SOUTH KOREA: Families of Korean hostages held by the Taliban in Afghanistan rejoice at news that the final remaining seven have been freed

The families of Korean church volunteers held by the Taliban in Afghanistan rejoice at the news the final remaining seven were freed, a day after 12 of their colleagues were released from an ordeal of nearly six weeks. Families in Korea rejoiced as Taliban insurgents freed seven remaining South Korean hostages in Afghanistan on Thursday (August 30)after a six-week kidnap ordeal, following a deal that Afghan officials said included a ransom payment by Seoul. The four women and three men were handed over in two batches to officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Ghazni province in southeast Afghanistan, from where the Taliban seized 23 Christian volunteers on July 19. It was the largest case of abductions in the resurgent Taliban campaign since U.S.-led troops ousted the Islamists from power in 2001. "Can I say there are no good words to express my feelings at this moment? I'm so happy and glad," said one family member in South Korea. "My children didn't realise missing their mother while they play with their friends, but whenever they went to bed, they said they miss the mother. Now they're very happy to see their mother," said another. Reporters were not allowed to speak to the released captives as they stepped down from a minibus after dusk outside Ghazni town, the women covering their heads and faces with scarves. The Taliban killed two male hostages last month, but later agreed to release 19 others they were still holding after Seoul agreed to pull all its nationals out of the insurgency-wracked central Asian country. Some Afghan officials say South Korea agreed to pay a ransom during negotiations with the Taliban, which one foreign diplomat said started out as a demand for $20 million. The South Korean government was praised at home on Thursday for its part in securing the release of its nationals. But some said Seoul may have set a dangerous precedent in directly negotiating with the Taliban. South Korea's presidential Blue House said that under the deal it struck with the Taliban it must withdraw its small contingent of non-combat troops in the country within the year and stop its nationals from doing missionary work in Afghanistan. However, South Korea had already decided before the crisis to pull its 200 engineers and medical staff out of Afghanistan by the end of 2007. Since the hostages were taken, it has banned its nationals from travelling there. A spokesman for South Korea's president, Chon Ho-seon, was evasive in responding to questions at a news briefing in Seoul on Wednesday on whether a ransom was part of the deal, saying only South Korea had done what was needed. Taliban fighters also seized two German aid workers and five Afghan colleagues in a separate incident in mid-July in Wardak province, southwest of the capital Kabul. The Taliban killed one German, but are still holding the other along with four Afghans. One Afghan escaped.

ITN Source | August 31, 2007

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