KABUL, 5 November 2004 — The United Nations said yesterday it was increasingly worried about three of its election workers, abducted at gunpoint in Kabul a week ago by militants who have threatened to kill them. “We are increasingly worried about Shqipe, ‘Lito and Annetta,” UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva told reporters in the Afghan capital, as the latest of three deadlines for their threatened execution passed.

“It is seven days since they were taken, and given the extreme harsh conditions we have serious concerns for their health. The psychological pressure must be tremendous, not knowing what will happen from one day to the next, away from their friends and families. We ask those holding them to release them immediately and unharmed,” the UN spokesman said.

An Afghan militant group that kidnapped three UN workers over a week ago told the government and United Nations yesterday to stop stalling negotiations, adding the hostages were cold and sick.

Jaishul-Muslimeen has threatened to kill the three unless authorities meet a series of demands including the release of all Taleban prisoners, the withdrawal of US troops and the suspension of UN operations in the country.

“It appears the United Nations and the government do not hold the captives’ lives dear and their attitude is such that it can cause loss to the captives,” Sayed Khalid Agha, a spokesman for the Taleban splinter group, told Reuters by satellite phone. Deadlines came and went on Wednesday as the kidnappers sought negotiations with authorities, and a clearly angry Agha accused authorities of trying to buy time.

“Last night, when the deadline finished, they said ‘it is night so we will have negotiations during the day’, but when our people went for talks, none of them had come,” he said. Jaishul-Muslimeen offered a fourth deadline of 10:00 a.m. (0530 GMT) today. “But it depends on the government’s response,” Mohammad Sharif, who said he was part of Jaishul Muslimeen’s 10-member council, told AFP by phone. “We talked today through telephone and they (government mediators) said they will talk with their bosses, so we are waiting for them to contact us.”

The Interior Ministry said it had made some progress on the case. “Progress is being made, we will try our best to find a peaceful solution,” spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told AFP without revealing details. The abduction has cast a pall over the otherwise peaceful Oct. 9 elections and Wednesday’s proclamation of US-backed incumbent Hamid Karzai’s resounding victory.

The kidnappers said Tuesday they had given the United Nations a list of Taleban prisoners held in Afghanistan. The UN has not commented on whether it is negotiating with the hostage-takers. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, a 9,000-strong peacekeeping unit, has offered to help rescue the hostages or secure their release.

The 18,000-strong US-led coalition, which has been in Afghanistan since late 2001 hunting, capturing and killing suspected Taleban and Al-Qaeda fighters, said it was working with the UN, Afghan authorities and ISAF “to come to a peaceful resolution on this”. “Our goal here is to bring the safe return of the hostages back to the United Nations,” US spokesman Maj. Scott Nelson said.

Agha said the hostages were suffering from cold and lack of food, and all three were ailing. “First one woman fell sick and now all three are sick,” he said. “The place where we have kept them is very cold and we also don’t have proper arrangements for food. Even if we don’t do anything to them, cold alone can severely harm them.”

Meanwhile, Karzai said yesterday that warlords and drug barons who flourished during three decades of conflict have no future in a new Afghanistan. Making his acceptance speech a day after being officially declared winner of the country’s first direct presidential election, he said his pre-election vow to eliminate private militias had clearly won the support of the people.

“There will not be any private militia forces in Afghanistan. That’s the first demand of the Afghan people,” he told a news conference broadcast live to his war-ravaged nation.