Leone hostages start third day as captives

They demanded food and medicine and the release of their commander, former military ruler Johnny Paul Koroma, who they said was being held against his will by their allies in the mainstream Revolutionary United Front RUF rebel movement.

8220;We want the government and particularly the international community to understand that we as soldiers were neglected in the Lome peace accord,8221; Johnson quoted a spokesman for the former soldiers as saying.

He said that the hostage-takers told their captives they had nothing to fear and that all were in good health. They called for Kabbah, RUF leader Foday Sankoh, who is in Togo, and Liberia8217;s president, Charles Taylor, to secure Koroma8217;s release. Taylor has been accused of backing the RUF.

Fighters from the rebel alliance, which came close to taking the capital Freetown in January, stand accused by victims and officials alike of conducting a reign of terror in which they have hacked hands and arms off civilians.

The July 7 peace deal gives the rebels a role in government.

The hostages, who included 38 UN military observers, West African peacekeepers, journalists and aid workers, were seized on Wednesday when they travelled to the Okra hills region east of the capital Freetown for the release of some 200 children taken prisoner during the war.