[mobglob-discuss] Fwd: [Infoshop News] Nigerian Women threaten nudity in besieged ChevronTexaco terminal

[Graeme Bacque]

------------forwarded message------------
From: "Viviane Lerner" <vlerner at interpac.net>
To: "Infoshop" <infoshop-news at infoshop.org>
Subject: [Infoshop News] Nigerian Women threaten nudity in besieged 
ChevronTexaco terminal
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 12:46:11 -0700

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020714/ap_wo_en_po/nigeria_oil_women_13
Women allow some workers to leave, threaten to strip naked in
besieged ChevronTexaco terminal
Sun Jul 14, 1:39 PM ET
By D'ARCY DORAN, Associated Press Writer

ESCRAVOS, Nigeria - Nigerian village women holding 700
ChevronTexaco workers inside a Niger Delta oil terminal let 200 of
the trapped men go Sunday but say they are preventing others from
leaving by threatening to strip naked in a traditional and
forceful local shaming gesture.


"Our weapon is our nakedness," said Helen Odeworitse, a
representative of the women in the extraordinary seven-day-old
protest at ChevronTexaco's giant Escravos terminal.

Most Nigerian tribes consider displays of nudity by wives, mothers
or grandmothers as a damning protest and an act that shames all
those it is aimed at.

About 600 women are holding the facility, and range in age from 30
to 90 — with the core group being married women aged 40 or older.

"This is not a blue film. This is an abomination," Odeworitse
explained of the nudity threat.

The takeover began Monday when 150 women managed to sneak into the
company's Escravos pipeline terminal. They have blocked the
airstrip, helipad and port that provide the only exit routes from
the facility, which is surrounded by rivers and swamps.

The women, most from the nearby communities of Ugborodo and
Arutan, want the oil giant to hire their sons and use some of the
region's oil riches to develop their remote and run-down
communities — most of which lack even electricity.

The occupation has halted the facility's oil exports, estimated at
nearly a half-million barrels a day, which account for the bulk of
the company's Nigeria production. But the company says it won't
affect current production quotas.

ChevronTexaco officials have declined to identify the trapped
workers, but an employee at the plant said Wednesday they included
Americans, Britons, Canadians and Nigerians.

The women allowed 200 of the Nigerian and foreign workers to leave
Sunday. These workers had been due to leave their shifts, which
can last weeks at a time.

Four ferries bound for Warri, the nearest town about two hours
away by boat, carried the freed men.

ChevronTexaco "begged us to allow the boats to go so they can
bring food back, and allow those on staff who were due to go on
time-off leave," Odeworitse said, stressing the women had agreed
in order to demonstrate their "good faith."

Both sides agreed to take a break Sunday in what have been days of
sometimes heated negotiations. They were due to resume Monday.

ChevronTexaco executives could not be immediately reached for
comment Sunday.

Oil site takeovers are common in Nigeria, the world's
sixth-largest producer of oil, and the fifth-largest supplier to
the United States.

This siege is unusual, though — carried out without violence, and
solely by women. In the Niger Delta, armed young men often resort
to kidnapping and sabotage to pressure oil companies into giving
them jobs, protection money or compensation for alleged
environmental damage. Hostages generally are left unharmed.

Dozens of police and soldiers are at hand to protect the facility,
but are under strict orders not to harm the women.

However, one woman was beaten up on Thursday and Odeworitse, the
spokeswoman, warned of confrontation with security forces in case
this recurred.

The women inside the plant are occupying in shifts and
communicating with those outside using village-owned
walkie-talkies, Odeworitse said.

The women took bundles of food with them when they launched the
takeover and ChevronTexaco has also supplied them some. The women
are cooking their own meals inside the terminal mess hall. The
occupiers say everyone, including themselves, so far has had
enough food.

Tempers boiled over at times as oil executives and the women's
representatives argued Saturday over the women's demands for jobs,
electricity and development. The people in the Niger Delta are
among the poorest in Nigeria, despite living on the oil-rich land.

The struggle between international oil firms and local communities
drew international attention in the mid-1990s, when violent
protests by the tiny Ogoni tribe forced Shell to abandon its wells
on their land.

The late dictator Gen. Sani Abacha responded in 1995 by hanging
nine Ogoni leaders, including writer Ken Saro Wiwa — triggering
international outrage and Nigeria's expulsion from the
Commonwealth.

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