March 06, 2007	Tuesday	Safar 16, 1428

HAMAD ELA: Four British diplomats arrived on Monday at the remote site in northeast Ethiopia where five Britons and 13 Ethiopians were abducted last week, as Britain reportedly prepared a commando rescue team.

The Britons — all linked to Britain’s embassy in Addis Ababa — and their Ethiopian drivers and translators, were kidnapped last Thursday in the remote Afar desert region near the Eritrean border, according to the Ethiopian state news agency.

Four members of a crisis team from London arrived at the remote town of Hamad Ela, where they questioned local inhabitants and examined the carcasses of three burnt out cars, one of which was an off-road vehicle carrying diplomatic number plates.

One vehicle appeared to have been destroyed by an explosion while the two others were peppered with bullet holes.

British newspapers reported on Monday that a group of elite Special Air Service (SAS) commandos had been readied for a possible rescue attempt.

Some 60 SAS troops have already been dispatched to neighbouring Djibouti, the British Daily Mirror reported on Monday, while the Times talked of a “substantial” team and the Guardian said special forces were already in Ethiopia itself.

The British Foreign Office refused to discuss the reports.

Eritrea on Monday categorically denied the abducted tourists were on its territory, calling reports they had been seen in a remote desert area inside their border “totally false”.

“Today at least we know that they are not in Eritrea or have crossed the border illegally,” Yemane Gebremeskel, the director of Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki’s office, told in an interview.

“There is not even a probability. They are not in Eritrea.” He urged rescue efforts to focus their attention on the Ethiopian side of the border, from where the group was abducted.

“They must be inside Ethiopia and they must look for them there,” he added.

Ethiopia’s ambassador to Britain, Berharnu Kebede, and an Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman also refused to be drawn on the issue of Eritrean involvement.

“We cannot finger point anybody,” said ministry spokesman Solomon Abebe, adding that the government still had no news of the abducted group.

Eritrean Information Minister Abdu Ali accused arch-foe Ethiopia of trying to tarnish his country’s image.

“People have to ask the motive for this, and people should not rule out that this is not all a gimmick — for Ethiopia to use the catchwords of ‘terrorism’ and ‘kidnapping’ for their own public relations objective.” Relations between the two neighbours have been tense since Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war.

Despite a peace deal after a 1998-2000 war, the two neighbours have yet to define the status of their 1,000-kilometre frontier.

The kidnapped Britons — three men and two women — are members of staff, or relatives of members of staff of the Addis Ababa embassy.

According to the Italian foreign ministry, one of those kidnapped has dual British-Italian nationality.

Afar separatists started a low-level rebellion in the early 1990s against the division of the Afar people between the region’s three countries.

Tourists visit the area mainly to see the Danakil Depression, one of the lowest and hottest places on Earth known for its salt mines and active volcanoes.

—AFP