BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- Germany's government Sunday warned
                 suspected FARC guerrillas to release three of its citizens, including one
                 government aid worker, abducted in Colombia this month or face
                 diplomatic fallout across Europe.

                 While declining to disclose specific actions which could be taken against the
                 Marxist-inspired FARC, engaged in EU-supported peace talks with the
                 Colombian government, a senior German official said the European Union was
                 on board.

                 "The international damage for the FARC, for example, could be very grave if
                 they don't define themselves very quickly and set the people free if they have
                 them. That's all I can say," Georg Boomgaarden, Latin America chief at
                 Germany's foreign ministry, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

                 European involvement in 2-1/2 year old talks with the Revolutionary Armed
                 Forces of Colombia, or FARC, have added crucial legitimacy to the peace
                 process. The 37-year war has claimed 40,000 mainly civilian lives in the past
                 decade.

                 Washington has refused to take part, citing the 1999 murder of three Native
                 American activists mistake n for CIA spies. It is pouring $1 billion into President
                 Andres Pastrana's "Plan Colombia" anti-drug offensive, aimed at stemming the
                 production of cocaine and rebel revenues from the drug trade.

                 Boomgaarden, sent on an emergency visit to Colombia, spent the weekend in
                 the city of Popayan in Cauca province, where the July 18 kidnapping took
                 place. He said the kidnappers have not requested a ransom or contacted German
                 officials.

                 Ulrich Kuenzel, 58, employed by German government aid agency GTZ, was
                 touring agricultural projects in indigenous communities when a black van
                 suddenly cut off his car.

                 Four heavily armed men in ski masks abducted Kuenzel, his younger brother
                 Thomas, and a friend, Reiner Bruchmann. His wife, driving in a separate car,
                 escaped. The abducted were originally from a small town outside of Hanover.

                 Colombia has by far the highest rate of abduction in the world, with more than
                 3,700 kidnappings -- an average of 10 a day -- reported last year, including 22
                 foreigners.

                 Native Colombian Indians, who had benefited from GTZ's development work in
                 Cauca and Narino provinces, have launched their own search effort -- traveling
                 the war-torn countryside on foot, knocking on doors and asking questions.

                 "They sometimes say 'We think they are here, we think they are there.' But in
                 fact we don't know if they are in the region or not. We just don't know where
                 they are," Boomgaarden said.

                 Shortly after the kidnapping, the governor's office in Cauca said a man
                 identifying himself as a FARC commander telephoned to say the Germans
                 would only be released if spraying of the region's crops of coca, the raw
                 ingredient in cocaine, came to an immediate end.

                 Boomgaarden shrugged off the demand and diplomatic sources have voiced
                 skepticism over the call's authenticity.

                 "There is no connection at all. It would be absurd, because Germany normally
                 objects to fumigation," he said.

                 The diplomat said the German government was gathering information from
                 sources "on all sides" of Colombia's conflict. Although the kidnappers' motives
                 were unknown, he said the abduction may have been ordered by armed rebel
                 units in the area -- without the knowledge of FARC political leaders.

                 Rebel fighters use ransom money to help bankroll their war efforts, with
                 foreigners seen as lucrative targets.

                 "The German government never pays ransom," Boomgaarden said. "Those
                 people who took our compatriots must get the message: let them free. Maybe it
                 was an error, we can discuss that. But they have to be freed immediately."

                   Copyright 2001 Reuters.