nigerian oil pirates

'Blood oil' dripping from Nigeria

By Andrew Walker BBC News, Abujahttp://www.richimag.co.uk/africa/

Oil company employees are suspected of selling their skills to oil bunkerers

Under cover of night dozens of barges queue up to dock at a jetty in a creek somewhere in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta.

Their holds are filled with stolen oil running from valves illegally installed into a pipeline.

Full, they chug downstream to meet around 10 larger ships near the oil export terminal in Bonny, Rivers State, where they disgorge their cargo.

By 0500, in the darkness before dawn, the ships uncouple from the barges and move out in a convoy to sea to rendezvous with a tanker which will spirit away the stolen oil, making it disappear into another cargo, bound for sale on the world market.

It is likely the tanker arrived partly loaded with guns, cocaine to be trafficked into Europe and cash, which they will use to pay for the oil.

Bogus shipping documents make their load - possibly tens of thousands of tons of crude oil - disappear into legitimate markets in Eastern Europe or America.

This is an industry that makes £30m ($60m) a day, they'd kill you, me, anyone, in order to protect it Analyst close to former government of Olusegun Obasanjo

This, according to activists and former Nigerian government advisers, is the process by which Nigeria is losing billions of dollars every year to oil smuggling.

The illegal "bunkering", as it is known, makes a huge profit for Nigerian syndicates and rogue international traders.

It leaves in its wake chaos and misery for the people of the Niger Delta.

'Godfathers'

According to Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua this is "blood oil", akin to the trade in "blood diamonds" that fuelled bloody civil wars in West African neighbours Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Gordon Brown promised to help Nigeria tackle the unrest in the Delta

He is calling on the international community to help Nigeria end the trade.

Britain has promised military training to improve the Nigerian military Joint Task Force's ability to police the Delta region.

But a source close to the former government of President Olusegun Obasanjo says the problem is not about quashing militants in boats.

Some of the people who run the cartels are among Nigeria's top political "godfathers", who wield massive political influence.

"If the president goes after them, they could destabilise the country, cause a coup, a civil war. They are that powerful, they could bring the state down," said the source, who did not want to be identified.

He says that attempts in the past to bring the trade under control were stopped for that reason.

"This is an industry that makes £30m ($60m) a day, they'd kill you, me, anyone, in order to protect it," he said.

The militant connection

In order to get away with the theft, the bunkering syndicates operate under the cloak of the conflict between militants and oil companies in the Niger Delta.

They need "security" - gangs of armed heavies to protect their cargos - and threaten anyone who tries to interfere.

Barges like this one are filled with crude and then take it to larger ships

They don't have to look far to find large groups of unemployed youths willing to do what they are told for a little money.

State governments in the Delta armed militias to carry out widespread rigging during the 2003 elections.

But the militiamen say they were abandoned, so they turned to oil theft to fund their activities.

Although they are referred to in the media as "militants" there are few coherent groups.

Most are gangs, led by commanders who are perpetually at war with each other.

These youths protect bunkering ships, force local community leaders to let bunkerers pass and bribe the Nigerian military.

The thieves may also need "the boys" to blow up pipelines, forcing the oil company to shut down the flow, allowing them to install a tap in the pipe.

"Hot-tapping", as it is known, requires considerable expertise, usually supplied by a former oil company employee.

These militants don't see the process of oil theft as stealing, observers say.

They believe they are taking what is legitimately theirs from the companies and the government.

They organise themselves in "bunkering turfs", but outbreaks of violence between them have been frequent and bloody.

'Legal theft'

But militant-assisted theft is not the only way oil is stolen.

According to a source close to the government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the heavy military presence in the Delta has led oil bunkerers to find other ways to extract more oil.

ILLEGAL BUNKERING Oil theft costs Nigeria an estimated $5bn (£2.5bn) every year Estimates of how many barrels of oil are stolen range from 70,000 to 500,000 Official estimates are made by subtracting the amount of oil delivered from the amount expected from a well head Nigeria has proven reserves of over 31bn barrels Its production capacity is 3.2m barrels per day Its current production rate is 1.9m bpd Source: Legaloil.com

Simply put, they just load more onto a ship than they are allowed to.

