Talks for release of UN officials in Afghanistan Fail
By Husnia Natoor - Pakistan Times Foreign Correspondent

KABUL (Afghanistan): Militants holding hostage three foreign UN workers in Afghanistan said they negotiated Sunday with Afghan government and UN officials in southern Afghanistan but that the meeting ended without results.

A senior government security official confirmed that the talks had taken place but ended inconclusively. The hostages were thought to have been moved to the region close to the Pakistani border from the Kabul area, he said, according to a New York Times report on Monday.

List of prisoners

A spokesman for the kidnappers told news agencies that his group had handed over a list of 25 prisoners being held in Afghanistan whom they wanted released and that talks would resume today. Afghan and UN officials had traveled to the meeting with his group, he said.

His group, a splinter band from the Taliban movement called Jaish-e-Muslimeen, or Army of Muslims, may drop its more extreme demands if the government releases the prisoners, he added. The change in tone has led government officials and diplomats to express hope that the group is prepared to negotiate a way out and not behead captives, as militant groups have done in Iraq.

Talks on Ransom

One foreign official in Kabul said ransom money was being discussed. The kidnappers had threatened to kill the three hostages — a British-Irish woman, Annetta Flanigan; a Kosovo Albanian woman, Shqipe Habibi; and a Filipino diplomat, Angelito Nayan, who had been assigned to the United Nations to work on elections in Afghanistan.

The three were kidnapped Oct. 28 in daylight on a busy street here. A week ago, the militants released a video of the three in captivity.

Withdrawal of Missions, Troops

The militants have called for the withdrawal of the UN mission and British and US troops from Afghanistan. They also demand the release of all prisoners who express allegiance to the former Taliban rulers of Afghanistan and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Senior government and religious leaders have condemned the kidnapping. The government, with the local mobile-phone company, Afghan Wireless Communications Co., sent thousands of text messages urging anyone who had information about the whereabouts of the hostages to call a secure hot line.●