Health workers pose for a photo in front of their car before
leaving their office toward Ghanzi province, as they attempt to
reach the South Kroean hostages to treat them in Kabul, Friday. But
Taliban denied their access to the hostages for security reason. /
AP-Yonhap
A group of medical volunteers willing to put their lives at risk
for the Koreans
Despite Talks Between Militants and Seoul Envoy, No Breakthrough in
Sight
By Yoon Won-sup with Emal Pashtunyar in Kabul
Staff Reporter
KABUL _ Despite Taliban's telephonic talks with the Korean
delegation, no breakthrough was made in talks to release the
remaining Korean hostages Friday night. The Taliban, which took the
21 Koreans hostage in Afghanistan, denied medical team's access to
sick hostages for security reasons though six Kabul doctors arrived
at a site where captives are held.
Prospects for a dramatic breakthrough dimmed by the fact that the
United States and Afghanistan ruled out any possibility of
prisoners-captives swap.
The purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi said that the
Taliban and Korean negotiators are seeking to find a suitable place
for a face-to-face talks. The Associated Islamic Press (AIP)
reported that the Taliban asked the UN to guarantee their safety
for the talks.
``Medical assistance and treatment will be of no use if we later
kill them,'' Ahmadi told The Korea Times. ``Killing even the women
is not a problem with us.''
Contrast it with the words of people bent on taking the lives of
innocent people that went all the way there to provide medical aid
to strangers in a strange land.
We all live and die. There is no need to make other people's lives
miserable for we are all in this together (but the delusion of self
in exclusion of others, is great)
Remember the hostages.