India concerned about hostage peacekeepers

India peacekeepers are now vulnerable in Sierra Leone

India has written to the United Nations to express its concern about 21 Indian peacekeepers being held by Sierra Leonean rebels in a detention camp near the town of Pendembu in the east of the country.

A foreign ministry spokesman described the situation as " totally unacceptable" and said India had asked the UN secretary-general to make the release of the troops the highest of priorities.

The spokesman said a team of Indian defence and foreign ministry officials was in Sierra Leone to assess the situation.

The UN mission in Sierra Leone has also expressed concern over the hostage crisis. The spokesman in Freetown, David Wimhurst, said that indications given by the Revolutionary United Front that the group would be released have not been fulfilled.

They would be the last of around five-hundred UN soldiers to be freed. The group, which had been surrounded by the RUF rebels for a month, was seized on Monday and taken away.

A further group of more than two-hundred UN soldiers have been pinned down by rebels in another part of eastern Sierra Leone since early May.

Robust move

Last week the UN sent about 500 combat-ready troops to the front line where government soldiers are fighting rebels who have been trying to advance on the capital, Freetown.

The troops who are predominantly Indian were sent to take up positions along the main road to Freetown, leaving the government forces free to engage the rebels in rural areas.

Indian peacekeeping troops were sent as reinforcements to Sierra Leone after the hostage drama involving 500 peacekeepers.

At the United Nations in New York, British and American diplomats are discussing a possible new mandate for the mission in Sierra Leone. The proposals include an increase in the force from the current 11,000 to around 17,000 and a more "robust" mandate to defend attacks by rebels.

The diplomats are also discussing the inclusion of Nigerian troops under the UN umbrella instead of working under a separate mandate.