Ethiopia hostages "safe" with rebels - local leader'

ADDIS ABABA, Mar 9 (Reuters) Five Europeans and eight locals kidnapped in remote north Ethiopia are ''unharmed and safe'' in the hands of Afar separatist rebels holding them over the border in Eritrea, an Afar leader said today.

Ismael Ali Gardo, co-founder of the Afar Pastoralists Development Association (APDA), said news of the captives had been picked up and passed on by nomadic herders close to where they were being held in the Eritrean settlement of Weima.

''There are unharmed and safe and in Weima in Eritrea,'' Ismael, who returned from Afar to Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa on Friday, told Reuters.

The hostages were seized by an armed band eight days ago during a tour of the Afar region, one of the hottest and driest parts of earth renowned for its volcanoes, desert and salt lakes.

As well as eight Ethiopian translators, drivers and guides, they include three British men, one Italian-British woman, and a French woman. The five expatriates are all linked to the British Embassy in Ethiopia.

Ismael said their captors were from the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front (ARDUF), a group that sprung up in the 1990s to seek more autonomy for the Afar region which includes parts of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti.

''They will not want to harm them. They are in Eritrea but the people who took them were from Afar,'' Ismael added, saying his information came from the reliable, traditional communication method of known as ''Dagu''.

Under that system, pastoralists who pass each other in the desert greet and swap news, ensuring that information travels quickly the length and breadth of the region.

Neighbouring Eritrea has repeatedly denied that the hostages are in its territory. The two Horn of Africa nations still have bitter relations over a 1998-2000 border war.

REUTERS DKA DS1620