“…Would Embolden Them”
JANDA, Afghanistan - Taliban militants released the last seven South Korean hostages on Thursday under a deal with the government in Seoul, ending a six-week drama that the insurgents claimed as a “great victory for our holy warriors.”
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi vowed to abduct more foreigners, reinforcing fears that South Korea’s decision to negotiate directly with the militants would embolden them.
“We will do the same thing with the other allies in Afghanistan, because we found this way to be successful,” he told the Associated Press via cell phone from an undisclosed location.
The seven hostages were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in two separate exchanges close to the central Afghan city of Ghazni, Red Cross officials and an Associated Press reporter said. The freed hostages did not speak to reporters.
The final three released—two women and a man—were handed over by armed men on a main road in Janda district after apparently walking through the desert for some distance. Covered in dust, they were quickly bundled into a Red Cross vehicle and driven away.
The seven were part of a group of 23 church volunteers who were abducted on July 19 as they traveled by bus along a dangerous road in southern Afghanistan. The militants killed two men soon after taking them, and released two women earlier this month in what they termed a “goodwill” gesture. On Wednesday, the Taliban released the 12 other hostages.
The men accompanying the last hostages freed gave an unsigned note to journalists accusing the South Koreans of coming to Afghanistan on a mission to convert the staunchly Islamic country to Christianity.
“They came to our nation to change our faith,” the handwritten note read. “The Afghan people have given their lives for their faith. This is the reason we arrested them.”
The South Korean government and relatives of the hostages—all of whom belonged to a Presbyterian church close to Seoul—have insisted they were not engaged in missionary activities, but were doing aid work such as helping in hospitals.
The identity of the armed men was not clear. The Taliban said earlier they had handed the three hostages to tribal elders who would transfer them to the Red Cross and in Afghanistan, many villagers carry weapons.
The crisis ended under a deal struck Tuesday between Taliban commanders and representatives of the South Korean government, which has been under intense domestic pressure to bring the hostages home safely.
Under the terms of the agreement, Seoul repeated a pledge it had made long before the kidnappings to withdraw its 200 troops in Afghanistan before year’s end and vowed to prevent missionaries traveling to the country.
The Taliban apparently backed down from an earlier demand for a prisoner exchange.
In Washington, the State Department welcomed the hostages’ release. When asked if South Korea’s negotiations with the Taliban set a dangerous precedent, spokesman Tom Casey refrained from directly criticizing the Seoul government.
“I’d simply reiterate that the long-standing U.S. policy is … not to make concessions to terrorists,” he said.
While there was no sign they extracted any other concessions, analysts say the Taliban emerged from the crisis with renewed political legitimacy because for the first time since their 2001 ouster, they negotiated with a foreign government.
“Taliban now have diplomacy, they have got spokesmen, they value cameras, they have a political dimension for their movement, and their aim is to be recognized as legitimate,” said Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center.
South Korea has denied doing anything wrong, saying it was normal practice to negotiate with hostage-takers.
The freed hostages were expected to fly back to South Korea by Sunday after health checks.
Afghanistan has seen a spate of hostage-takings this years. The Taliban are still holding a German engineer and four Afghans kidnapped a day before the South Koreans.
(AP)
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This shit blows me away!
ANYTHING good for the bad guys is bad for the good guys.
You have to be stupid to give in to terrorists.
Give em an inch they will take a mile.
Now more hostages will be taken and killed when countries with strength say no.
August 30th, 2007 at 3:25 pmHere we go, more hostages and more demands. God help the civilized world.
August 30th, 2007 at 3:34 pmI still can’t believe how soft that the ROK government has become. What are they going to do if NK decides to attack?
Negotiate? Sue for peace? Run? Oh, that’s right…the SK’s will just pay them off?
I’m sure the “Dear Leader” in NK is laughing his fat ass off right about now. And his military is licking their chops at the prospect of fighting so many soft touchy-feely SK’s.
Idiots.
August 30th, 2007 at 4:17 pmthey said the same thing after the Italians paid them this spring
the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many
August 30th, 2007 at 5:14 pmWhat the h*ll were those folks doing in Afghanistan in the first place? Didn’t they (and the public who was pressuring the Korean government) know that they were going into a war zone? Don’t these people even read the d*m* news?!??!
August 30th, 2007 at 5:26 pmThis outrages me, because it accomplishes exactly what was entirely predictable - emboldens the Taliban, makes them look like reasonable people who can be negotiated with (forget that they do something unreasonable to begin with)and puts more people at risk.
Arggghhhhh!!
Ahnya hahsh HanGuk, KumOpSumNiDa. KaySikia!
August 30th, 2007 at 6:19 pmROK government … you SUK.
August 30th, 2007 at 6:27 pm“South Korea has denied doing anything wrong, saying it was normal practice to negotiate with hostage-takers.”
if that is true, then we needn’t enlist their “help” in situations such as these ever again.
August 30th, 2007 at 6:40 pmStupid is as stupid does. I have to deal with Koreans in my job. They cannot be trusted. They will lie just as soon as look at you. They may be as bad as muslims when it comes to veracity. NEVER trust them.
August 30th, 2007 at 7:13 pmLet me see if I got this straight, Cowards abduct Pussies and then demand pussies pay, so pussies get cousin cowards to pay cowards to let the pussies go. ———————– it’s a wonderful world.
August 30th, 2007 at 7:19 pmBetween this and the UN story… I don’t know whether to bash my head on the wall or…
What… in the fuck is their problem? I guess no one remembers what Thatcher said, huh? Something about… um… NEVER NEGOTIATING WITH TERRORISTS?! Since when did it become fucking normal to negotiate? WTF, over?
August 31st, 2007 at 12:23 am