LAGOS, Nigeria: Authorities have detained a U. S. filmmaker in Nigeria's troubled oil producing region for filming the military without authorisation, an official said Tuesday.

A Niger Delta military spokesmanm, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, said the military handed the American to state security operatives for questioning after arresting him for filming troops at the waterfront in the southern oil center of Port Harcourt.

Paris based rights group "Reporters Without Borders" identified the filmmaker as Andrew Berends, from New York. Berends was arrested with his Nigerian interpreter and a local bar owner on August 31 in the southern city of Port Harcourt, the group said in a statement.

Musa said investigators were seeking "to ascertain his mission and why he intruded in our operational area, snapped video shots of troops and their deployment without clearance."

Berends was held for 36 hours before being accused of spying and temporarily released, although he was expected to return for more questioning, the "Reporters Without Borders" statement said.

It was unclear, however, if he had been formally charged with espionage, which can carry the death penalty in Nigeria.

The military force charged with calming the volatile Niger Delta region is increasingly sensitive to media coverage of the conflict in the area, which authorities consider a military zone.

Journalists and documentary filmmakers are occassionally arrested while working in the southern Niger Delta. Detainees are usually released without having been mistreated, although several have been held and questioned for many days and some have been expelled from Nigeria.

Source : AP