Sudan Kidnappers Want Chinese Oil Firms Out

DUBAI - Kidnappers of nine Chinese oil workers seized near a disputed oil district in Sudan said they want Chinese oil firms to leave the area in return for the hostages' release, a newspaper reported on Friday. "We don't have any material demands. We want Chinese companies to leave the region immediately because they work with the government," the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat quoted the alleged leader of the group as saying. The Saudi-owned newspaper identified the man as Abu Humaid Ahmad Dannay, and said he commands the rebel Justice and Equality Movement in the Kordofan region. Three Chinese engineers and and six other workers employed by the China National Petroleum Corporation in South Kordofan, a state which includes the disputed oil district of Abyei, were kidnapped on October 18. Dannay, who Asharq Al-Awsat said belongs to the Arab Messeria tribe, said the hostages were in good health and being well treated. "We treat them according to the ethics of Muslims and serve them despite the language barrier. I can affirm that they are in good health now," he was quoted as saying. The Chinese workers were snatched in Heglig, which is adjacent to the flashpoint Abyei area, according to a diplomatic source in Khartoum. Heglig lies near the line separating the former warring parties of north and south Sudan, in the Muglad Basin where most of Sudan's proven oil reserves are found. The Messeria were also blamed for the kidnapping of four Indian oil workers and their Sudanese driver in the same area in May. All five managed to escape or were released unharmed. In the past, Darfur rebels have kidnapped foreign oil workers from Sudanese oilfields, often targeting Chinese companies because of their strong ties with Khartoum, although all of those abducted eventually emerged unscathed In October 2007, Darfur rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement attacked an oilfield run by the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company, a consortium involving China's CNPC. Asharq Al-Awsat said a high-ranking JEM source neither confirmed nor denied that the kidnappers belong to the movement. The newspaper quoted Dannay as admitting that the abduction was aimed at drawing attention to the lack of development in the region and the failure of oil companies operating there to help provide services or jobs for natives. Abyei and surrounding areas are prey to sporadic violence between tribes aligned either with the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum or with the administration in the south despite a 2005 peace deal that ended the civil war.