Taliban say 2 hostages very sick, deadline looms
Yousuf Azimy
Wed, Aug 01, 2007
Reuters
GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Two women among 21 Koreans
held by the Taliban in Afghanistan are seriously ill, a rebel
spokesman said on Wednesday before the insurgents' 0730 GMT
deadline for Kabul to free prisoners in return for the
hostages.
Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said Afghan negotiators had
not contacted the militants who have threatened to kill the
hostages if the Afghan government fails to release a group of
Taliban prisoners by the deadline.
"The majority of the hostages are ill, but two females are
seriously ill and there is this possibility that they may die,"
Yousuf told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed
location.
He said the pair suffered from an unknown illness and the Taliban
did not have the right medicines to treat them.
The Taliban were looking after the remaining South Koreans from a
group of 23 Christians kidnapped from a bus in Ghazni province two
weeks ago, he added. The Islamic movement killed two of the male
hostages after previous deadlines expired.
Afghan officials have said no deal will be struck with the Taliban
and demand the unconditional release of the remaining captives, 18
of them women.
President Hamid Karzai came under sharp criticism after releasing a
group of Taliban prisoners in March in return for the freedom of an
Italian journalist.
RISING VIOLENCE
The abduction of the Koreans comes after 18 months of rising
violence in Afghanistan, the bloodiest period since the Taliban
were ousted from power by U.S.-led and Afghan forces in 2001.
A day before seizing the Koreans, the Taliban abducted two German
aid workers and five of their Afghan colleagues in Wardak province
which like Ghazni lies to the southwest of Kabul.
One of the Germans was found shot dead this week and one of the
Afghans managed to escape. The other German and four Afghans were
still being held.
The Taliban demand that Germany pulls its 3,000-strong force under
NATO's command out of Afghanistan as the main condition for freeing
the other German.
Al Jazeera showed a man against a rocky backdrop in a hilly area, a
militant covering him with a rocket-propelled grenade.
The station did not play the sound of the video, but a presenter
said: "The German hostage Rudolf B. ... urged Germany and the
United States to pull out their forces from Afghanistan and urged
his country to help save his life and secure his return to his
homeland and family."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Berlin will not give in to
the kidnappers' demands.
Separately, the Taliban have killed four Afghan judges they
kidnapped in Ghazni two weeks ago, a provincial official said on
Wednesday. The bodies of the four, killed on Tuesday night, were
found to the south of the town of Ghazni on Wednesday, he
added.
