UPDATE 4-Nigeria oil rebels reject Niger Delta summit
(Adds quotes from vice president, paragraph 9)
LAGOS, June 17 (Reuters) - Nigerian militants responsible for the bombing of oil pipelines and the kidnapping of foreign workers in the Niger Delta said on Tuesday 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.
The violence in the creeks of the Niger Delta, whose oil output makes Nigeria the world's eighth biggest exporter, has cut the country's production by a fifth since early 2006.
MEND says it is fighting for a fairer distribution of wealth in the region.
Another group, the Ijaw Youth Council, said in a communique it would also boycott the summit. Signatories including rebel commander Government Ekpemupolo said they had lost faith in the government's peace process.
President Umaru Yar'Adua's administration has repeatedly promised to address the underlying causes of the unrest, but also warned it will not tolerate the presence of armed militants and criminal gangs in the delta.
He said on Friday that the long-awaited summit would take place in July. Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, a native of the delta, will organise the meeting.
"There will be a commitment on the part of the federal government and all recommendations at the summit will be carried out to the letter," Jonathan told a truth and reconciliation commission set up to hear evidence on the unrest.
OLD WOUNDS
Despite the planned boycotts, politicians, local chiefs and several smaller splinter militia groups could still attend.
Top U.N. official Ibrahim Gambari, a Nigerian who is a special adviser to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, has been put in charge of a steering committee to prepare the summit.
Gambari was Nigeria's envoy to the United Nations in 1995 when writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists were hanged by the then-military government of General Sani Abacha after leading protests against international oil companies. Continued...
