Sudan Seeks Bodies of Slain Chinese Hostages
Media Line News Agency
October 29, 2008
Sudan is transferring the bodies of five murdered Chinese workers with two of their wounded colleagues to Khartoum on Tuesday before the bodies and the survivors continue on to China, a Sudanese official said.
Beijing condemned the killings of the Chinese hostages as an inhumane terrorist act and called on Khartoum to protect Chinese civilians and their possessions.
Nine Chinese oil workers were kidnapped in the southern Kordofan state in central Sudan in the Block 4 oil field on October 18.
Those abducted were from the China National Petroleum Corporation and included three engineers and six workers.
Five of the workers were murdered by a Darfur rebel group on Monday, the Sudanese government said. Two others escaped with gunshot wounds and two still remain in captivity.
It is unclear who is behind the kidnappings and murders. A diplomat speculated the kidnappers were from an Arab tribe called Mi´sriyya, which is demanding a higher portion of oil revenues from that area.
Khartoum has accused the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a Darfur rebel group, of being behind the kidnapping, but JEM denies involvement.
Rebel groups in Sudan's war-torn Sudan province have targeted Chinese oil interests in the past because of Beijing's ties with Khartoum.
China gets around a third of its oil from African countries, including Sudan. Beijing is also believed to be supplying weapons to Khartoum.
Human-rights organizations say Khartoum is using the revenues from oil contracts with China to pay for its attacks on rebel groups and civilians in Darfur.
More than 200,000 people have been killed in the Darfur conflict since it erupted in 2003 and some governments are calling it a genocide.
Beijing condemned the killings of the Chinese hostages as an inhumane terrorist act and called on Khartoum to protect Chinese civilians and their possessions.
Nine Chinese oil workers were kidnapped in the southern Kordofan state in central Sudan in the Block 4 oil field on October 18.
Those abducted were from the China National Petroleum Corporation and included three engineers and six workers.
Five of the workers were murdered by a Darfur rebel group on Monday, the Sudanese government said. Two others escaped with gunshot wounds and two still remain in captivity.
It is unclear who is behind the kidnappings and murders. A diplomat speculated the kidnappers were from an Arab tribe called Mi´sriyya, which is demanding a higher portion of oil revenues from that area.
Khartoum has accused the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a Darfur rebel group, of being behind the kidnapping, but JEM denies involvement.
Rebel groups in Sudan's war-torn Sudan province have targeted Chinese oil interests in the past because of Beijing's ties with Khartoum.
China gets around a third of its oil from African countries, including Sudan. Beijing is also believed to be supplying weapons to Khartoum.
Human-rights organizations say Khartoum is using the revenues from oil contracts with China to pay for its attacks on rebel groups and civilians in Darfur.
More than 200,000 people have been killed in the Darfur conflict since it erupted in 2003 and some governments are calling it a genocide.
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