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Afrique de l'Est Soudan Libya talks to Sudan jet hijackers after passengers freed
Afrique de l'Est Soudan Libya talks to Sudan jet hijackers after passengers freed
Aug
27
2008
| Libya talks to Sudan jet hijackers after passengers freed |
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 Two hijackers claiming to be Darfur rebels on Wednesday released all 87 passengers from a Sudanese jet at a remote Libyan airport, keeping the crew captive for a reported bid to fly to France. "All of the passengers have left the plane," a Libyan official told AFP from Kufra oasis where the aircraft was forced to land on Tuesday evening after being hijacked en route from Darfur's main city of Nyala to Khartoum."The two hijackers and the seven crew are still inside. We are continuing to negotiate with them," he said, requesting anonymity. A Sudanese official said there were eight crew on board. Libya denied that the hijackers had been arrested, as announced by the airline's manager. The jet was granted permission to land by Libyan authorities at the isolated World War II-era airport in the southeast of the country, close to the Sudanese border, after it ran short on fuel. The passengers had reportedly been given water but no food and some fainted when the air conditioning failed in the searing desert heat. In the first images from the scene of the drama, Libyan state television showed visibly tired but relieved passengers surrounded by Libyan soldiers following their liberation. "The night was terrifying and difficult. I thank the Libyan authorities for their efforts which allowed us to be freed," a Sudanese passenger told the station. Another passenger said the hijackers were armed with small calibre pistols. Libya's civil aviation director Mohammed Shlibaq said that two Egyptian members of the UN-led Darfur peacekeeping force, two Ethiopians and a Ugandan were among the passengers, the official JANA news agency said. Sudan called on the Libyan authorities to arrest and deport to Khartoum the "terrorist" hijackers, saying that Libya was being "very helpful" as the crisis entered its second day. "We are condemning first the hijacking of a civilian aeroplane and we are now in continuous contact and consultation with the Libyan authorities in Kufra airport," foreign ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadiq told AFP. No Darfur movement has claimed public responsibility, but the director of Kufra airport said the hijackers belong to a faction of the Sudanese Liberation Army, whose exiled leader Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur lives in Paris. Nur, whose group was one of two Darfur movements that first rose up against the Arab-dominated government in 2003, denied any involvement. Ibrahim al-Hillo, a commander in the same SLA faction denied any involvement from within the movement, but suggested in a telephone call to AFP that the hijackers could be sympathisers of the Paris-based rebel leader. "We don't have any relation with that hijacking. Civilians, they're angry, they'll behave like that. They may agree with Abdul Wahid but in our structure we have no decision like this to hijack a civilian airplane," he told AFP. The pilot said "the hijackers claim to have coordinated with him (Nur) to join him in Paris," Kufra airport director Khaled Saseya told JANA. Saseya said the hijackers have demanded a flight plan to Paris and fuel. The SLA has fractured into multiple groups headed by different field commanders over the more than five years of war in Sudan's western Darfur region. In Paris, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that "everything is being considered" to protect the lives of those on board, while not saying explicitly whether France was prepared to receive the plane. On Monday, Sudanese security forces pushed into one of the biggest and most volatile camps for displaced people in Darfur at Kalma, just outside the hijacked plane's point of departure, Nyala. UN-led peacekeepers said 33 people were buried on Tuesday following armed clashes between police and camp residents. Three high-ranking members of a former Darfur rebel movement that signed a peace treaty with the government in 2006 were on the hijacked flight, said an official in the Minni Minawi faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement. Sudan has a history of hijacking incidents, having both received and been the country of origin of hijacked planes. The United Nations says that up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million fled their homes since the Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003. Sudan says 10,000 have been killed. The war began when ethnic minority rebels rose up against the Arab-dominated regime and state-backed Arab militias, fighting for resources and power. Source: AFP Set as favorite Bookmark
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