Pair Offer To Swap For Hostages

Two German tourists who have offered to exchange themselves for a Spokane psychologist and three other Western hostages said Kashmiri rebels contacted them Tuesday and told them to remain in the war-torn region to await further instructions.

But it was not possible to independently confirm their claim that Al-Faran had called them on their satellite telephone.

In addition, questions arose about the Germans’ professional background, and a diplomat at the German Embassy in New Delhi said the German government does not support their mission.

The two Germans traveled to Kashmir in northern India this week in an effort to win the freedom of four tourists - a German, two Britons and Donald Hutchings of Spokane - who were kidnapped in July.

Al-Faran has demanded that India free 15 jailed Kashmiri rebels, but it refuses to. Efforts by Indian negotiators and diplomats at the German, U.S. and British embassies to negotiate the captives’ release have not been successful.

The two Germans appealed to Al-Faran in a front-page article Tuesday in the Daily Aftab, a leading Urdu-language newspaper in Srinagar, the center of the battle for independence in Kashmir.

Baron Von Zschinsky and Juergen Sick urged the militants to release the hostages “in the name of Allah and humanity,” the newspaper said. They offered themselves as alternative hostages if the militants agreed to free the four Westerners.