By Karl Ritter
Friday, April 13, 2007
STOCKHOLM, Sweden --Sweden's intelligence service said Friday it had sent agents to visit three Swedes who were among dozens of foreigners held in Ethiopia as terror suspects.
Agents from SAPO, Sweden's security police, met the three at the end of March but did not interrogate them, SAPO spokesman Anders Thornberg said.
"We were down there strictly on a consular mission," he said. "The Foreign Ministry tried to get in contact with the Swedes, but had problems in getting access and so they asked us to help because we had some contacts."
Ethiopian officials initially denied any suspects were in custody, but later confirmed an Associated Press report that dozens of foreigners were detained as part of an effort to stem terrorism.
U.S. officials, who agreed to discuss the detentions only if not quoted by name because of the sensitivity of the issue, have said Ethiopia had allowed U.S. agencies, including the CIA and FBI, access to the detainees, but the agencies played no role in arrests, transport or deportation.
American, Kenyan and Ethiopian forces have long been allies in a U.S. counterterrorism effort in the region. The cooperation appears to have been stepped up in the wake of the collapse of an extremist Islamic regime in Somalia, amid fears al-Qaida suspects linked to the Somali extremists would flee into Kenya.
The Ethiopian Foreign Affairs Ministry said 29 of the 41 detainees have been ordered released by the Ethiopian government, and that five have been freed. The ministry said only 12 foreign detainees would remain in custody after the next round of releases.
Human rights groups say the detentions are illegal; Ethiopia has denied that.
Source: AP, April 13, 2007