The hostages, who included 38 UN military observers, West African peacekeepers, journalists and aid workers, were seized on Wednesday when they travelled to the Okra hills region east of the capital Freetown for the release of some 200 children taken prisoner during the war.

Reuters correspondent Christo Johnson, one of the two released on Thursday, described the hostage-takers as former soldiers loyal to a military Junta that ousted elected president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in 1997 and said that they felt neglected by a July 7 peace deal.

They demanded food and medicine and the release of their commander, former military ruler Johnny Paul Koroma, who they said was being held against his will by their allies in the mainstream Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel movement.

``We wantthe government and particularly the international community to understand that we as soldiers were neglected in the Lome peace accord,'' Johnson quoted a spokesman for the former soldiers as saying.

He said that the hostage-takers told their captives they had nothing to fear and that all were in good health. They called for Kabbah, RUF leader Foday Sankoh, who is in Togo, and Liberia's president, Charles Taylor, to secure Koroma's release. Taylor has been accused of backing the RUF.