With the connivance of officials from international oil companies, national oil parastatal officials and ships' captains, oil can be stolen through the legitimate process of lifting oil from the dock to the ship.

One oil company employee told the BBC that his company had discovered a vessel they were using had a secret compartment behind the bridge, where tens of thousands of barrels could be redirected at the flick of a switch while the hold was being filled.

Other ways include almost filling the ship with legitimate oil, then topping it up with oil that hasn't been paid for legitimately, according to government sources.

Or a whole ship can be filled with stolen crude using fake documents.

Estimates on how much oil is stolen in this manner vary, but according to the International Maritime Organisation last year it amounted to 80,000 barrels every day.

Part of the problem is that no one can be sure how much oil is being taken out of the ground.

Shipping documents can be forged.

Also ownership of a shipment can be transferred while the vessel is on the high seas, making cargo tracking incredibly difficult.

Possible solution?

The only way to shut down the oil cartels, observers say, is a tighter regulatory framework.

This would involve electronic bills of how much oil a ship has loaded, which would record if they had been tampered with.

The environmental effects of oil bunkering are disastrous

Oil can also be "fingerprinted".

The technology to distinguish between different types of oil exists already, says Patrick Dele Cole, a former adviser to Mr Obasanjo.

Oil companies do this routinely already, sources say. All that would be needed is a database of all the different types of Nigerian crude.

The UK has offered to train the military, and President Yar'Adua wants to form a "maritime academy" naval installation in the Delta.

But activists in the Delta say that increasing the military presence would be counterproductive.

It would increase resentment and militants' numbers - the level of violence would rise, they say.

And the Nigerian military is part of that violence, observers say.

Soldiers have indiscriminately burned whole towns and killed civilians, according to activists.

The high price of oil today is partly a result of Nigeria's complex and shadowy world of corruption and violence.

It is into this chaotic shadow world that the UK is about to commit itself.

nigerian chief remembers

The day oil was discovered in Nigeria

By Andrew Walker BBC News, Oloibiri, Nigeria http://www.richimag.co.uk/africa/

Chief Sunday Inengite can understand why people have taken up arms

Chief Sunday Inengite remembers the day the foreigners who had come to his village in Nigeria's Niger Delta struck oil.

"They made us be happy and clap like fools, dance as if we were trained monkeys," he says.

Years later, the 74-year-old now looks back on his youthful enthusiasm with sour regret.

Nigeria has become Africa's biggest oil producer, but the people of Oloibiri complain they have not seen much of the money made in the 52 years of oil production.

"It smacks of wickedness, hard-heartedness," he says.

Inquisitive

Mr Inengite was 19 years old when the foreign engineers came looking for oil in 1953.

An inquisitive young man, he made friends with the British, German and Dutch engineers during the years they were exploring the area around Oloibiri, now in Bayelsa State.

"I was trying to know why they were all here, going into the forests and into the swamps."

Colonial administrators and oil workers used houseboats to explore the Delta

The village elders thought they were looking for palm oil - a valuable edible oil that had been exported from West Africa since the first European traders arrived hundreds of years before.

"It wasn't until we saw what they called the oil - the black stuff - that we knew they were after something different," Mr Inengite said.

The explorers threw a party at their house-boat and invited everyone from the village to see samples of the oil they had been looking for.

"You can imagine the jubilation, after all they had been looking for oil in commercial quantities for years."

But now he says the environment has been damaged, affecting fish catches, and the small plots of land where people had grown crops are polluted by oil spills and gas flares.

"You see fish floating on the surface of the water, something we didn't know before."

"It may be difficult to make a catch that will be enough for your family for one day."

Government corruption

But the problem is not caused just by the oil companies.

The government gets tax and royalties on the oil the companies produce.

Nigeria's Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa is shown round an oil ship c 1960

The government is also a majority shareholder in Nigeria's oil industry and has made over $1.6trillion in revenue over the last 50 years, according to analysts at Standard Bank.

"I don't only blame the whites that came here, what about the government?" Mr Ingenite says.

