Hijacked plane returns to Ethiopia

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- An Ethiopian military plane that was hijacked to Sudan is returning to Ethiopia with all of its passengers, the state-run Sudan News Agency reported.

The plane is reported to have left on Saturday morning, bound for Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

Sudanese authorities have begun interrogating the five people who surrendered after the hijacking on Thursday, according to the news agency.

The hijackers say their action was to protest against economic and political conditions in Ethiopia.

The hijackers have reportedly asked for political asylum, but Ethiopian officials have said they plan to request extradition of the five.

The group freed 51 hostages, unharmed, after a nine-hour standoff at an airport in Khartoum.

Ethiopian officials said the five had all recently failed to qualify as pilots and were in fact would-be economic migrants who should face criminal charges for air piracy.

"They wanted to go into exile for a better life," government political adviser Kinfe Abraham said.

He said they had no direct links to students whose April 18 protest for academic freedom at Addis Ababa University degenerated into riots in which up to 41 people were killed.

"It's possible that the events of the week before influenced and encouraged them, but there is no direct connection between the two groups of people," Abraham said.

"There is an extradition agreement with Sudan and they should be deported."

The military plane sits on the runway at Khartoum

Sudanese Cabinet ministers gave conflicting signals on whether the five would be sent home as Ethiopia has demanded.

Sudanese Interior Minister Abdel-Rahim Hussein told the Associated Press the hijackers would not be handed over to Ethiopia because "this is what we promised them."

But Sudanese Information Minister Ghazi Salah el-Din Atabani said hours later that his government wanted to deny reports that his country had rejected extradition.

"They are baseless and, to begin with, there is no problem between Sudan and Ethiopia on this issue," Atabani said in a statement broadcast on state-run television.

He said Sudan was keen to "end the crisis the way it did because of the everlasting relations with Ethiopia and both countries' concern for national security matters."

Earlier Friday, Atabani said hijackers surrendered after receiving assurances they would not be returned to Ethiopia. They were seeking political asylum, but they will stand trial, Atabani said.

Differences over extradition could strain Ethiopian-Sudanese relations, which had been improving since they deteriorated sharply after the 1995 assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa. The would-be assassins were believed to have fled to Sudan.

Sudanese and Ethiopian ministers are expected to discuss the hijacking at a meeting on Monday in Addis Ababa.

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Ethiopian News Agency

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