Reported detention of British ex-marines in Eritrea sparks controversy

By Tesfa-alem Tekle

February 11, 2011(ADDIS ABABA) – There have been conflicting reports that four British citizens are being held captive in Eritrea on charges of spying. British authorities have initiated diplomatic efforts to secure their release.

The naval security firm Protection Vessels International (PVI) originally reported that four Britons, two of them ex-Marine guards and the other two civilian crew members, were seized on board of a merchant vessel that stopped in a port in the Red Sea to pick up supplies.

Their arrest was allegedly preceded by a gunfight that erupted when they attempted to escort a merchant vessel through pirate-infested waters off the horn of Africa.

“Two of the guards attempted to escape on a skiff but were seized off the Eritrean coast and left without food and water for a day on a small island before being taken back to the mainland to be imprisoned” PVI said.

The British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) said it was “deeply concerned” that the Eritrean authorities were continuing to refuse to let British officials see the men, who are reported to have been held for over eight weeks.

Foreign Secretary William Hague has ordered British ambassadors in New York, Brussels, Khartoum, Tripoli, Nairobi and Beijing to raise the issue as a matter of priority with their Eritrean counterparts there.

However, PVI later retracted its report that the men were arrested, saying they were just embroiled in “confusion over fuel payment.”

“It’s been massively blown out of proportion. It’s a vessel that just went in for a fuel stop. There was basically confusion over fuel payment,” a spokesman for the company was quoted as saying.

“No-one’s been arrested and all personnel are still on the vessel. There are some ongoing negotiations about that,” the spokesman added.

PVI spokesman attributed the intervention of the FCO to “the difficulties of dealing” with Eritrea.

(ST)