WORLD / Asia-Pacific
Taliban negotiate over hostages
Updated: 2007-07-27 07:11
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan clerics and tribal elders are negotiating for
the release of 22 South Korean hostages, who a Taliban spokesman said
Thursday have been split into small groups and are being fed bread,
yogurt and rice a week after their capture.
A local police chief said the talks have been difficult because the
Taliban's demands were unclear.
"One says, 'Let's exchange them for my relative,' the others say, 'Let's
release the women,' and yet another wants a deal for money," said Khwaja
Mohammad Sidiqi, police chief in Qarabagh. "They have got problems among
themselves."
The Taliban reiterated their demand that jailed militants be freed in
exchange for the captives, and set the latest of several deadlines -
midday Friday - for the condition to be met or more hostages would be
killed.
One of the original group of 23 abducted Koreans, a 42-year-old pastor,
was found slain with multiple gunshots Wednesday. Authorities recovered
the body of Bae Hyung-kyu in Qarabagh district of Ghazni province, where
the South Koreans were seized on July 19.
Bae, a founder of the Saemmul Presbyterian Church, led its volunteer work
in Afghanistan and was killed on his birthday, South Korean church
officials said. An official at the South Korean Embassy in Kabul said
authorities were arranging to repatriate the body.
His mother, 68-year-old Lee Chang-suk, broke into tears as she watched
the televised government announcement of his death. "I never thought it
possible," she said from the southern island of Jeju, according to South
Korea's Yonhap news agency.
At the church, about 1,000 people gathered Thursday evening to mourn Bae
and pray for the other captives, many crying and consoling each other.
Relatives of other abductees, meanwhile, appealed anew for their
relatives' release.
"We hope the negotiations between the Afghan government and Taliban go
well," said Kim Kyung-ja, mother of hostage Lee Sun-young. "Please send
our lovely children home."
Cha Sung-min, 31, whose 32-year-old sister Cha Hye-jin was being held,
said the families were struggling.
"After hearing the sad news, yesterday was a very difficult day," Cha
said. "We believe the best way right now is to trust our government."
South Korean presidential spokesman Chun Ho-sun said the 22 South Koreans
still believed held were not suffering health problems. He said South
Korean President Roh Moo-hyun had spoken with Afghan President Hamid
Karzai about the situation.
But one of the hostages, who identified herself as Yo Syun Ju, told an
Afghan journalist by telephone that all the hostages were sick, the
British Broadcasting Corp. reported. She pleaded for help to secure their
release.
"Tell them to do something to get us released," she said in an interview
in the presence of the Taliban militants holding her captive.
Yo, who said she was from Seoul, described her situation as "dangerous."
"Day by day it is getting very difficult," she said in the interview
obtained by the BBC. "We are all sick and we have a lot of problems."
Local tribal elders and religious clerics who have respect among the
people of Qarabagh district, where the Taliban kidnapped the South
Koreans, have been conducting negotiations with the captors for several
days.
The negotiations have been held over the telephone, said Ghazni police
chief Ali Shah Ahmadzai.
"We will not use force against the militants to free the hostages,"
Ahmadzai said. "The best way in this case is dialogue."
Waheedullah Mujadidi, who heads the delegation, complained that the
Taliban were not being consistent during the negotiations.
The Taliban at one point demanded that 23 jailed militants be freed in
exchange for the Koreans. It is not clear how many militants the Taliban
want freed or which ones.
Afghanistan's government brokered a much-criticized prisoner swap in
March in which five captive Taliban fighters were freed for the release
of Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo. The militants killed
Mastrogiacomo's translator and driver.
Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the hard-line Islamist
Taliban, said they had been contacted by Afghanistan's deputy interior
minister, Maj. Gen. Muhammad Munir Mangal, who said the government would
make a decision regarding the militants' demands by noon Friday.
"If Kabul administration does not solve our problem ... then we do not
have any option but to kill Korean hostages," Ahmadi said.
"The Taliban are not asking for money. We just want to exchange our
prisoners for Korean hostages. ... When they release the Taliban, we will
release the hostages," Ahmadi said by phone from an undisclosed location.
Ahmadi said the 22 hostages were being held in small groups in different
locations and were being fed "no burgers ... but the same food that our
villagers have - bread, yogurt, rice."
The South Koreans, including 18 women, were kidnapped while on a bus trip
through Ghazni province on the Kabul-Kandahar highway, Afghanistan's main
thoroughfare.
Their church said the abductees were not involved in any Christian
missionary work in Afghanistan, and that they provided only medical and
other volunteer aid to distressed people in the war-ravaged country. It
said it will suspend some of its volunteer work in Afghanistan.
Two Germans were also kidnapped last week. One was found dead and the
other apparently remains captive.
In new violence, U.S.-led coalition forces and Afghan troops fought two
separate battles with militants in southern Afghanistan, killing more
than 60 suspected Taliban insurgents. A NATO soldier was killed in
another incident, officials said.
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