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Nigerian rebel leaders give up arms in amnesty deal
Sat Oct 3, 2009 4:14pm EDT
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By Nick Tattersall
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) - Hundreds of Nigerian rebel fighters gave up their weapons and accepted an amnesty deal on Saturday in the most concerted effort yet to end years of fighting in the oil-producing Niger Delta.
Militant commanders Ateke Tom and Farah Dagogo, both responsible for years of attacks on the oil industry in the eastern Niger Delta, led gunmen from camps in the mangrove creeks to the oil hub of Port Harcourt to disarm.
Government Tompolo, the final prominent militant who has yet to accept an amnesty offer from President Umaru Yar'Adua, was due to travel to the capital Abuja to meet the president before disarming in the western delta on Sunday, officials said.
"Everything that is happening to us in the Niger Delta, that has made us quarrel, everything that has led to our piling up of arms, Mr President understands the problems," said Defense Minister Godwin Abbe, who is from Edo state in the Delta.
"He understands what it making us angry. All he has asked is for some patience," he told a disarmament ceremony at which Tom's fighters handed over rocket launchers, grenades, heavy machine guns, automatic rifles and barrels of ammunition.
Yar'Adua's amnesty offer expires at midnight on Sunday.
Unrest in the region has prevented Nigeria, the world's eighth biggest oil exporter, from pumping much above two-thirds of its production capacity.
It also costs Nigeria $1 billion a month in lost revenues, according to the central bank, and has frequently helped to push up global energy prices.
"I urge others who are yet to do so to also disarm," Tom said at the ceremony, held in a dilapidated amusement park called "Tourist Beach". "I believe Yar'Adua is sincere. He wants to develop the Niger Delta, so let's give him a chance."
WEAPONS AND WHISKY
Hundreds of Tom's supporters paraded in convoys through Port Harcourt after the ceremony, riding on cars, chanting and slugging from bottles of whisky and Ogogoro, locally brewed gin.
"It is not proper for us to be in the bush. We cannot enjoy our lives. So I am happy today," said Wisdom Aziza, who said he had fought in the creeks for four years.
"But it is not easy to stop. The government must empower the boys, allocate them to a job, not just give them money. Train them, give them skills or else we will go back to the creeks."
Despite Nigeria's oil riches, the vast majority of its 140 million people live on $2 a day or less and some of the most acute poverty is in the villages of the delta. The militants say they are fighting for a fairer share of the oil wealth.
But the line between militancy and criminality is blurred. Some militants have grown rich from a trade in stolen crude oil and extortion, with hundreds of expatriates and wealthy Nigerians kidnapped for ransom over the past three years. Continued...
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