By Li Jing
The Chinese embassy in Yemen said Monday that two Chinese workers kidnapped there Sunday are safe, and their release is being negotiated.
According to official confirmations by both Chinese and Yemeni authorities, the two Chinese oil company workers, along with two Yemeni drivers and two soldiers, were seized by armed tribesmen in the southeastern province of Shabwa, at around 4 pm, local time.
Chen Jian, a Chinese political counselor at the embassy in Sana'a, told the Global Times Monday by phone that negotiations are ongoing with the Yemeni government on this issue, and the safety of the Chinese workers is being stressed.
"Presently, the two Chinese workers have communicated with the executives of the Chinese oil company they work for, and both of them are in a good and safe condition," Chen said, refusing to release additional information about their employer but adding that the company and the embassy will monitor their situation closely.
The Xinhua News Agency quoted Liu Denglin, Chinese ambassador to Yemen, as saying Sunday that the Chinese men work for the Zhongyuan Oil Field Company.
When asked about the possibility of the Chinese government paying ransoms to free the men, Liu said only that China has a way of handling such cases.
Shabwa Governor Ali Hassan al-Ahmadi said Monday online that he was urging the kidnappers to "unconditionally release their hostages and surrender."
Local dignitaries were also engaged in mediation efforts to secure the release of the hostages, he added.
Furthermore, as a tribal source said Sunday, the armed men seized the Chinese workers and their escort in protest of a fellow tribesman being wounded by police gunfire at a checkpoint.
"The armed men seized the two Chinese nationals from their car in the Mater region" of Shabwa province, 750 kilometers from Sana'a, the source said, adding that the kidnappers belonged to the Laqmush tribe.
Over the past decade, Yemen's powerful tribes have frequently conducted kidnappings of foreigners with the aim of safeguarding their bargaining chips in disputes with the central government.
Of the 200 or so foreigners seized in the country over the past years, all have been released unharmed, except for three Britons and an Australian seized by Islamists in December 1998. The four were killed in a botched rescue bid.
In June last year in the far north of Yemen, however, nine foreigners were seized by unknown parties amid sporadic fighting between the army and Zaidi Shiite rebels.
The bodies of two Germans and a South Korean were found soon afterward.
Five Germans and a Briton are still missing, and Germany's Spiegel magazine reported in January that their abductors were demanding a ransom of $2 million.
Yemen is also battling with a resurgent Al Qaeda, as the ancestral home of the group's leader, Osama bin Laden.
Agencies contributed to this story