Korea readies for long battle over hostages

Korea readies for long battle over hostages

Taliban resumes threat to kill: AIP

The Taliban yesterday resumed its threat to kill the 21 South Korean hostages as Seoul officials and the Taliban struggled to come up with an appropriate venue to hold a direct face-to-face meeting, originally targeted for the past weekend.

U.S. President George W. Bush and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai, in the meantime, were set to hold the first of the two-day-long summit talks late last night.

The two presidents were expected to discuss how to solve the crisis, the new Afghan administration's largest ever abduction case.

Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press quoted purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi as saying that the South Korean government was not putting enough efforts to release the Taliban prisoners.



In a telephone conversation with the news agency, Ahmadi admitted the group has been contacted directly by the South Korean government and that the Seoul officials were “repeating” how they were putting their best efforts to get consensus from the United States for the prisoner swap and to acquire the United Nations’ security guarantees for the face-to-face meeting.

Conflicting Ahmadi’s claims, Japan’s Asahi Shinbun reported that the South Korean government has informed the Taliban that it has no control over the decision to release the imprisoned Taliban fighters.

Taliban demand they need United Nations security guarantees should the face-to-face negotiations be held outside Taliban-controlled areas.

“But these efforts are not enough to solve the abduction case that has entered its 16th day,” Ahmadi was quoted as saying.

“As we can no longer wait, we can kill the hostages anytime,” Ahmadi said.

The Taliban had shown a more flexible position later last week as preparations began for a direct contact between South Korea and the Taliban.

The resumed threat appeared to be an attempt to pressure South Korea in the stalling preparation.

Later in the evening, a South Korean government official told reporters that a Korean Embassy official in Afghanistan was able to have a direct telephone conversation with one of the hostages on Saturday.

“During the telephone contact with the kidnap group, we were able to talk to one of the hostages on the 4th in the afternoon,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

“The conversation was brief. We cannot reveal the content for the sake of the captives’ safety.” The official also declined to give specifics on the identity of the hostage or who initiated the direct contact.

The Afghan government has vowed not to bow to the Taliban's demands for a prisoner swap and the United States agrees that no concessions will be made to terrorists.

The two governments have also agreed that they will not launch military rescue operations without Seoul's consent, Yonhap News reported, citing an unidentified diplomatic source.

"There have been a series of reports of (possible) military operations against the Taliban, but the U.S. has reaffirmed its stance not to launch a military operation without the consent of the South Korean government," the source in Washington was quoted as saying.

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi was also quoted by China's Xinhua news agency as saying that Kabul would not launch a rescue operation without clearance from President Karzai.

Raising new speculation of Pakistan's possible involvement in the case, the Ghazni governor said it would be better for Korea to pressure the Pakistani government to help, Reuters reported.

Accusing Pakistan's state intelligence agency of working with the militants holding the hostages, Merajuddin Pathan was quoted as telling Reuters, "In the beginning it was the local Taliban, but after a few days, Pakistani Taliban and Inter Service Intelligence officers disguised as Taliban arrived in the region and they took control."

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was quoted as telling U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a telephone conversation last week that Pakistan has no links or contacts with the Taliban.

Taliban spokesman Ahmadi also denied the connection.

“There is no Pakistani intelligence official within the kidnappers or any Pakistani member in the Taliban,” he was quoted as telling the Afghan Islamic Press.

Pakistan's intelligence service is dubbed the "godfather of the Taliban" in Afghanistan, reportedly playing a key role in the Taliban's power seize in 1996.

The Taliban spokesman was also quoted as saying in news reports that the group would deliberate over an offer by a team of private Afghan doctors to treat the remaining hostages, two of whom are reported to be seriously ill.

A group of Afghan doctors led by Dr. Mohammad Hashim Wahaaj have been waiting in Ghazni to see the hostages.

In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said the United States does not oppose Seoul's contacts with the kidnappers, as talks continued over the weekend on how to arrange a direct meeting between South Korea and the Taliban.

"Conversations are not anything that anyone's ever objected to any more than we would object to a police negotiator talking to a hostage taker here domestically," he said.

Twenty-three South Korean church aid workers were taken hostage on July 19. Two males have since been shot dead, including the leader of the group, pastor Bae Hyung-kyu.

