|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
Warning to Eritrea over seized Britons By GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN AND SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT in Addis Ababa 4 March 2007, The Sunday Telegraph BRITAIN WARNED Eritrea last night that it expected the prompt release of a group of diplomat tourists after claims that soldiers of that country were behind a cross-border raid on a remote region of neighbouring Ethiopia. The Foreign Office was engaged in frantic negotiations to secure the release of the five Britons, all based at the British embassy in Addis Ababa, who were part of a sightseeing party seized by gunmen in the desolate Afar region of the country. British special forces have been placed on standby to mount a rescue mission if talks fail to achieve a diplomatic solution to the crisis. Ethiopian officials said a group of up to 25 Eritrean soldiers attacked the British party as they slept in the early hours of Thursday morning. Eritrean officials said the claims were "impossible and absurd''. British diplomats initially described the kidnapping as "opportunist banditry'' and said they believed the embassy staff had not been deliberately targeted. British Government sources said it was being made clear to the Eritreans that the group must be handed back if they had been taken across the border. A Foreign Office spokesman said a military rescue would be considered only as a last resort. "There are a number of different stages we would need to go through before we would consider a rescue,'' he said. "The problem with kidnapping is that the rescue is the most difficult time. So we are concentrating on finding out who it is and negotiating with them.'' Defence sources said an SAS advance team had already been sent to Ethiopia to offer advice to the diplomats and to prepare for any rescue attempt. A team of at least 16 SAS soldiers is also understood to have been moved from Britain to Cyprus in readiness for any operation, though it would not enter Ethiopia without an invitation from its government. Ismael Ali Serom, the head of the Afar administrative region, said that the five British citizens had been taken to Eritrea's Assab province. He said the information had come from two Ethiopians who had managed to escape from the kidnappers. "They have been taken to an Eritrean military camp 35 kilometres [22 miles] inside Eritrean territory in a place called Wemba. This has been confirmed today by two Ethiopians of Afar origin who were left behind from the incident.'' He said the fact that mobile phones and money from the group's vehicles had been left behind suggested that robbery was not the motive. Officials said the group's vehicles appeared to have been hit by rocket-propelled grenades. The vehicles were recovered yesterday. Yemane Gebremeskel, the director of the Eritrean president's office, denied his country had been involved. "This is crazy. No one is involved in any business of kidnapping,'' he said. "There are United Nations observers in the area, so how could 50 Eritrean soldiers cross over, go deep inside Ethiopia and make an operation? "Politically it does not make sense. Why would we want to kidnap British nationals?'' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
Related links ------------------- |
|
