VARIOUS: Anguish continues for relatives of South Koreans held captive in Afghanistan as people of Kabul condemn Taliban kidnappings

South Korea waits for news on its nationals kidnapped in Afghanistan as the Taliban set a 1430 GMT deadline for troops to be withdrawn from their country. People of Kabul say the kidnapping of foreigners by Taliban captors is endangering security in Afghanistan. Tearful family members of South Koreans held hostage by Afghan Taliban rebels prayed for their safe release in a local church on Sunday (July 22). A Taliban spokesman told Reuters the militants would start killing the hostages if Seoul did not agree to pull its 200 engineers and medics out of Afghanistan by 1430 GMT on Sunday and the Afghan government did not release all Taliban prisoners. Relatives of the hostages cried as they watched television at a church cafeteria for any news of their loved ones, who were kidnapped last Wednesday (July 18) while on an aid mission to Afghanistan. At a news conference the mother of one hostage, Lee Joo-Yeon said she was nervous but couldn't do anything. "I have to wait calmly for any good news" she said. A young man fought back tears as he called for the safe return of his kidnapped older sister, Lee Jeong-ran. "I will do for you, my sister, what I could not do for you in the past" he said, "I will do my best, just come back safely". The Korean hostages belong to the "Saemmul Church" in Bundang, a city on the outskirts of the South Korean capital, Seoul. The church sent 20 people, mostly in their 20s and 30s and including nurses and English teachers, as volunteer aid workers to Afghanistan. A total of 23 South Koreans are being held. South Korea has said their hostages should be returned quickly and safely at any cost. The hostage situation reminds many Koreans of a South Korean Kim Sun-il who was killed by a militant group in Iraq three years ago. "I want our government to try harder before they are sacrificed like Kim Sun-il," said 24-year-old Hwang Dahn-bee as South Koreans watched large screens broadcasting the latest news at a railway station In Seoul. A South Korean government delegation arrived in Afghanistan on Sunday to try to secure their release. The Taliban says it has killed two German hostages after the German government failed to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan and the Afghan government failed to release Taliban prisoners from its jails. But Germany's foreign minister says one of the German hostages died from "stress and strain" and the other is still alive. On the streets of Kabul people are angry at the hostage taking. Haji Tahya Khan says if foreigners leave the country because of the danger of being seized, the risk of anarchy and insecurity in the country will be heightened. He said the international community should "call on Pakistan and Iran to stop interfering in Afghanistan." The area south of Kabul where the Germans and Koreans were seized this week has seen a marked escalation of violence in the last month as Taliban militants have moved in from the south.

ITN Source | July 22, 2007

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