Ethiopia hunts for kidnapped Chinese oil workers

By Andrew Heavens and Tsegaye Tadesse

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopian troops searched on Wednesday for seven Chinese and Ethiopian workers kidnapped in a rebel attack on an oilfield that killed 74 people in a remote and barren southeastern region.

The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), ethnic Somalis fighting for independence since 1984, claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn raid on the Chinese-run field that was one of the worst attacks yet on Beijing's growing interests in Africa.

The rebels have repeatedly warned energy companies they will not allow oil and gas exploration in the area as long as the Ogaden people are "denied their rights to self-determination".

Beijing "strongly condemned" the attack, which exposed the risks of its drive to use Africa's under-developed energy resources to feed a rapidly growing economy.

"The Ethiopian government will hunt down the perpetrators and bring them to justice," said Bereket Simon, special adviser to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

"We have assigned an appropriate force for the task."

Ethiopian officials said gunmen killed 65 Ethiopians and nine Chinese as they slept at the oilfield about 100 km (60 miles) south of the regional capital Jijiga.

But on its Web site, the ONLF blamed the deaths of a "handful" of Chinese on blasts caused by munitions during a battle they said killed or wounded some 400 Ethiopian troops.

"OWN SAFETY"

It denied abducting Chinese oil workers. "They have been removed from the battlefield for their own safety and are being treated well," the ONLF said in an overnight statement on its highest-profile operation since being formed 23 years ago.

The Chinese staff worked for Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, part of the much larger China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), according to China's Xinhua news agency.

Officials from both companies declined comment.

African governments have generally welcomed the Chinese push, which comes free of the political conditions often imposed by Western nations. But there is concern in some quarters Beijing may be gaining too much control, treating local labor forces badly and flooding Africa with cheap, inferior goods.

Chinese oil workers have been kidnapped in Nigeria, while Zambians have rioted over pay at a Chinese-owned mine. But the Ethiopian case is believed to be the most serious of its kind.

The bodies of the dead Chinese were flown back to the capital Addis Ababa on Wednesday. One opposition Web site urged ONLF leaders to arrange the safe return of the abducted Chinese, but told Beijing to ignore Ethiopian security "propaganda" and to remove all its citizens from "the Ogaden war zone".