ALGERIAN Muslim guerrillas say they are holding seven French monks seized one month ago and have threatened to kill them unless they are exchanged for Algerian prisoners, the French Foreign Ministry said yesterday.
A ministry spokesman said the London based Arab newspaper, al Hayat, published extracts from a statement signed by the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), the most violent Muslim fundamentalist group seeking to overthrow the Algiers government.
"The fighters of the GIA have taken seven monks as prisoners of war in the region of Medea and they are still alive until now," the newspaper quoted the statement, dated April 18th and numbered 43 as saying.
The newspaper said it had been sent to the French President, Mr Jacques Chirac.
"We offer to exchange our hostages with yours and we have an exact list of who we mean, including Abdelhak Layada," the statement said, adding other names would be given "if Allah wills".
"The choice is yours. If you wish, release the GIA members and we will release the monks. And if you refuse, we will slaughter them," the statement added.
The newspaper did not make clear whether the statement referred to prisoners held in France or in Algeria.
Layada is a GIA founder who was arrested in Morocco and extradited to Algeria in 1993 where he was sentenced to death. However, Algeria has since suspended executions of militants.
He was said to have led an uprising in the Algerian Sekadj prison, where he was held, in February 1995 in which about 100 prisoners died.
Asked for clarification at a daily briefing, French Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Jacques Rummelhardt, said he had no comment because "for the moment we are not able to say whether the statement is genuine or not".
"Our seven compatriots must be freed in good health as soon as possible. We are in contact with Algerian authorities who are leading searches in the region," he added.
The statement was the first claim of responsibility for the kidnapping since the Trappist monks were abducted in a night raid on an isolated monastery in Medea, 70 km south of Algiers, on March 27th.
France has detained hundreds of suspected GIA members and sympathisers since a wave of bomb attacks killed eight people and wounded scores in France last year.
Two suspected GIA members have been detained in Britain on suspicion of involvement in the bombings. The GIA has claimed," responsibility for the bomb, attacks, saying it wants Paris to end its support for the Algerian government.
The GIA, which has targeted foreigners in Algeria, has also claimed responsibility for the hijacking of a French airliner at Algiers airport in December 1994.
Seven people, including the four hijackers, were killed in the hijacking which ended when French police stormed the aircraft at Marseilles airport.
An estimated 50,000 people, including more than 100 foreigners, have died in civil strife since Algiers cancelled in 1992 elections, which Muslim fundamentalists were poised to win.
. More than 200 alleged Islamic fundamentalists are being held in France awaiting trial on terrorism related charges involving the bombing campaign last year. The attacks are believed to have been inspired by the GIA or logistical support and arms smuggling networks for the GIA.
Judicial sources said it would be difficult to establish which of the 200 were GIA members unless the organisation provided a list of those it wanted exchanged for the monks.