We Will Take More Hostages, Say Ethiopia Rebels

The rebels who claimed responsibility for kidnapping staff from the British embassy in Ethiopia have said they will take more foreigners hostages, the Eritrean government said today.

Last week five hostages with links to the embassy were released 12 days after being seized in the desolate Afar region, which straddles Ethiopia's northern border with Eritrea. There has been no word on eight Ethiopians captured with them.

The Foreign Office had assumed that the embassy group were seized "in error" after members of the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Front (ARDF) raided the compound where they were staying.

But according to the Eritrean government, the rebels have said they will kidnap other westerners who venture into the Afar region.

Mussa Ibrahim, chairman of the ARDF, which seeks greater autonomy for the Afar region, was in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, this week.

Without quoting him directly, the Eritrean information ministry said on its website that, according to Mr Ibrahim, the embassy staff were held captive after they entered Afar without permission.

The website warned: "Even now, it [the group] would take similar measures against any foreigner who ventures into the same area, Mr Mussa asserted."

"In this regard, he [Mr Mussa] warned foreigners not to do so without permission from the front."

Ethiopia claims that the Eritrean government is behind the kidnapping.

"The kidnapping was carried out by no one but Eritrean military intelligence. This is an incontrovertible fact," an Ethiopian foreign affairs spokesman, Ambassador Solomon Abede, told Reuters.

"The government of Eritrea is trying to insult the intelligence of the international community. Everybody knows that the Eritrean government has developed the habit of creating organisations working against its neighbours."

Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have been strained since 1993, when Eritrea gained independence from the government in Addis Ababa following a 30-year guerrilla war.