UN concerned for hostages' health

Militants threatening to kill three UN hostages - including Armagh woman Annetta Flanigan - said talks were to begin with Afghan and UN officials today, 10 days after the victims were abducted at gunpoint on a street in the capital.

Manwhile, the United Nations expressed growing concern for their well-being, and appealed along with President Hamid Karzai and Afghanistan’s top general for their immediate release.

Authorities have not confirmed any contact with Jaish-al Muslimeen, a Taliban splinter group demanding a UN pull-out from Afghanistan and the release of Taliban prisoners in exchange for the freedom of the three election workers.

Syed Khaled, a spokesman for the militants, initially claimed that talks had begun on Saturday afternoon at a secret location in southern Afghanistan. But he said later that an Afghan government delegation arrived too late.

“Our people thought the talks might continue late into the night, so the two sides agreed to hold them tomorrow,” Khaled said. “We hope that the Afghan government delegation will be empowered to solve the issue quickly.”

The abduction of Annetta Flanigan, Angelito Nayan of the Philippines and Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo was the first of foreigners in Kabul since the Taliban was ousted in 2001.

The militants released a videotape of the hostages last Sunday fuelling concern that they are copying the tactics of insurgents in Iraq.

The group says Flanigan is ailing under the strain of her captivity and that all three are suffering from cold and a diet of little more than cookies. They have offered no further proof of their condition.

UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said the concern of relatives, friends and colleagues was increasing “every day, every hour and every minute that goes by”.

If they are suffering, “the best response for their need of medical attention is their immediate release,” Almeida e Silva said.

The spokesman said the commander in chief of Afghanistan’s armed forces, Bismillah Khan, also had condemned the abduction, following the lead of political leaders and religious scholars.

The kidnappers have repeatedly extended a deadline after which they said they would decide whether to kill the hostages. They also demand that British troops leave Afghanistan and that the United States release Muslim inmates from a US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The US military has volunteered to help in any rescue and said it was receiving daily government briefings.

Spokesman Maj. Scott Nelson said yesterday that he couldn’t give details of efforts to free the three because they were at a “sensitive” stage.

Karzai also renewed his condemnation of the kidnapping yesterday, when he received a visit from Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Musharraf did not mention the hostage crisis but pledged a common fight against terrorist groups for the two neighbouring countries, whose relations have been strained by suspicions that militants find sanctuary in Pakistan.

“The success of fighting terrorism in Afghanistan is Pakistan’s success, and our success in Pakistan will be Afghanistan’s success,” Musharraf said.