Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- PetroTrans Co., a Chinese oil- exploration company, denied claims by Ethiopian rebels that a military convoy escorting its workers in the restive Ogaden region was attacked last week.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front's forces were attacked by the Ethiopian army on Aug. 30 after they "pushed back elite troops from the Prime Minister's Special Forces who were trying to escort a Chinese team to Obole oil exploration," the ONLF said in an e-mailed statement on Sept. 1. The Chinese workers were wearing military camouflage clothing, it said.
"PetroTrans is still mobilizing its personnel and equipment so did not have any personnel in the region and did not have any personnel traveling in a military convoy to the region," Philip Hirschler, the company's legal adviser, said in an e-mailed statement today. "PetroTrans is a commercial company and its personnel wear civilian clothing."
The ONLF has been fighting for self-determination in the ethnic Somali region since 1984. In April 2007, the banned group attacked an exploration site at Obole operated by China's Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, killing nine Chinese workers and 65 Ethiopians.
Ethiopia's Mines Ministry signed a deal with PetroTrans for it to seek deposits and develop proven reserves in the region, the state-owned Ethiopian News Agency said on July 22. Petronas Nasional Bhd of Malaysia sold the assets in October.
The Ethiopian army suffered 25 "casualties" in the Aug. 30 attack, according to the statement. The rebel group said earlier last month the deal between PetroTrans and the government would "rob the Ogaden people of their natural resources."
The workers who were wearing army camouflage appeared to be of "Asiatic origin," were travelling in unmarked vehicles and looked like they were prospecting, ONLF spokesman Abdirahman Mahdi said in a phone interview from Washington D.C. today.
"There is no basis for the ONLF claim," Ethiopian Communications Minister Bereket Simon said in a phone interview from the capital, Addis Ababa, today. "They want to appear in the media so they will be taken seriously."
--Editors: Paul Richardson, Alastair Reed.
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