"People in the government get nearly all the money from the economy."

When the BBC visited the first oil well a few kilometres down the road, we were approached by men working as commercial motorcycle taxis.

They all insisted oil companies, especially Royal Dutch Shell, should give them money as compensation for taking the oil.

But as we spoke, a local government official drove up in his brand new luxury four-wheel-drive car, an expensive gold watch dangling on his wrist.

Why don't people ask their leaders where their money is?

"They have hearts as black as coal, they are evil people - what would be the point?" said Julius Esam, 27.

'Oil museum'

A nearby mosquito infested swamp was being cleared to build a 300-bed hotel and conference centre with an oil "museum".

The contractor told the BBC the project was costing the state government 90billion naira ($592million, £298million.)

NIGERIA'S OIL Oil struck in June 1956 Government has made $1.6trillion since discovery Rivers state budget in 2006 was $1bn (£776milion at 2009 rates) Most Nigerians live on less than $2 a day

Dimeari Von Kemedi, in charge of scrutinising contracts made by the Bayelsa state government said he would stop the project.

"But it's very difficult to prevent every badly conceived or corrupt contract going through," he said.

The access to corrupt money allowed by political office in the Niger Delta is also responsible for the emergence of violent groups in the area.

Groups of "boys" were armed by government during the 2003 elections.

Their job was to ensure the ruling People's Democratic Party held onto power and therefore the oil money.

These groups later got involved in oil theft, stealing tens of thousands of barrels a day for powerful syndicates, kidnapping and extortion.

Although groups like the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) use their contacts with journalists to promote a political agenda, most armed groups are criminal gangs who want their own share of the money being divided among the powerful.

Mr Ingenite says in his old age, he now understands what the militancy wants.

"We frowned at violence because we are very hospitable to those that come," he said.

"But it can't be so today, and if they act the way they do, you can't blame them, because their blood is hot, not like old men's that is cool."

nigeria war

Thousands flee Nigeria Delta fighting

By Andrew Walker BBC News, Warri

Thousands of refugees from a remote area of a Nigerian oil-producing state have fled fighting between the military and oil rebels; sleeping in the swamps and too afraid to go home.

When military helicopters buzzed over the small town of Oporoza, in Nigeria's Niger Delta, it was just two days after 19-year-old Happiness Michael had given birth.

The helicopter gunships hovered low over a crowded street, where people had gathered to celebrate an annual festival, and opened fire with machine guns and rockets, according to several accounts.

Happiness Michael and her baby fled into the bush

"I saw bombs and fire and shooting, we fled," the teenager told the BBC.

The assault last Friday was the beginning of a six-day campaign by the Nigerian military's Joint Task Force (JTF), which is in charge of security in the Niger Delta, fighting oil militants.

Nigeria is one of the world's major oil exporters but in recent years, militant attacks have cut production by about 20%.

Now the military says it is determined to stop the sabotage of oil installations and kidnapping of oil workers though local civilians say they are paying the price.

'Terrified of the military'

But the military action in the region, home to much of Nigeria's oil industry, will continue, commanding officers have said.

Happiness took her baby and ran into the swampy forest along with thousands of other villagers.

They slept in the bush for five nights before they could make their way to the outskirts of the Delta State city of Warri.

Actually, I was on the toilet when I heard this boom, and all the lights went and the wall started falling down Chief Alfred Bubor

When the BBC found them, they were in a group of around 150 other women and children pressing against the bars of a shop, trying to get a hand-out of food.

Their elderly parents, husbands, brothers and eldest sons are still in the bush, terrified of the military.

Hundreds more, possibly thousands of refugees in total, are scattered in forests and swamps across the area.

A lucky few have made it to the relative safety of family homes in Warri.

Some have also been killed, the women say, by the military as they sweep the area on what the military calls a cordon and search mission.

"Many are dead, they die. Finish!" said Alice Christopher.

"When the bombs come we scatter, I cry-cry, I tire-tire," she added.

Different versions

There are two versions of events leading up to Friday's assault on Oporoza in the Gbaramatu kingdom of Delta State.

