GHAZNI (Afghanistan), Aug 4: A purported South Korean hostage made an emotional plea for help in a telephone call with AFP on Saturday as an Afghan negotiator again ruled out freeing Taliban prisoners in exchange for the 21 captives.

The woman, who said she was being held with three others in the church aid group captured more than two weeks ago, said the captives were ill and finding it hard to survive.

“I don’t want to die. We want to go home,” she said in English in a call set up by Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi. “I don’t know how long we can survive,” she said.

One of her purported captors telephoned an AFP journalist from an unknown location and then handed the phone to the woman, who introduced herself with a Korean name that was not recognised.

“Every day it’s really hard to survive. We really want to go home, we are all sick and weak,” she said.

“Please save us... we are all innocent people, we came here to help sick people but now we are all sick.” She appeared to ask that no military operation be conducted to free the group, saying, “please no war, if there is a war we will be really in danger.” Speaking in Afghanistan’s Dari language earlier, the woman said the group had been split up.

Their captors “threaten us, they tell us they’ll kill us,” she said.

Ahmadi said a Taliban delegation was ready to meet South Korean representatives face to face, in another country if necessary, as long as the United Nations guaranteed the “safe return” of the negotiators.

The UN in Afghanistan said it had not received a direct request on this.

An Afghan negotiator again ruled out an exchange of Taliban prisoners to free the 21 captives.

Negotiations over the church aid workers were now being conducted mainly by a South Korean delegation, said Mahmood Gailani, a member of the negotiating team.

Meanwhile, the Afghan government and Taliban kidnappers on Saturday sought a venue for negotiations to try to free the South Korean hostages, the provincial police chief said.

A South Korean delegation is in Ghazni, seeking direct talks with the kidnappers.—Agencies