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GHAZNI, Afghanistan: A captive South Korean aid
worker made a desperate appeal for help as a looming Taliban
deadline sparked frantic negotiations on Friday to resolve the
Afghanistan hostage crisis.
Taliban militants extended until
midday Friday (0730 GMT) the deadline to arrange the release of the
remaining 22 Christian aid workers now in their ninth day of
captivity. The leader of the group has already been killed.
The Islamic guerrillas are
insisting on the release of eight Taliban prisoners held in
Afghanistan in return for the aid workers’ freedom, although Seoul
has said the rebels’ demands are “considerably fluid and not
unified.”
“The negotiations continue for
the release of the South Koreans. We are optimistic for a desired
positive outcome,” said Alishah Ahmadzai, the police chief of
southern Ghazni province, where the group was kidnapped.
But authorities did not want to
break President Hamid Karzai’s pledge not to release more rebel
prisoners after his government in March released five Taliban in
exchange for an Italian reporter, Ahmadzai said.
“Our goal is to seek ways on
how we can free the hostages without compromising our laws and
regulations in regards with such cases,” the police chief told AFP.
The militants agreed to the new
deadline—which comes two days after the previous “final
deadline”—following a request from the Afghan government,
Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP from an unknown location.
The move came as one of the
hostages made an emotional plea for help in a reported telephone
interview with US television network CBS, apparently conducted in
the presence of her captors.
“We are in a very difficult
time. Please help us,” said the woman, who CBS said gave her name
as Yo Cyun Ju, after the interview shown Thursday organized by a
Taliban commander.
“We are all pleading for you to
help us get out of here as soon as possible. Really, we beg you.”
“All of us are sick and in very
bad condition,” she said, begging Seoul and the international
community to make a deal with the Taliban to win their freedom.
She went on to describe her
captivity as a “very difficult life every day,” and “a very
exhausting situation,” CBS reported.
The bullet-riddled body of one
hostage was dumped in a desert area on Wednesday. The rebels said
they had killed him because talks with the Afghan government and
South Korean officials had stalled.
South Korea named him as
42-year-old Bae Hyung Kyu, a Presbyterian pastor and the head of the
mostly female aid mission based at a Seoul church, which was
reportedly in the country to provide free medical services.
Waheedullah Mujadadi, the head of
the Afghan government delegation negotiating the hostages’
release, confirmed the new deadline and added “we are trying with
all of our ability to win the safe and sound release of the South
Koreans.”
The South Koreans were seized
while traveling on the highway between Kabul and Kandahar last
Thursday in Ghazni province about 140 kilometers (90 miles) south of
Kabul.
The Taliban have also demanded
that Seoul withdraw its 200 troops serving with US-led coalition
forces in Afghanistan. South Korea responded by saying it would pull
them out as previously scheduled by the end of the year.
South Korean President Roh Moo
Hyun’s special envoy is to arrive in Afghanistan later Friday and
will meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to try to resolve the
crisis, Yonhap news agency reported.
The militants are also holding a
hostage from Germany. The rebels have also demanded the withdrawal
of all German forces from the war-torn country, as they step up
their use of kidnap as a negotiating tool.
 --AFP
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