Mend leader Government Tompolo is now on the run

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) says the military launched an unprovoked attack on a militant camp in the riverine area, west of warri.

The JTF says one of its patrols was ambushed.

The military has been making sweeps through the area looking for militants and 15 hostages taken from a petrol tanker hijacked by Mend on Thursday.

They are also searching for 12 soldiers missing in action during the fighting.

People who have fled to Warri say the military is systematically torching villages as they go, but the commander of the JTF denies this.

It is impossible to verify what is happening in the area, as the military have stopped all boats - the only way to get to the Gbaramatu kingdom - from leaving Warri.

It is also impossible to know how many have died - the military are not giving any figures.

'Thousands of bullets'

Chief Alfred Bubor, a traditional leader and spokesman for the kingdom of Gbaramatu, was wounded in the helicopter attack.

How can an innocent person be in [militant leader Government] Tompolo's house, among the militants Gen Sarkin Yakin Bello

Preparations were being made in the village for 600 dancers to come and perform in front of the king's palace when the assault happened, but Mr Bubor had excused himself from the gathering.

"Actually, I was on the toilet when I heard this boom, and all the lights went and the wall started falling down," he told the BBC in his house in Warri.

The 76-year-old was shot in the hand, injured on the head by falling blocks and scarred by shrapnel on his chest.

He emerged from the wrecked house and saw the helicopter fly past.

"I could see the pilot flying the helicopter, there were thousands of bullets flying into the building," he said.

JTF commander Gen Sarkin Yakin Bello told journalists that the military was targeting oil militants loyal to the commander of Mend, the amazingly named Government Tompolo.

He said the helicopters were firing at a guest house belonging to Mr Tompolo.

"How can an innocent person be in Mr Tompolo's house, among the militants?" said Gen Bello.

Mr Tompolo is now on the run and the military say they will not stop until they have found him, and the soldiers missing in action.

The military showed reporters what they seized from a guest house

They say they seized weapons from the guest house, and showed journalists a stock of rusty rifles, heavy machine guns, anti-aircraft ammunition, and buckets of bullets.

"It is worth it, because if we remove one criminal, then the whole level of criminality in the region will be reduced," said JTF spokesman Lt Col Rabe Abubakar

nigerian police

Nigeria police 'killed civilians'

Hundreds of shops were burnt down during the violence

Nigerian security forces killed dozens of people after they were called in to deal with sectarian riots sparked by an election last year, a lobby group says.

Human Rights Watch wants the officers involved in the violence, in the central city of Jos, to be prosecuted.

The group said officers opened fire at random and killed about 130 people, mostly young Muslim men.

Police chiefs deny the claims and some witnesses have suggested the gunmen were impersonating security officers.

Decades of resentment

The violence was ignited by rumours that a Muslim-backed party's candidate for council leader had lost a local election.

Christians burned mosques and Muslims burned churches before security forces were sent in and imposed a curfew.

Ethnic fires still smoulder in Nigeria

"In responding to the inter-communal violence, the Nigerian police and military were implicated in more than 130 arbitrary killings, mostly of young Muslim men," said Eric Guttschuss of Human Rights Watch.

"[We] call on government authorities to promptly arrest and prosecute those responsible."

In their report, the rights group says about 700 people died in the violence - many more than has been officially acknowledged.

Mohammed Lerama, spokesman for the Plateau State police, denied the accusations.

"The police who were sent to restore peace cannot turn around again to kill the harmless civilians they were supposed to protect," he said.

Thousands have died in religious and ethnic violence in northern and central Nigeria in recent years.

However poverty and access to resources such as land often lies at the root of the violence.

