AFGHANISTAN: Taliban negotiator says Koreans will be freed
- 00:00:40
- ITN Source
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban negotiator says Koreans will be freed
Talks between Afghanistan's Taliban and the south Korean diplomats over the hostages were going well on Saturday (August 11) and the Taliban will free the captives, Taliban negotiators said. " We assure you (the media) and the whole world, that our negotiation is going successfully, inshallah (God willing), the Koreans will be released and will go to their homes. We also hope that our prisoners get released and come to their homes," said Mawlavi Nasrullah one of the two Taliban negotiators. "Negotiations are continuing. We are very hopeful that the issue will be resolved inshallah today or tomorrow. The Koreans are in good health-- they are happy and there is no problem at all," said Qari Bashir to the reporters in Ghazni town where the Taliban and Korean diplomats have been holding first face-to-face talks since late Friday. He did not elaborate on the release of Taliban jailed men by Kabul which has been the main demand of the group for freeing the hostages it kidnapped from a bus in Ghazni more than three weeks ago. No Korean diplomat could be reached for a comment. Earlier in the day, Ghazni's governor, Merajuddin Pattan, said a second day of direct talks between the Taliban negotiators and the diplomats for the release of the remaining 21 Koreans were going on. The Taliban have already killed two of the male hostages and are holding 21 of the Christian volunteers, among them 18 women and have threatened to kill more captives if Taliban prisoners are not released. The South Korean government is under intense domestic pressure to secure the safe release of the hostages, but has no power to yield to the kidnappers' main demand -- for a list of Taliban rebels to be freed from government jails. Face-to-face talks may provide a way out of the impasse. But Afghan officials have ruled out any prisoner swap saying that would just encourage a kidnapping "industry" and have threatened to free the hostages by force if necessary.The Taliban have split the hostages into small groups and said any use of force to free them would put their lives at risk.
ITN Source | August 11, 2007
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