GHAZNI, Aug 8: Concerns grew on Wednesday for 21 South Koreans threatened with death by their Taliban captors after the US and Afghan presidents vowed not to cut any deal for their release.
The Afghan interior ministry also reiterated that an exchange of Taliban prisoners for the release of the ailing hostages — as demanded by the hardline militia — “would not be lawful or a way out of this crisis”.
Authorities were still trying to resolve the crisis through negotiations, chiefly through tribal elders and religious leaders, interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told reporters in Kabul.
“How much we will be successful in this, the passage of time will tell. We're working on this very seriously,” Bashary said.
He said there was a “significant” troop presence in the southern province of Ghazni, the capital of which is just 140 kilometres south of Kabul, where the aid workers were abducted July 19 and are still believed to be held.
The government had the ability to launch an operation to release them, he said.
“The reason why we haven't yet is because we don't want to risk their lives, and the Korean government has also demanded us to not launch a military operation,” Bashary said.
The Taliban, involved in the separate kidnapping of a German engineer also held for three weeks and believed to be in ill health, had been awaiting the outcome of talks that ended on Monday between US President George W. Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
The presidents, under pressure from South Korea to help bring an end to the crisis, reiterated their opposition to any deal with the insurgents and called on the Taliban to release the Koreans immediately.
“There will be no quid pro quo, the Taliban cannot be emboldened by this,” US national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe said afterwards.
The Afghan government was heavily criticised when it freed five senior Taliban prisoners in March to gain the release of an Italian reporter.
In what may have been a step back from the Taliban's orginal demand, or a propaganda ploy, spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said on Tuesday the insurgents were willing to swap some of the female South Korean hostages for Afghan women held at US military bases in Afghanistan.
But the US-led coalition here says it has no women in its custody. Sixteen of the hostages, sent by their Seoul church on an aid mission to risky southern Afghanistan, are women, and the Taliban has said most are ill.
South Korean embassy officials in Kabul have said they are hopeful of face-to-face talks with the Taliban, although a date and venue have yet to be fixed.
“Nothing has been decided yet,” an embassy official said on Wednesday on condition of anonymity, adding there was “continuous contact” between a South Korean negotiating team and the Taliban.
South Korea “understands the situation of the US and the Afghan governments. But from our side we must do our best to find any fruitful result from our talks,” he said. “We are worrying so much all the time (about the hostages).”—AFP