The Taliban demands at least eight of its prisoners be released in exchange for the remaining hostages.

By Lee Joo-hee

(angiely@heraldm.com)



2007.08.06

No deal if it spurs kidnappings: Karzai

I really hope this sad story end soon. god will be with you.

No deal if it spurs kidnappings: Karzai

Afghan president discusses hostages, security situation in summit with Bush

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he would do everything to help free 21 South Korean missionaries, short of actions that would encourage more hostage-taking, AFP reported Monday.

Asked in an interview with CNN whether he would negotiate with the Taliban kidnappers to secure the release of the hostages, Karzai said: "We will try everything to have them released safely and in security.

"We will do everything other than encouraging hostage-taking and terrorism to have them released," he added.

The interview was recorded on Saturday ahead of Karzai's departure for the United States for two-day talks with President George W. Bush.

Afghan negotiators on Saturday repeated that they had ruled out a prisoner exchange, and said any deal to free the group would have to involve a ransom payout. Karzai said he is talking with his government's officials about the case "on an hourly basis."

He said the kidnappers, who seized 23 South Korean church aid workers on July 19 and have killed two of them to try to force the government to release Taliban prisoners, were mainly foreigners.

"These terrorists, as you know, mostly of foreign origin, foreign backing. But since the hostage-taking took place in Afghanistan, it brings us a bad name," Karzai said.

South Korea is pressing the United States to intervene in the crisis and a top U.S. diplomat said late Thursday there was "potential" for military pressure against the Taliban to try to free them.

Karzai arrived in the United States on Sunday afternoon. On Monday, Bush and Karzai are to hold a news conference at 11:25 a.m. EDT, Reuters reported.

The drug trade, economic development and the fate of the 21 hostages were likely to be high on the agenda for the two days of discussions.

But Karzai, who rose to power in 2002 with U.S. backing, introduced a potential wrinkle in the talks with some friendly public comments about Iran, considered by Washington a major threat to global stability.

In the interview broadcast on CNN, Karzai appeared to turn back U.S. allegations that Iranian arms were helping to erode the security situation in Afghanistan. "So far, Iran has been a helper and a solution," AFP quoted him as saying.

"Iran has been a supporter of Afghanistan, in the peace process that we have and the fight against terror, and the fight against narcotics in Afghanistan," Karzai said in the interview conducted Saturday.

He went on to say that Afghanistan and Iran had "very, very good, very, very close relations. ... We will continue to have good relations with Iran. We will continue to resolve issues, if there are any, to arise."

His remarks differed markedly from the U.S. stance, which sees Iran as a major menace that bankrolls terrorists, supplies arms to insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, and seeks to develop nuclear weapons.

The U.S. position was reiterated Sunday by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as she defended the U.S. decision to sell tens of billions of dollars in arms to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states to thwart Iranian ambitions.

"I don't think anybody doubts that Iran constitutes a major challenge, security challenge, to our friends, our allies, and therefore to our interests in the Gulf region," Rice told CBS television.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who just returned from a Middle East swing with Rice, offered in response to Karzai's comments that Iran was "playing both sides of the street in Afghanistan."

"I think they're doing some things to help the Afghan government," Gates told CNN. "I think they're also doing things to help the Taliban, including providing weapons."

The White House earlier said Bush and Karzai would discuss Washington's war on terror and "review their work together to enhance Afghanistan's long-term democracy, prosperity, and security."

Karzai also indicated that security forces were no closer than they were a few years ago to finding bin Laden, the elusive chief of the al-Qaida network.

"We are not closer, we are not further away from it. We are where we were a few years ago," Karzai said.

"I definitely know he cannot be in Afghanistan. Where he is is a question I cannot answer at this point."

Gates, when asked about Karzai's downbeat assessment, told CNN, "We're working the problem. ... We are dedicating significant resources to trying to find him."

The Taliban insurgency began months after their 2001 ouster by U.S. forces and has intensified, having already claimed thousands of lives, mainly of militants.

But a counteroffensive by U.S. and NATO forces has led to increasing civilian deaths, and Karzai has angrily accused foreign soldiers of an "extreme use of force."

Bush is expected to reassure him that the U.S. and NATO are concerned about the bloody repercussions and understand the political pressure he is facing.

From news reports



2007.08.07