Korean negotiators accompanied by Afghan elders and clerics met
face-to-face with the kidnappers of 23 South Koreans yesterday as a
threatened Taliban deadline to execute them passed by once
again.
Purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said late
yesterday negotiations were in the "final stage," but he provided
no other details.
The Korean negotiators met the kidnappers somewhere in Ghazni
province, said a provincial official who asked not to be identified
because of the sensitivity of the situation. The official said the
militants were now demanding monetary payment for the release of
the hostages.
Previously, Yousef said the militants wanted 23 Taliban
prisoners released in exchange for the lives of the hostages.
The South Korean hostages, including 18 women, were kidnapped on
Thursday while riding a bus through Ghazni province on the
Kabul-Kandahar highway, Afghanistan's main thoroughfare.
South Korea's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said it asked the
Afghan military to refrain from conducting operations near the
location where the hostages were believed to be held, out of
concern the kidnappers could be provoked.
Villagers in Ghazni held a rally demanding the hostages be
released, said Mohammad Zaman, the deputy provincial police chief.
Some carried banners and shouted slogans calling for the Koreans to
be freed, he said. A television reporter saw 100 to 150 villagers
demonstrating.
"We want the Taliban to release them, because they are guests,"
Zaman said. "They are in Afghanistan and we want them to be
safe."
The South Korean church that the abductees attend has said its
members were involved in medical and volunteer aid - not Christian
missionary work.
South Korea has about 200 troops serving with the 8,000-strong
US-led coalition in Afghanistan, largely working on humanitarian
projects. They are scheduled to leave Afghanistan at the end of
2007.
Most of the Koreans are in their 20s and 30s, and include nurses
and English teachers. It is the largest abduction of foreigners in
the Taliban campaign to oust the Afghan government and eject
foreign troops.
(China Daily via agencies July 25, 2007)
