KABUL, 20 August 2007 — A German aid worker abducted in Kabul at the weekend appeared yesterday in a video released by her kidnappers, who demanded the release of “innocent prisoners” from Afghan jails in exchange for her freedom.
Wearing a long dress and a white head scarf, the woman — who identified herself as Christina Meier — appeared nervous in the footage aired by the private Afghan television station Tolo, but said she was “OK.”
“I’m OK, I want my country to try to help secure my freedom as soon as possible,” said the woman, seated cross-legged and reading haltingly in the Dari language, with prompts from a man nearby speaking to her in English.
The woman, kidnapped in broad daylight in the Afghan capital on Saturday by what officials have said is likely a criminal gang, displayed her ID card bearing her name and said she worked for the aid charity ORA International.
One of her apparent captors, his face covered, said the kidnappers were not Taleban militants but demanded the release of several prisoners from Afghan jails. “For her release, we want (President) Hamid Karzai’s government to free our innocent prisoners,” he said, also in Dari. “We don’t have any other demands. We’re not bad people, we’re not Taleban either. We’re a special group,” he added. “We’ll release the names of our prisoners who are jailed with the government later.”
The abduction of the woman created a third hostage crisis involving foreigners for the Afghan authorities, who were already battling to secure the freedom of the 19 Korean aid workers and a German engineer captured last month.
Another German engineer was shot dead days after his abduction in the southern province of Wardak.
Hopes of a negotiated solution to the ordeal of the Koreans appeared to fade yesterday, with no new talks scheduled between their Taleban abductors and South Korean officials.
