GHAZNI, July 29: Taliban militants threatened on Sunday to start killing their 22 South Korean hostages if the government did not accept by noon Monday their demand for the release of jailed rebels.
A government negotiator repeated however that there would be no prisoner exchange and said the Islamic extremists must free the 16 women in the group of Christian aid workers before other demands would be considered.
“We give a last deadline of tomorrow 12 o'clock (0730 GMT) to the Afghan government to give us their last word if they can release our eight suggested prisoners,” Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said.
“Otherwise we will start killing the hostages,” he said.
Four other deadlines set by the militants have lapsed without incident but the Taliban on Saturday expressed impatience, saying 17 of the South Koreans captured 11 days ago were ill and talks must be “speeded up.” The militants however shot dead the leader of the group, 42-year-old Presbyterian pastor Bae Hyung-Kyu, on Wednesday saying he was killed because talks on the crisis had stalled.
The South Koreans had been divided into small groups and were being held in three different provinces, Ahmadi said.
“Some of the hostages have some health problems due to the weather or psychological pressure they feel,” he said. Temperatures are in the high 30s Celsius in the southern province of Ghazni, where the group was kidnapped July 19.
A leading member of a government-appointed negotiating team, Mahmood Gailani, again ruled out releasing Taliban militants.
“It's not government policy to exchange prisoners. No prisoners will be released,” said Gailani, a parliamentarian from Ghazni.
The government was widely criticised when it released five Taliban prisoners in March to free an Italian hostage and President Hamid Karzai vowed afterwards such a deal would not be repeated.
The women must be released before the government would consider other Taliban demands, Gailani said, adding that in “Islamic law and Afghan culture we cannot harm women and should not take women as hostages and prisoners.” Asked if the payment of ransom was a possibility, he said: “We are still exploring our options. We should hear from their side and what their demands are.” Ghazni governor Mirajuddin Pattan added: “After they free the women, we are ready to negotiate with them about the male hostages.”An envoy dispatched from Seoul after the pastor was killed met Karzai over the crisis and said his government would accept “any position” taken by Kabul, according to the president's office said.
“We are well aware of the Afghan culture and the difficulties the Afghan government and people are faced with in their fight against terrorism, and will respect their decision to end the hostage crisis,” it cited envoy Baek Jong-Chun as saying.In Rome meanwhile Pope Benedict XVI urged the Taliban to release the South Koreans, saying holding them contradicted “the most basic rules of civilisation.” Several foreigners have been held this year by militants waging a deadly insurgency against the Western-backed government that replaced the Taliban regime driven from power in late 2001.
Most of have been freed, some apparently after hefty ransom payments, although in the case of the Italian journalist two Afghans were beheaded.
The militants are also holding a German engineer, kidnapped in Wardak province near Kabul a day before the South Koreans, and have demanded the release of 10 prisoners to save his life.
“The German hostage is not doing very well,” Ahmadi said on telephone from an undisclosed location. “He is sick and forgotten and there are no negotiations ongoing about him at all.” The Afghan and German governments have however said that efforts are under way to help the engineer.
KARZAI MEETS ENVOY: President Hamid Karzai met a presidential envoy from Seoul on Sunday to discuss the fate of 22 South Koreans kidnapped by the Taliban, as negotiations for their freedom appeared to make little headway.
Karzai met Baek Jong-Chun at the presidential palace over the Christian aid workers snatched while travelling by bus in the dangerous south of the country on July 19.
Photographers were briefly allowed into the meeting but officials were not immediately available to comment on the talks.
Baek, chief presidential secretary for foreign and security affairs, was dispatched to Afghanistan after the Taliban shot dead the leader of the group, a 42-year-old pastor whose body was found on Wednesday.
Members of a government-appointed negotiating team have however said an exchange of captives was not up for discussion.—AFP
