Taliban Releases All South Korean Hostages
Posted August 30, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Taliban freed the final three South Korean hostages Thursday afternoon. The captives were handed over to Reto Stocker, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Afghanistan, in two stages on a road in Ghazni province in the central part of the country.
Two men and two women were released in the morning. Hours later, two women and one man who were covered in dust walked out of the desert, accompanied by three armed men, and also were turned over to waiting ICRC officials a few miles from the earlier site.
Under the terms of a deal reached Tuesday, South Korea reaffirmed a pledge it made before the hostage crisis began to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year. Seoul also said it would prevent Christian missionaries from working in the staunchly Muslim country, something it had already promised to do.
The Taliban could emerge from the hostage-taking with enhanced political legitimacy for negotiating successfully with a foreign government. The move has been criticized by many nations with troops still in the region, as well as the Afghan government.
“One has to say that this release under these conditions will make our difficulties in Afghanistan even bigger,” says Commerce Minister Amin Farhang. “We fear that this decision could become a precedent. The Taliban will continue trying to take hostages to attain their aims in Afghanistan.”
This latest development comes one day after 12 of the 19 hostages were freed Wednesday as part of a deal struck with the country’s government.
None of the freed South Koreans made any comments.
