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Women `win' battle against oil giant

ESCRAVOS (Nigeria) JULY 19. Hundreds of women carrying straw mats and thermoses abandoned ChevronTexaco's main oil terminal, ending a peaceful 10-day protest that crippled the oil giant's Nigeria operations and won an unprecedented company pledge to build modern towns out of poor villages.

``I give one piece of advice to all women in all countries: they shouldn't let any company cheat them,'' said Anunu Uwawah, a leader of the protest at the southeastern Nigerian Escravos terminal.

Uwawah and her comrades were ferried back to their villages in ChevronTexaco boats on Thursday evening, along the way passing hundreds of oil workers returning to the facility.

``Chevron has shown a lot of restraint, commitment to good neighbourliness, peace and dialogue,'' said its spokesman. ``I would like to believe this is the hallmark of Chevron negotiations, and will continue to be.''

The women had trapped about 700 American, British and Nigerian workers inside the terminal. Two hundred employees were allowed to leave on Sunday and hundreds more two days later, leaving just a few dozen inside. The women kept their hold on the terminal by threatening to take off their clothes — a traditional shaming gesture — in a last-ditch gesture to humiliate the company.

. For the women, what started out as an act of desperation became a method to victory. The company agreed to build schools, clinics, town halls, electricity and water systems in villages of rusty tin shacks. — AP

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