Mbeki joins hostage talks

Former president Thabo Mbeki has been roped into urgent diplomatic negotiations aimed at securing the release of four South African police peackeepers kidnapped in war-torn Darfur.

SA police spokesman Major-General Nonkululeko Mbatha saidMbeki, chairman of the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel for Sudan, had been approached to help facilitate the release of the four.

The Sunday Times was able to track down the family of one of the peacekeepers, Michael Annett, a former top Cape Town narcotics policeman.

The 51-year-old was based at Cape Town central police station until he joined the United Nations/African Union peacekeeping force, Unamid, seven months ago.

His son, David, 24, said: "He called my mother, Susan, every day that he was away, and he would regularly send her SMSes when he was travelling.

''She spoke to him last Saturday, and they got cut off. He never mentioned that something sinister was going on."

Annett and his colleagues were kidnapped last Sunday.

"My mother is beside herself with worry, and although he might be released soon, she says she will only be at peace when he walks through the door. She hasn't gone to work and barely eats or sleeps," said David.

He said his family was informed on Tuesday of the kidnapping.

Mbatha said an inter-departmental South African team was assisting the UN, the main negotiators.

A new rebel group, the Movement for the Struggle for the People of Darfur (MSDP), led by Mohamed Abdallah Sharar, has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and demanded $700000.

Military personnel in Sudan told the Sunday Times that the rebels appeared to be continually moving the four South Africans around southern Sudan.

A senior official based in Sudan said the rebels were in regular touch with the UN and South African authorities.

South Africa's acting ambassador in Sudan, Rashida Adam, said that, based on telephone discussions with the rebels, the South Africans appeared to be in good health.

David Annett said his father had been in the police force "for most of his life" and was passionate about his job.

"Last year, he was given an award for being a top narcotics cop, and he is highly qualified."

South Africa played a significant role in the recent historic Sudanese elections, held over five days last week for the first time in 24 years.

Brigalia Bam, chairman of South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission, is in Sudan, where she has been assisting the local electoral body. South Africa also assisted with the printing of ballot papers.

Vote counting started on Friday amid allegations of ballot-rigging by both supporters of President Omar al-Bashir in the north and ex-rebels in the south.