calm tensions. Some fear that this will simply incite other armed groups to try
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The United Nations court prosecuting the ringleaders of Rwanda’s genocide has had to defend itself after taking 12 years and spending almost £550m to convict only 25 people. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) promised at its inception in 1994 to indict some 700 senior politicians, government officials, clergymen and journalists accused of orchestrating the genocide. As the full scale of the task became obvious, and
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June 1st–30th 2006

Africa Research Bulletin – 16691

amid repeated claims of inefficiency, that figure was reduced to 300. Only 72 people have been arrested and 25 convicted. A further 27 ‘‘genocidaires’’, among them former military chiefs and government ministers, are on trial. Fourteen more are waiting for their hearings to start. (The Daily Telegraph, London, 24/6) Acquittals raise concern p. 16550

SIERRA LEONE
Taylor Trial There are mixed feelings over the decision to try Liberia’s ‘‘big man’’ outside Africa.
The trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor is to be moved to Europe after Britain offered him a jail cell if he is convicted of war crimes. The British decision lifts the final obstacle in the long-running process aimed at securing justice for the West African leader accused of funding rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone. Mr Taylor, who faces charges of crimes against humanity, is also accused of selling diamonds on behalf of the former rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in return for weapons (p.16619). Mr Taylor’s trial at a UN-backed court has been on hold in Sierra Leone pending a decision on its transfer to The Hague, amid fears that his trial in Africa could be a destablising factor for the still-fragile democracies of the region. But that decision depended on whether a European country would agree to imprison Taylor if he is found guilty. The Liberian President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who had pressed for the trial to be heard in Europe, discussed the issue of Mr Taylor’s possible imprisonment in Britain during a visit to London in May. (The Independent, London, 16/6) Taylor was flown on board a UN helicopter from the Special Court premises to the Lungi International Airport, where he boarded a plane waiting to fly him to The Hague. He will be tried at the facilities of the International Criminal Court, but under the jurisdiction of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which indicted the ex-rebel leader in 2003. The headquarters of the Special Court will remain in Freetown, where three other trials are already underway (p.
16620C) (PANA 20/6).

Senegal MFDC Rivalry
Fighting between rebel factions in the Casamance area of southern Senegal has spread along The Gambia border area since June 11th killing and wounding hundreds of fighters, according to rebel leaders, despite a peace deal in 2005. Low-level fighting between rival wings of the Movement of the Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) started in the eastern area of Casamance in mid-May. On June 9th, fighting spread to Djibidione, 80 kilometres north of the Casamance capital Ziguinchor, according to Senegalese military and rebel sources. The latest unrest appears to be the result of a clash between hardliner, Salif Sadio, based in southern Casamance close to the Guinea Bissau border, and a rival MFDC leader Magne Dieme, who is based in northern Casamance. Though the two factions signed a truce on June 2nd, fighting resumed on June 17th in villages near Seleti, a frontier town with Gambia 70km northwest of Ziguinchor. According to Lang Djiba, leader of the political wing of the MFDC in Ziguinchor, Sadio’s faction had seized 17 villages along the Gambia–Casamance border from Dieme in mid-June. He told IRIN between 5,000 and 6,000 villagers had fled. The UN children’s agency UNICEF and the Red Cross (ICRC) were unable, however, to find large numbers of displaced people. The commander of the Senegalese military in the Casamance region, Commandant Thiam, confirmed that Sadio had seized several towns along the Gambia border. Thiam also said that the army would not get involved in fighting between the rival factions. The attacks on MFDC leader Dieme could be a backlash for his support to the Guinea Bissau army in March 2006 (pp. 16566, 16601), according to observers. Dieme’s faction reportedly supported an offensive by Guinea Bissau troops to expel Salif Sadio’s fighters who had taken positions in Guinea Bissau territory. (IRIN, UN, 15/6) Rebels fight p. 16566; Secessionists clash p. 16601
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‘‘The victims of the war, and for that matter all Sierra Leoneans, would have been delighted to see Taylor put on trial here (in Sierra Leone),’’ said John Caulker of the Freetown-based rights group, Forum of Conscience. ‘‘He was indicted here and the alleged crimes were committed here. So the people have been deprived of seeing their number one tormentor being publicly tried.’’ Taylor is the first African ‘‘big man’’ to face such charges, and there were expectations that a trial would prove Africa capable of dispensing its own justice. (Inter Press Service, Johannesburg, 20/6) Libyan leader, Moammar Gaddafy and Gabon’s president, Omar Bongo Ondimba have warned that the extradition of Taylor for trial by a special tribunal in Europe represents an ‘‘extremely serious precedent’’ for Africa. ‘‘Taylor’s extradition is breach of the inviolability of the right to political asylum, depreciates the values that served as a basis for such a right and stands as an immoral gesture totally disconnected with African traditions,’’ the two leaders ´ point out in a joint communique. The statement recalled that the former Liberian leader’s departure for asylum in Nigeria was based on a solution aimed at fostering national reconciliation and an end to the civil war in Liberia, with Taylor’s decision to step down from power being part of that solution. Analysts say that Mr Gaddafy’s name may well come up in evidence during the trial, which could be embarrassing now that Libya’s international pariah status is fully lifted. (PANA, Tripoli, 23/6; AP 25/6)

SOMALIA
UIC Victory In the short-term, the warlords in Mogadishu have been dealt with, the long-term depends on the Courts’ agenda.
The takeover of Mogadishu in early June by Islamic militias marks a major defeat for the administration of US President George W. Bush, which had secretly backed a coalition of warlords that has reportedly been routed from the Somali capital. While the victors, the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), sought to assure the international community that they have no intention of setting up a Taliban-style fundamentalist state, US officials have expressed strong concerns about their possible ties to al Qaeda associates believed to be in Mogadishu, including at least one individual who allegedly helped organise the 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.
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‘‘Taking Taylor for trial in The Hague is good. He is powerful and if tried here his supporters may resurface and come finish us off,’’ said Lamin JusuJaka, chairman of Sierra Leone’s amputee association, who had both his arms cut off by machete-welding rebels. A government spokesperson agreed. ‘‘This is a welcome relief,’’ the official said of Taylor’s transfer. ‘‘at least the people of Sierra Leone and the entire region (can) now go to sleep in peace.’’ But these sentiments are not shared by everyone.
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Rwandan