Afghanistan asks elders to help in hostage release

KABUL, July 22 (Reuters) An Afghan government team went to an area today where 23 Koreans were kidnapped to ask tribal elders to mediate for their release while Afghan and foreign troops stood by ready for an operation to free them.

Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said insurgents would start killing the hostages if South Korea did not agree to withdraw its 200 military engineers and medics by 2000IST today and the Afghan government did not free Taliban prisoners.

The South Korean government has said it will withdraw its troops at the end of this year as planned.

''An Afghan government delegation has gone to begin talks with tribal elders in Qarabagh, Ghazni, as part of an effort to try to secure the freedom of the Koreans,'' provincial governor Mirajuddin Pattan told Reuters.

He said the government was keen for the elders to play the role of mediators between the government and the Taliban rebels.

But the Afghan Defence Ministry said Afghan army and coalition forces were also on stand-by in Ghazni province, south of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

''They are awaiting orders to assault suspected locations,'' the ministry said in a statement. ''The operation will be launched if Defence Ministry authorities deem it necessary.'' Taliban spokesmen Yousuf said fighters were holding the captives at different locations and any attempt to free them by force would put the Koreans' lives at risk.

A South Korean government delegation was in the Afghan capital Kabul holding talks with government officials.

''We are working very hard considering the deadline,'' said a South Korean embassy official, but declined to give more details.

URGENT MISSION The Taliban spokesman said militants had killed two German hostages yesterday after Berlin refused to yield to similar demands for it to pull its troops out of Afghanistan.

German authorities have cast doubt on the authenticity of the Taliban spokesman and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said analysis suggested one of the German hostages was alive while the other had died of ''stress and strain''.

The online edition of German weekly Der Spiegel said the dead German hostage, identified Ruediger B., was diabetic and died after his kidnappers failed to get him the necessary medications through intermediaries.

The police chief of Wardak province, north of Ghazni, Mohammad Hewas Mazlum denied media reports quoting him as saying that the body of one of the Germans had been found.

''I have not said to anyone that the body has been found. This is wrong,'' he said.

The 23 Koreans belong to the ''Saemmul Church'' in Bundang, a city on the outskirts of the South Korean capital, Seoul.

Most of them are in their 20s and 30s and include nurses and English teachers. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said on Saturday the Koreans were providing only free medical or educational services with no missionary intentions.

The Koreans are the biggest group of foreigners kidnapped so far in the Taliban campaign to oust the Western-backed government and force out foreign troops.

Tearful relatives prayed for their safe release at their church today.

''My kids went to the war-ravaged country to do volunteer work, carrying love,'' said Seo Jung-bae, 57, whose son and daughter were both taken hostage. ''I feel like chopping off my foot for letting you go. I hope you will return to us and the country without a single hair damaged.'' The area south of Kabul where the Germans and Koreans were seized this week has seen a marked escalation of violence in the last month as Taliban militants have moved in from the south.

Residents say government troops only hold the major towns and much of the countryside is beyond their control.

REUTERS SM RN1847