WORLD / Asia-Pacific
23 S.Koreans kidnapped in Afghanistan
(AP)
Updated: 2007-07-21 13:03
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun speaks to the nation during a news
conference for kidnapped South Koreans in Afghanistan at the Presidental
Blue House in Seoul July 21, 2007. Taliban insurgents have kidnapped 23
Korean Christians from a bus in Afghanistan, officials said on Friday,
the biggest group of foreigners seized so far in the militant campaign to
oust the government and its Western backers. [Reuters]
KABUL, Afghanistan - Taliban militants threatened Friday to kill a group
of abducted South Korean Christians, including 15 women, within 24 hours
unless the Asian nation withdraws its 200 troops from Afghanistan. South
Korea said Saturday it plans to withdraw its forces by the end of this
year as scheduled.
Foreign Minister Song Min-soon told reporters in Seoul that 23 South
Koreans were kidnapped and indicated they are safe. A purported Taliban
spokesman said Friday that the group was holding 18 Koreans.
In the largest abduction of foreigners since the fall of the Taliban
regime in 2001, several dozen fighters kidnapped the South Koreans at
gunpoint from a bus in Ghazni province on Thursday, said Ali Shah
Ahmadzai, the provincial police chief.
"They have got until tomorrow (Saturday) at noon to withdraw their troops
from Afghanistan, or otherwise we will kill the 18 Koreans," Qari Yousuf
Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban, told The Associated Press on
a satellite telephone from an undisclosed location. "Right now, they are
safe and sound."
South Korea has about 200 troops serving with an 8,000-strong U.S.-led
force, which is separate from the 40,000-member NATO-led force.
"The government is in preparations to implement its plan" to pull its
troops out of Afghanistan by the end of this year as previously planned,"
Song said. South Korea's government has not received any official demand
from the militants, he added.
South Korea plans to send officials to Afghanistan later Saturday for
consultations with their Afghan counterparts to try to secure the release
of the South Koreans.
Afghanistan has also set up a special task force and pledged that it will
do everything to win the South Koreans' freedom, Song said of his
telephone conversation with his Afghan counterpart.
It was unclear what the kidnapped Koreans were doing in Afghanistan.
A year ago, hundreds of South Korean Christians were ordered to leave
Afghanistan amid rumors they were proselytizing in the deeply
conservative Islamic nation. A member of that group promised they would
return to the country in smaller groups, but denied charges of spreading
Christianity.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that most of the hostages were
members of the Saemmul Community Church in Bundang, just south of the
South Korean capital, Seoul.
An official at the Presbyterian church confirmed 20 of its members were
in Afghanistan for volunteer work. The group left South Korea on July 13
and was to return on July 23, she said, speaking on condition of
anonymity because she was not authorized to talk to the media.
Outmatched by foreign troops, the Taliban often resort to kidnapping
civilians caught traveling on treacherous roads, particularly in the
country's south, where the insurgency is raging. The tactic hurts
President Hamid Karzai's government by discouraging foreigners involved
in reconstruction projects from venturing into remote areas where their
help is most needed.
The Koreans were seized as they traveled on a privately rented bus along
the main highway from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar, Ahmadzai
said. The militants drove the bus into the desert before abandoning the
vehicle and forcing the group to walk for about one hour, he said.
He said the group was in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif before it
arrived in Kabul.
There were conflicting reports on how many Koreans were kidnapped.
The South Koreans' bus driver, released late Thursday, said there were 18
women and five men on the bus, Ahmadzai said. The Taliban spokesman said
15 women and three men were seized.
The abductions came a day after two Germans and five of Afghan colleagues
working on a dam project were kidnapped in central Wardak province.
Ahmadi said the Taliban were also holding the two Germans, and threatened
to kill them if Germany did not withdraw its 3,000 troops from a NATO-led
force by noon Saturday �� the same deadline as he gave South Korea.
Germany's Foreign Ministry said it was "aware of the statement by the
so-called spokesman of the Taliban" but that it contradicted a statement
the previous day that the Taliban was not holding the Germans.
"We will continue to carefully monitor developments of the situation,"
ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said. "All necessary steps have been
taken. The crisis team continues to work toward a swift release of the
two kidnapped men."
On June 28, another German man was kidnapped in western Afghanistan, but
was released after a week.
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