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Ethiopian
Rebels Kill 70 at Chinese-Run Oil Field |
By
JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: April 25, 2007
NAIROBI, Kenya, April 24 — Separatist rebels
stormed a Chinese-run oil field in eastern
Ethiopia on Tuesday, killing more than 70
people, including nine Chinese workers, in
one of Ethiopia’s worst rebel attacks in
years.
Dozens of gunmen crept up to the oil field
at dawn and unleashed a barrage of
machine-gun fire at Ethiopian soldiers
posted outside, Chinese and Ethiopian
officials said. After a fierce hourlong
battle, the rebels rushed away, taking at
least six Chinese hostages with them.
Ethiopia, a close ally of the United States,
has been racked by separatist movements for
years. But the severity of this attack
seemed to unnerve Ethiopian officials, who
usually minimize any threats to their
control.
“It was a massacre,” Prime Minister Meles
Zenawi said in a televised address on
Tuesday night. “It was cold-blooded murder.”
The Ogaden National Liberation Front, a
militant group fighting for control of
eastern Ethiopia, immediately claimed
responsibility, circulating an e-mail
message that said, “We will not allow the
mineral resources of our people to be
exploited by this regime or any firm that it
enters into an illegal contract.”
The front said that its primary target was
the Ethiopian soldiers guarding the oil
field and that the Chinese workers had been
killed by explosions during the fighting.
Given China’s drive to extract oil wherever
it can be found, Chinese workers are often
dispatched to conflict zones, and several
have been kidnapped in the volatile Niger
Delta region of Nigeria. In other parts of
Africa, like Zambia, China’s investments
have brought resentment from local
politicians and residents.
As for the workers kidnapped on Tuesday, the
rebel group’s statement said: “O.N.L.F.
forces rounding up Ethiopian military
prisoners following the battle came across
six Chinese workers. They have been removed
from the battlefield for their own safety
and are being treated well.” But the group
did not say anything about releasing them.
Ethiopian officials, who confirmed that 65
government soldiers had been killed, said
they were rushing reinforcements to the area
and vowed to crush the rebels. But the
country’s military is stretched thin.
Thousands of Ethiopian troops are bogged
down in Somalia, where they face
increasingly intense resistance. On Tuesday,
a suicide bomber attacking Ethiopian troops
killed seven civilians in Mogadishu,
Somalia’s capital, the second time in a week
that suicide attacks were used. More than
1,000 people, mostly civilians, have been
killed in the past month in heavy shelling
between Somali insurgents and Ethiopian-led
troops.
Ethiopia, with covert American help,
intervened in Somalia in December to prop up
Somalia’s weak transitional government and
defeat Islamist forces that had controlled
much of Somalia and were widely suspected of
sheltering anti-Ethiopian rebel groups like
the Ogaden National Liberation Front.
Ethiopian troops in Somalia recently rounded
up dozens of suspected rebels, and human
rights observers say the Ethiopians have
also imprisoned — and tortured — innocent
civilians.
Such tactics, analysts say, may now be
coming back to haunt the Ethiopians.
“This is the rebels’ response,” said Ted
Dagne, a specialist in African affairs for
the Congressional Research Service. “They
are fighting a classic guerrilla war against
the government, and those widespread
detentions became another one of their
grievances.”
The Ogaden region of eastern Ethiopia is a
hot and inhospitable place, home to
Somali-speaking nomads who have always
identified more with neighboring Somalia
than with Ethiopia. Part of the reason is
religion. Ethiopia’s leaders have
traditionally been Christian, while Ogadenis
are almost all Muslims.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front, formed
23 years ago, was briefly aligned with the
current Ethiopian government but broke away
in the mid-1990s after it was clear that the
Ogaden region would not be given autonomy.
Western military analysts say the front has
a few thousand lightly armed fighters, who
get their weapons and training from Eritrea,
Ethiopia’s neighbor and bitter enemy. In the
galaxy of rebel groups roaming nearly every
corner of Ethiopia, these fighters have been
considered a midlevel threat to the
government.
Oil, though, seems to be its new focus. In
August, the Web-savvy front issued an
electronic threat against a Malaysian oil
company that was contemplating drilling in
Ethiopia.
The oil field that the rebels raided Tuesday
was run by a division of China’s
government-owned energy giant, the China
Petroleum and Chemical Corporation.
According to Xinhua, the official Chinese
news agency, the Ethiopian rebels briefly
seized control of the oil field before
kidnapping seven Chinese workers, who were
among the 37 Chinese and 120 Ethiopians
employed there.
In Jijiga, a nearby city, residents said
Ethiopian soldiers were mustering for a huge
counterstrike.
“There are federal soldiers and city police
everywhere on the streets,” said a
businessman named Biruk. “People are
scared.”
Last month, the Ogaden National Liberation
Front accused the Ethiopian government of
burning an Ogadeni village to the ground. It
said that government soldiers had gone after
civilians, not fighters, and that “the
O.N.L.F. will respond swiftly and decisively
to this barbaric act.”
Will Connors contributed reporting from
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Yuusuf Maxamuud
from Mogadishu. |
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