The following is reported as being the staement from MEND regarding the relase of the Italian hostages and is taken from www.repubblica.it
Today Thursday march 15, 2007 we released the italians cosma russo and franco arena, captured in the december 7, 2006 raid on the agip terminal in brass. We wish to iterate that we are not in talks with the nigerian government and none of our demands till date have been met.
The release of the two italians is in response to pleas from comrades who have assisted the cause severally over the years. The last indirect talks we had with the bayelsa state government was on february 5, 2007 through the bayelsa state ssg. We long discontinued talks as we found him to be dishonest.
The italians were taken, to bring to the attention of the people of italy, the crimes being committed by agip in the niger delta. This has clearly been achieved. We understand as well, that these hostages are not wholly responsible for the injustice in the delta and their continued detention will not bring a solution to the overall problems of the niger delta.
They were handed over to the custody of Massimo Alberizzi, an italian journalist visiting in the niger delta, who in turn handed these individuals over to officials of saipem a subsidiary of agip in port harcourt, rivers state at 0100hrs.
However, they will be replaced by other hostages who will again be taken off oil installations thought to be secure. We will attack such installations percieved to be secure to dispel the false sense of well being gradually building up in the oil industry.
As a send off to the tyrant lording over nigeria, we will step up our attacks against creek and land based installations around the delta.Car bombs will also be freely utilized within and outside the niger delta. We will share our pain with all Nigerians.