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carbon values in order

Shipping emissions plan 'stalls'

By Roger Harrabin BBC environment analyst The shipping industry is under fire over greenhouse gas emissions Plans to reduce rising emissions from global shipping have faltered at a key international meeting. The International Maritime Organization delayed a decision to raise the cost of ships' fuel and use the money to help poor nations tackle climate change. Delegates from developing countries complained that rich nations had reneged on other promises. Environmental groups criticised the lack of progress, saying that the world could not afford to wait any longer. When the Kyoto Protocol was agreed, the shipping and aviation sectors were left out because no-one could agree on how the emissions should be allocated. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) was given the task of finding a way around the problem, but there has been little progress to date. This week, the IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee did agree draft technical measures to improve the efficiency of ships' designs. It also agreed on ways to improve the efficiency of shipping operations. However, the meeting did not make any progress on the idea of raising the cost of ships' fuel in order to help poorer nations deal with the consequences of climate change. Environmental groups are frustrated over what they see as a lack of meaningful progress. "The global shipping industry emits a billion tonnes of CO2 [per year], and that number is on course to double or even triple by 2050," said Peter Lockley, head of transport policy at WWF. "So far, there is not a single policy in place in the world to limit those emissions," he told BBC News. "This week, we have been trying to discuss ways in which we can. "They have made some progress on technical measures but there is still going to be nothing that is compulsory for shipping owners." Rich nations say they do want a deal that puts up the price of fuel, but some key developing countries are angry that the wealthy states have not delivered on their side of the bargain. The issue of a fuel levy is likely to be discussed again in the autumn during the full meeting of the IMO

big sister

Alcohol banned in Aborigine areas

Alcohol and poverty have blighted Aboriginal communities

Australia is to ban alcohol and pornography in Aboriginal areas in the Northern Territory in a bid to curb child sex abuse.

All Aboriginal children in the territory will be medically examined.

The new proposals follow a report last week which found evidence of abuse in each of the territory's 45 communities.

The report blamed high levels of alcohol and poverty for the situation, which Prime Minister John Howard has described as a national emergency.

"We're dealing with a group of young Australians for whom the concept of childhood innocence has never been present," John Howard told parliament.

CHILD ABUSE REPORT Abuse is serious, widespread and often unreported Aboriginal people not the only victims or perpetrators of sexual abuse Contributing factors include poverty, alcohol and drug abuse, gambling, pornography Health and social services desperately need improving Full report [6500k] Most computers will open this document automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader Download the reader here

"That is a sad and tragic event. Exceptional measures are required to deal with an exceptionally tragic situation."

Mr Howard said the federal government would take over the administration of Aboriginal communities for the next five years so that the new laws would be strictly enforced.

For the last decade, Aboriginal communities have by and large been allowed to govern themselves.

Aboriginal leaders have expressed outrage at the new measures.

"It's another knee-jerk reaction from our government to a very serious issue," the director of the Crossroads Aboriginal Ministries in Sydney, Ray Minniecon, told the BBC.

"To ban alcohol on Aboriginal communities, where that ban has already been in place for the last 20 or 30 years by the Aboriginal people themselves, is a bit silly. [Mr Howard] would have to ban that in the cities and towns where white people live with Aboriginal people in order to make it effective."

Computer search

Under the new measures, the sale, possession, transportation and consumption of alcohol will be banned in indigenous communities for six months.

Hardcore pornography will also be made illegal and all publicly-funded computers will be searched for pornographic images.

There will be restrictions on the payment of government welfare benefits so that alcohol cannot be bought with them.

Welfare payments would be contingent on children attending school and new rules would dictate how they are spent to ensure that young people are properly fed and clothed.

Last week's landmark report identified a wide range of social issues that contribute to child sexual abuse.

They included unemployment, poor health and nutrition, overcrowded housing, substance abuse and pornography.

social services .co .

Anguish of the Stolen Generations

By Nick Bryant BBC News, Alice Springs

Frank Byrne says his removal broke his mother's heart

With torment still in his voice, Frank Byrne recalls the day six decades ago when he was taken from his mother and their community in Christmas Creek, Western Australia.

He was just five at the time, and his mother, Maudie Yooringun, had long feared the day that the government would come to seize him - and he would be "stolen".

"The government came to Christmas Creek where we had a mud house and told me I was been taken away," he said.

"My mum was completely ignored. She was not a human. That's what they thought in those days. The government fella said: 'I am your total guardian'."

"You could see the sorrow in my mother's eye. I could see the tears rolling down as she was driven away. I was held there by a couple of blokes as the truck went away."

