17 Sep 2009

Somali insurgents have issued a list of demands which they say must be met in return for
the secure release of a French security advisor held since July.

Militant al-Shabaab group issued a statement on Thursday, saying France must withdraw its warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden -- part of an effort to uproot relentless piracy in the Somali waters.

The statement also wants Paris to stop its military and political support for Somalia's 'apostate government' and pull out all its security advisors from the Horn of Africa country.

The French foreign minister rejected their demands, saying the current government 'represents Somalia'.

The al-Qaeda-inspired militants called for an exchange of prisoners and demanded the 'freeing of mujahedeen prisoners in countries whose names will be announced later'.

The rebels also called for the withdrawal of African peacekeepers from Somalia, especially those from Burundi.

But French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner flatly rejected rebel calls on Paris to stop supporting the Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed as a condition for the release of the hostage security advisor.

"It is a government that was founded in Djibouti with the support of a majority in Somalia," Kouchner told France Info radio.

"I have met President Sharif and his ministers on two occasions, and they represent Somalia," Kouchner added. "It is completely false to say we are supporting an illegal government."

The foreign minister reaffirmed that France 'hopes to secure the release of this last hostage', but warned that 'negotiations cannot just be carried out simply via the media'.

Thursday's demands came nearly two months after the two French advisors were seized from their hotel in Somalia's lawless capital, Mogadishu, on July 14.

One of the kidnapped Frenchmen, captured by a different militant group on the same day, managed to escape last month and returned to France.

presstv