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Ethiopian hijackers in custodyKHARTOUM, Sudan -- Four men and one woman have been taken into custody in Sudan after an Ethiopian plane hijack ended peacefully. The aircraft, with about 51 passengers and crew on board, was bound for the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, when the hijackers forced it to fly to Sudan late on Thursday. The hostage standoff ended about nine hours later when the hijackers surrendered peacefully early on Friday morning. Negotiators from the U.N., the Red Cross, and government officials, had reached a deal with the hijackers about 30 minutes before the passengers were released, Sudanese minister of information Ghazi Salah el-Din Atabani told CNN.
"We convinced the hijackers that they can get fair treatment according to international law and not to be turned over to Ethiopia," he said. "We extended to them alternatives, which were not very attractive." "I think they just wanted to get out of the country," he added. "They have been granted asylum, which does not confer any immunity from the crimes that have been committed." A hijacker who identified himself as Bagemberman Tebegne, a member of Ethiopia's air force, left the plane shortly before his accomplices surrendered and was allowed to speak to reporters. He said the hijackers seized the aircraft to "draw international attention to the terrible economic and political situation in Ethiopia and the lack of freedoms." Earlier, the hijackers released six women and five children. Atabani said they were all in good condition, except for one child, who was taken to a hospital because she was dehydrated. Atabani said the hijackers were students, and claimed to have military explosives. He said one of their demands had been for asylum. Sudanese television reported the hijackers were university students who wanted to talk to diplomats from the U.S. or the UK. Sudan's Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite television that the hijackers landed in Khartoum because they were running out of fuel, adding he did not know what their intended destination was. A crew member who managed to escape out the back of the plane said the hijackers were armed with hand grenades and pistols, the TV report said. A week ago, Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa experienced its worst civil unrest in years when student protests, demanding political and academic freedoms, degenerated into riots. About 40 people died when police opened fire and thousands of students were rounded up in the aftermath. On Thursday, Ethiopian police freed most of an estimated 3,000 students arrested in the wake of the riots. However, Ethiopian government sources said the hijack was not linked to the protests, adding that the group were seeking asylum in the West after failing aviation exams. "They are failures," an Ethiopian government source told Reuters news agency. "These young men will probably spend a long time in prison." It was at least the third hijack in Ethiopia in 10 years. In 1996, three Ethiopians demanding to go to Australia hijacked an Ethiopian Airlines airliner and kept control for nearly four hours before the pilot ditched in the Indian Ocean after it ran out of fuel. In 1993, Ethiopian security forces stormed a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines plane, killing two of four hijackers and a passenger. RELATED STORIES:
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