5 abducted tourists in Ethiopia freed

Five Europeans abducted almost two weeks ago in one of Ethiopia's most remote, inhospitable regions were released Tuesday in neighboring Eritrea after the government there pressured tribal leaders to intervene, officials said.

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said the three British men, an Anglo-Italian and a French woman _ all British diplomats or their relatives _ were released in Eritrea and taken to the British embassy in Asmara, the Eritrean capital.

"The five are being fed and given fresh clean clothes," Beckett said in London. "They are seeing a doctor and medical checks are continuing, but I understand they are broadly in good health."

Yemani Gebremeskel, the Eritrean president's spokesman, declined to give details on the role Eritrea played other than to say they helped influence local traditional elders in the desert region where the hostages were being held.

"We are not making public statements," Gebremeskel told The Associated Press. "They have arrived at the British Embassy in Asmara."

Beckett said officials "continue to be concerned for the welfare" of a group of Ethiopians abducted at the same time. The hostages were on a tourist trip to the remote Afar region of northeastern Ethiopia when they were seized at gunpoint along with 13 Ethiopians. Their 4x4 vehicles were later discovered abandoned, riddled with bullet holes and grenade shrapnel.

British officials on Tuesday lifted a reporting restriction on identifying the five. They are Peter Rudge, first secretary of the British embassy in Addis Ababa; embassy worker Jonathan Ireland; Malcolm Smart and Laure Beaufils of the Department for International Development; and Rosanna Moore, an Anglo-Italian whose husband Michael Moore heads the British Council's Ethiopia office.

Michael Moore, contacted in the Ethiopian capital, said he was delighted his wife was released. "I have just watched the television now," he told The Associated Press. "At this stage I'm just so overwhelmed I am almost in tears."

Moore said he was now concerned for the well-being of eight Ethiopians who were also seized. Five other Ethiopians who had been with the group had earlier been reported to have escaped or been released.

The hostages were on a tourist trip to the remote Afar region of northeastern Ethiopia when they were seized at gunpoint along with 13 Ethiopians. Their 4x4 vehicles were later discovered abandoned, riddled with bullet holes and grenade shrapnel.

Belete Tekiwe, the deputy government spokesman for Ethiopia, said there he had no information about the fate of the Ethiopians taken with the European hostages.

Ethiopian officials had said the hostages may have been taken by rebel gunmen and marched across the porous Ethiopian border into neighboring Eritrea. Eritrea has denied any involvement.

Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have been strained since Eritrea gained independence from the Addis Ababa government in 1993 following a 30-year guerrilla war. The two countries fought a bloody two year border war that ended in 2000.