A week later Frank saw his mother again. But that was to be the last time he ever saw her alive.

Traumatised by having her son essentially kidnapped by the government, she suffered a nervous breakdown and was committed to a mental asylum in Perth. She died when he was 12.

"They broke my mother's heart and her spirit," he said. "She lost her mind. They put here in a madhouse in Perth. But she wasn't mad. She was pining for me."

'Shameful act'

Now 70 years old, Frank Byrne is a member of the Stolen Generations, a victim of a policy stretching from the late-19th Century to the end of 1960s, under which Aboriginal children were taken from their parents and placed in institutions, orphanages, missions or white foster families.

Under the policy, young children were taken from their families

Most commonly, it was children of mixed race - "half-castes'" in the parlance of the day - that the government agencies chose to snatch.

They would descend on Aboriginal communities, separate the light-skinned children from those with a darker complexion, and then take them away.

Histories of the period recall how wire cages were sometimes used with spring doors. Children would be tempted in by a trail of sweets.

Under the twisted logic of the time, the idea was to "civilise" these young Aboriginal children, to inculcate them with European values. Another early aim, which stemmed from the doctrine of eugenics, was to "breed out their colour".

Sorry is a word, it's just a hollow word Frank Byrne

No wonder the policy has been labelled by the historian Robert Manne as "the most shameful act of 20th Century Australia".

Up until the late 1990s, when the findings of the landmark Bringing Them Home inquiry were published, the full scale of the policy was not apparent, and many white Australians were oblivious to it.

In the late 1960s, as the discredited policy was finally jettisoned, one anthropologist described it as "the Great Australian silence".

But according to the Bringing Them Home report, at least 100,000 children were removed from their parents.

'Hurt very deeply'

Formal apologies soon followed from the state parliaments in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland, along with the territory parliament in the Northern Territory.

Meanwhile, the federal government, under the leadership of Prime Minister John Howard, decided to pass a motion of "deep and sincere regret", but refused repeatedly to apologise.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd promised he would apologise to Aborigines

Mr Howard argued that a formal apology would reinforce a sense of victimhood in Aboriginal communities, and that modern-day Australians were not the authors of the policy, so therefore had nothing for which to apologise.

His successor, Kevin Rudd, is now making good his campaign promise to deliver an apology, making it the first order of business in the first post-election session of parliament.

But what meaning will this apology carry for Frank Byrne?

"I've been hurt. I've been hurt very deeply. Since they took me away from my mother I have lived only in sorry and anger," he said.

"Sorry is a word. It's just a hollow word."

The Rudd government has decided on a cut-price apology - it is unaccompanied by any form of compensation.

"Compensation wouldn't change it for me," said Frank. "It's not going to bring back my mother. I've been hurt, my mother has been hurt."

Aborigines have a far shorter life expectancy than other Australians

Other members of the Stolen Generations feel differently. Many consider a formal apology much-needed and long overdue - a symbolic gesture of immense importance.

Still, there has been widespread anger and resentment that they will get no reparations from the federal government.

This is country founded on the principles of equity and a fair go for all - but for too long those ideals were never extended to indigenous Australians, the first occupants of this vast land.

The statistics make for disheartening reading.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians born between 1996 and 2001 have a life expectancy of 59 for males and 65 for females.

That is about 17 years lower than the average life expectancies for all male and female Australians born between 1998 and 2000.

Between 1999 and 2003, what is called the age-standardised death rate for the indigenous population was 2.8 times greater than that of the non-indigenous population.

The unemployment rate for Aborigines is three times higher. Their chances of being incarcerated are 13 times higher.

Once the symbolism of the apology is out of the way, the Rudd government needs to find a raft of practical measures to grant indigenous Australians a more abundant and equitable life

take the kids into care

No payout for 'stolen' Aborigines

Aborigine communities have comparatively low life expectancies

Thousands of Aborigines who were removed from their families as children will receive no compensation, the Australian government has said.

Campaigners for the so-called Stolen Generations had asked for a reparation fund of almost A$1bn ($870m; £443m) as part of a promised official apology.

But indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin says money will instead be put into health and education schemes.

Many Aboriginal children were handed to white families from 1915 to 1969.

They were brought up by white people in an attempt by the government to assimilate the white and Aboriginal populations.

Even though they've changed the saddle blankets we're still dealing with the same horse Sam Watson Aborigine activist

The country's new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has promised to apologise formally to the victims of the assimilation policy.

And campaigners felt that the Stolen Generations should have received damages as part of the apology.

"People get paid crimes compensation for victims of crime," Lyn Austin, head of Stolen Generations in the state of Victoria, told local radio.

"You are looking at the gross violation and the act of genocide and all the inhumane things that have happened to our people."

Protests promised

But Ms Macklin instead pledged to invest in initiatives which she said would improve life expectancy for today's Aborigines.

"What we will be doing is putting the funding in to health and education services, and providing additional support for services needed for counselling, to enable people to find their relatives," she said.

"We think the best way to give force to the apology is to provide funding to close the gap in life expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

"So we won't be creating a compensation fund."

Aboriginal campaigners have promised to protest against the decision.

Brisbane-based activist Sam Watson said the new Labor government was following the same policies as their predecessors.

"Even though they've changed the saddle blankets we're still dealing with the same horse," he told Australian broadcaster ABC.

social care

Australia apology to Aborigines

Kevin Rudd's apology represents a break from previous policies Parliament statement

The Australian government has made a formal apology for the past wrongs caused by successive governments on the indigenous Aboriginal population.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologised in parliament to all Aborigines for laws and policies that "inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss".

He singled out the "Stolen Generations" of thousands of children forcibly removed from their families.

The apology, beamed live around the country on TV, was met with cheers.

But some Aborigines say it should have been accompanied with compensation for their suffering.

'Indignity and degradation'

In a motion passed unanimously by Australian MPs on Wednesday morning, Mr Rudd acknowledged the "past mistreatment" of all of his country's Aboriginal population.

For the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry Text of parliamentary motion Full text of apology Ceremony in pictures Apology accepted?

"We apologise for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians," the motion said.

Mr Rudd said he apologised "especially" to the Stolen Generations of young Aboriginal children who were taken from their parents in a policy of assimilation which lasted from the 19th Century to the late 1960s.

"For the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry."

Aborigines are the most disadvantaged sector of society

Australia has no Aboriginal members in parliament, but 100 leaders of the community and members of the Stolen Generations were present for the historic apology.

The leader of the Liberal opposition, Brendan Nelson, said he "strongly" welcomed the apology.

He decided to take a different position on the issue than his predecessor, former Prime Minister John Howard, who refused for over a decade to apologise to the Stolen Generations - a stance supported, polls suggest, by about 30% of Australians.

Mixed response

The government hopes the apology will repair the breach between white and black Australia and usher in a new era of recognition and reconciliation.

The parliamentary session was shown live on television as well as on public screens erected in cities across the country.

Mr Rudd received a standing ovation from MPs and onlookers in parliament, and cheers from the thousands of Australians watching outside.

Blackfellas will get the words, the whitefellas keep the money Noel Pearson Aboriginal leader

Michael Mansell, a spokesman for the rights group the National Aboriginal Alliance, said the word "sorry" was one that "Stolen Generation members will be very relieved is finally being used", reported Associated Press news agency.

But the refusal to accompany the apology with any compensation has angered many Aboriginal leaders, who have called it a "cut-price sorry".

"Blackfellas will get the words, the whitefellas keep the money," summed up Noel Pearson, a respected Aboriginal leader, in The Australian newspaper.

HAVE YOUR SAY

I think the apology is the right thing to do, but personally don't understand why it was debated for so long

Laura, USA

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Mr Rudd has also outlined a new agenda on Aboriginal issues, including a commitment to close the 17-year life expectancy gap between Aborigines and other Australians within a generation, was well as halving Aboriginal infant mortality rates within a decade.

Australia's 460,000 Aborigines make up 2% of the population and are the most disadvantaged group.

They have higher rates of infant mortality, drug abuse, alcoholism and unemployment than the rest of the population.