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WORLD / Middle East
Three Koreans freed in Afghanistan
(AP)
Updated: 2007-08-29 16:24
The Taliban representatives from right, Mawlawi Nasrullah, Qari Bashir
and an unidentified Korean representative talk to the press at the Afghan
Red Crescent Society of Ghazni province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan on
Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2007. [AP]
QALA-E-QAZI, Afghanistan -- Taliban militants released three South Korean
hostages on Wednesday, the first of 19 captives scheduled to be freed
under a deal struck between the insurgents and the South Korean
government.
The three, all women, were first handed to tribal leaders, who took them
to an agreed location where officials of the International Committee of
the Red Cross picked them up, according to an Associated Press reporter
who witnessed the hand over.
The three arrived in the central Afghan village of Qala-E-Kazi in a
single car, their heads covered with red and green shawls. They said
nothing to reporters, who were asked by Red Cross representatives not to
question them.
Red Cross officials quickly took the three to their vehicles before
leaving for the local Red Cross headquarters in the nearby town of
Ghazni, witnesses said.
In Seoul, South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Hee-yong said the
three, who he identified as Ahn Hye-jin, Lee Jung-ran and Han Ji-young,
did not appear to have any health problems.
To secure the hostages' release, South Korea reaffirmed a pledge to
withdraw its 200 troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year and
prevent South Korean Christian missionaries from working there. The
Taliban apparently backed down on earlier demands for a prisoner exchange.
The Taliban originally kidnapped 23 hostages as they traveled by bus from
Kabul to the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar on July 19. In late
July, the militants executed two male hostages, and they released two
women earlier this month.
The insurgents have said they will free the hostages, who they are
holding in different locations, over the next few days. Mullah Basheer, a
Taliban commander, said that up to seven other hostages would "possibly"
be released later Wednesday.
The accord for the South Koreans' release came during one of the
bloodiest periods of the Taliban's war against U.S. and NATO forces since
the Taliban regime was toppled in late 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks on
the United States.
South Korea's decision to hold face-to-face negotiations with the
militants may dismay the United States government, which refuses to talk
to the Taliban.
"Maybe they (the Taliban) did not achieve all that they demanded, but
they achieved a lot in terms of political credibility," said Mustafa
Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Dubai-based Gulf
Research Center. "The fact that the Koreans negotiated with them directly
and more or less in their territory ... is in itself an achievement."
US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Tuesday that the US wanted
the Koreans returned to their families and stressed that US policy was
not to make concessions to terrorists.
The deal for the hostages' release was struck during talks between
Taliban negotiators and South Korean diplomats in the central city of
Ghazni. The Afghan government was not party to the negotiations, which
were mediated by the ICRC.
The hostages' relatives in South Korea welcomed news of the deal.
"I would like to dance," said Cho Myung-ho, mother of 28-year-old hostage
Lee Joo-yeon.
South Korean presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-sun said the deal had been
reached "on the condition that South Korea withdraws troops by the end of
the year and South Korea suspends missionary work in Afghanistan."
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