KABUL, 10 June 2005 — Italian hostage Clementina Cantoni was released yesterday after an ordeal lasting more than three weeks and without any ransom being paid, the country’s interior minister said.
“I am pleased to announce this evening that we were able to release Clementina who was taken hostage 24 days ago,” Interior Minister Ali Ahmed Jalali told reporters at a hastily arranged late-night press conference.
“The policy of the Afghan government is not to deal with the hostage-takers. We did not pay any ransom,” Jalali added.
Cantoni, 32, who works for the aid group CARE International, was snatched on May 16 while driving in downtown Kabul. The abduction sent shockwaves through both the Afghan and foreign community in the Afghan capital.
She had managed a project which provides food and income-generating activities for 11,000 widows and their children since September 2003. Hundreds of Afghan widows have demonstrated on the streets of Kabul over recent weeks to campaign for her release.
“The entire Afghan people contributed to this release. It was a combined effort by the Afghan government, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Afghan widows,” Jalali said.
Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday appealed for the release of Cantoni, adding his call to that of Italian politicians and an Italian movie star.
