China evaluates safety after Ethiopia killings

BEIJING, Apr 26 (Reuters) China today said it was evaluating the safety of its workers abroad after an attack in Ethiopia that killed nine of its citizens but would continue encouraging Chinese businesses to operate in Africa.

Ethiopian officials have said gunmen belonging to a rebel group, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), on Tuesday killed 65 Ethiopians and the Chinese at an oilfield about 100 km south of the regional capital Jijiga.

China has condemned the killings, which underscored the risks of Beijing's eager push for investment and natural resources in Africa, sometimes in risky areas where Western multinationals fear to go.

Today, an official spokesman said the attack had prompted a broader review. ''In response to these recent incidents concerning the safety of Chinese personnel, the relevant departments are carrying out an assessment of safety abroad,'' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news conference.

Liu did not give any details of the review or specify what countries or regions it would cover. The exercise would ''help Chinese businesses smoothly develop economic and trade cooperation abroad and ensure the safety of Chinese personnel'', he said.

Ethiopian troops searched yesterday for seven Chinese and Ethiopian workers kidnapped in the attack, and the bodies of the dead Chinese were flown to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

The Chinese attacked were working for Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, which is based in central China's Henan province and is part of the much larger China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec).

China has sent foreign and commerce ministry officials and Sinopec representatives to help the rescue efforts and the injured, Liu said. Chinese diplomats were also helping efforts to win the release of the kidnapped, he added.

The ONLF, ethnic Somalis fighting for independence since 1984, claimed responsibility for the raid on the Chinese-run oilfield -- one of the worst attacks yet on Beijing's growing presence in Africa.

But on its Web site, the ONLF blamed the deaths of a ''handful'' of Chinese on blasts of munitions hit during a battle they said killed or wounded some 400 Ethiopian troops.

Chinese workers have also been kidnapped in Nigeria, and those on oil projects in Sudan work under heavy guard.

But China would continue to encourage its workers to operate in Africa and other parts of the world ''on the basis of mutual benefit,'' Liu said. ''This policy will not change,'' he said.

Three Chinese engineers were gunned down by separatists in the Pakistan town of Hub in February last year. Three others were killed in a bomb blast in the Pakistan port of Gwadar in 2004.

REUTERS JS KN1503