Westerners arrested in Ethiopia
News24.com, South Africa - January 18, 2008
Ethiopia has arrested a number of American and European citizens of Ethiopian descent, accusing them of aiding separatist rebels, a senior Ethiopian official said on Friday.
"I can assure you they are many," Abdullahi Hassan, president of the country's troubled Ogaden region, said visiting the area at the government's invitation.
He declined to say how many people had been detained or when they had been arrested.
"Those who are waging the terrorist war against our people are coming from Europe, are coming from America. They hold American passports, they hold European passports," he said.
Hassan said the detainees were originally from Ogaden but moved to the US and Europe where they raised money for the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).
"They are buying with this money weapons, mines and explosives," he said, adding that he would not contact their embassies because they were suspected terrorists.
"We don't care whether they see (their diplomatic representatives) or not," he said, comparing the situation to the US base in Guantanamo Bay, where nearly 300 inmates are being held without charge or access to consuls ...