French pair plead for help in Afghanistan

Two French aid workers kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan have made a tearful appeal to Paris for help, saying otherwise they will be beheaded and their heads returned to France.

"Please do what they want," said a Frenchwoman who identified herself as Celine in a video CD obtained by Reuters yesterday. Celine is wearing what appears to be a white headscarf in the black-and-white footage, which runs a little over three minutes. The two French spoke in English.

She wept as she talked. The Taliban said the video was taken on Friday and details embedded in the CD showed it was made on Friday.

Celine and male French companion Eric, working for Terre d'Enfance, were kidnapped on April 5 with three Afghan colleagues in Nimroz province, a thinly populated desert region between Iran and Helmand, Afghanistan's southern opium centre.

The Taliban have not detailed any ransom demands and the French pair did not say what was needed for their release. Terre d'Enfance focuses on education and other projects for children. The video also shows the three Afghan hostages, named by the French pair as Hazrat, Rasoul and Hashim, crouching and blindfolded, with a man whose face was hidden by a traditional black and white Afghan scarf standing over them with a gun.

In Paris, the French government said it was studying the video, but made no comment. Karzai last week ruled out any more prisoner swaps with the Taliban.

But the presidential palace said yesterday Karzai had been phoned by his French counterpart asking for help. Karzai assured Jacques Chirac Afghanistan would do all it could.