Taliban insurgents will release 19 South Korean Christian volunteers they have been holding for more than a month in Afghanistan, South Korea’s presidential Blue House said on Tuesday.
The announcement followed the resumption of negotiations that had been on hold for two weeks after the Korean side said it was unable to meet the kidnappers’ chief demand to release Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government in exchange for the hostages, most of them women.
”The Taliban agreed to free the 19 South Korean hostages on the condition that South Korea withdraws its troops within this year and halt missionary activities,” the Blue House statement said.
The government had in any case decided before the hostage crisis to pull out its small contingent of engineers and medical staff from Afghanistan by the end of the year.
And since the hostages were taken it has banned its nationals from travelling to the war-torn country.
”The families are rejoicing at the news. They are busy calling other family members and friends at the moment to pass the news,” Bang Yong-kyun, pastor at Saemmul Church outside Seoul, told Reuters.
The hostages are members of the church.
A spokesperson for the Taliban Islamic movement would only say the negotiations had been ”successful” but declined to comment on the South Korean government announcement.
The Taliban seized 23 Korean Christian volunteers on July 19 from a bus in the Afghan Ghazni province. It killed two male hostages after a series of deadlines and later freed two female captives as a gesture of goodwill during the first round of talks.
A South Korean presidential spokesperson said it could take some time before the actual release.
”The government will do every possible measure to make sure the hostages are safely back in their families’ arms as soon as possible.”
The kidnapping of the Koreans is the largest case of abductions in the resurgent Taliban’s campaign since United States-led troops toppled the group from power in 2001.
It came a day after Taliban fighters seized two German aid workers and their five Afghan colleagues from Wardak province, which, like Ghazni, lies to the south-west of Kabul.
The Taliban have killed one of the Germans, but are still holding the other along with four Afghans. One Afghan managed to escape. The Taliban are demanding the withdrawal of German troops serving under Nato’s command from Afghanistan for freeing the German.
Germany has ruled out the Taliban condition.
After coming under sharp criticism for releasing a group of Taliban prisoners in return for an Italian journalist in March, Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government rejected the Taliban demand on the Korean hostages.
The Afghan government had not ruled out using force to free the hostages, should the talks between the Korean and Taliban negotiators fail.
But the Taliban, who have been keeping the hostages in small groups, warned against any use of force, saying that would jeopardise the lives of the captives. — Reuters