NIGERIA: NIGERIAN MILITANTS responsible for the bombing of oil pipelines and the kidnapping of foreign workers in the Niger Delta said yesterday they would not take part in a peace summit called by the government.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), whose campaign of violent sabotage against Nigeria's oil industry has helped push world oil prices to record highs, said the summit next month was "bound to fail".
"Mend has made its position very clear that it will not be a part of the jamboree called a summit. Unlike other groups that go back and forth to be appeased with bribes, Mend has people with integrity," the group said in an e-mail to Reuters.
Mend says it is fighting for a fairer distribution of wealth in the region.
Top UN official Ibrahim Gambari, a Nigerian, has been put in charge of a steering committee to prepare the summit. Mr Gambari was Nigeria's envoy to the UN in 1995 when writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists were hanged by the then military government of Gen Sani Abacha after leading protests against international oil companies. - (Reuters)