Why?
"to drive Chinese interests from Sudan"
CUI BONO, readers?
"5 Chinese hostages executed in Sudan
KHARTOUM, Sudan - Kidnappers who abducted nine Chinese oil workers killed five of them execution-style yesterday, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Two other abducted workers managed to flee, while two remain in captivity, ministry spokesman Ali Sadiq said. The ministry said in a statement that security forces were deployed in the area where the kidnapping occurred. No further details were provided on the killings, including how the government learned of them.
Chinese diplomats in Khartoum were not reachable for comments. Sudan has blamed rebels from the adjacent, war-torn region of Darfur for the kidnapping, but a spokesman for the group yesterday denied involvement. Sadiq said that by slaying the hostages, the kidnappers were apparently going ahead with their threats to drive Chinese interests from Sudan.
Sadiq stressed that no clashes occurred, and the ministry said tribal chiefs in the area had been negotiating with the kidnappers. Still, Sadiq maintained the kidnappers took directives from Darfur rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement. They had demanded a share of the oil wealth through jobs.
They must be -- by extension -- our allies in the region. Is that where the weapons were Israeli-owned ukranian ship was headed?
But JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussein said his group had "nothing to do with this incident." China, which buys nearly two-thirds of Sudan's oil, has been criticized by rebel groups and international human rights watchdogs for its close ties with Khartoum."
That's strange; the web version stripped the Darfur references in that last paragraph.
