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ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia urged the West on Monday to increase diplomatic efforts to secure the release of eight kidnapped Ethiopians, who it said had been all but forgotten since five Europeans held with them were freed.
The eight guides were abducted with the expatriates earlier this month in northern Ethiopia's remote Afar region, near the border with rival Eritrea. The Europeans were freed last week. "The attention accorded to the incident when it first occurred should continue, intensified even, after the release of the Europeans," Tekeda Alemu, Ethiopia's minister of state for foreign affairs, told Western ambassadors. He urged the U.N. Security Council and European Union to boost diplomatic efforts to free the eight, according to a press statement released after the closed-door meeting. Tekeda also criticised the media, which he said had lost interest in the eight hostages after the Europeans were freed. "There was nearly a news blackout," he said. "Forgetting these people will not enhance the credibility of the media." Addis Ababa accuses Asmara of planning and carrying out the kidnapping. Eritrea denies it. But the case has stoked bitter rivalry between the Horn of Africa foes, who fought a 1998-2000 border war that killed some 70,000 people. Ethiopia says the eight hostages are on Eritrean territory. The five Europeans were set free in the Eritrean capital Asmara. Asked what Addis Ababa would do if they were not returned safely, Ambassador Solomon Abebe, the information director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ruled out a return to war. "For Ethiopia, war is not an option," he told reporters. "But Ethiopia has all legal, human and material evidence to hold Eritrea responsible for the kidnapping." |
