Ethiopia says detained rebels with foreign passports

January 18, 2008 (GODE, Ethiopia) — Ethiopian officials said Friday that several rebels recently captured in the restive Ogaden region hold European and U.S. passports.

“We have captured some terrorists and anti-peace elements with their American and European passports,” top local official Abdullahi Hassan told reporters in the town of Gode, some 700 kilometers (430 miles) from Addis Ababa.

“We caught them redhanded and they are in the process of interrogation and safe trial under Ethiopian law in (the southern city of) Jijiga,” Hassan added.

“Originally they are from here, but they lived in the U.S. and Europe… They are using their money to buy weapons, mines and explosives to destroy us,” he said, alleging that “some even have relations with government officials in Europe and the U.S.”

The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, through spokeswoman Darragh Paradiso, told the Associated Press “We have no information on American citizens being detained and are following up on this issue with the government of Ethiopia as we speak.”

All the detainees are natives of Somali region who had settled abroad and they include men, women, young and old, Hassan said.

“They are buying…weapons, mines, and explosives (that) are destroying us,” he said.

He said the detainees would face trial in Ethiopia, but wouldn’t say what charges they face.

“They are under Ethiopian law, they are facing trial,” he said.

They were held in a detention camp at the regional capital, Jijiga, Hassan said.

Formed in 1984, the Ogaden National Liberation Front is fighting for the independence of ethnic Somalis in the Ogaden, whom they say have been marginalized by Addis Ababa.

The government says the rebels are terrorists funded by its archenemy, Eritrea.

In the worst attack, in April, Ogaden fighters overran a Chinese-run oil exploration field, killing 74 people. In May, the Ethiopian military began counterinsurgency operations in the area that is being heavily explored for oil and gas.

Somali region is Ethiopia’s largest administrative area, bordering on Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti, with a population of between 4.5 million and 5 million people.

(AFP/AP)