JANDA, Afghanistan, 31 August 2007 — Taleban militants released the last of 21 South Korean hostages in central Afghanistan yesterday, bringing to an end a six-week drama that saw two captives executed, witnesses said.
Seven hostages were handed over in two groups to officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross on a road in Ghazni province yesterday, an Associated Press reporter at the scene said. The final three, two women and one man, were covered in dust as they emerged from the desert, accompanied by three armed men, and were turned over to waiting ICRC officials.
The Taleban originally kidnapped 23 South Koreans as they traveled by bus from Kabul to the former Taleban stronghold of Kandahar on July 19. In late July, the militants killed two male hostages, and they released two women earlier this month as a gesture of goodwill.
On Wednesday, the Taleban released 12 hostages, after striking a deal with South Korea in which Seoul reaffirmed a pledge it made before the hostage crisis to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year. Seoul also said it would prevent South Korean Christian missionaries from working in the Muslim country, something it had already promised to do.
The Taleban apparently backed down on earlier demands for a prisoner exchange. Still, the militant group could emerge with enhanced political legitimacy for negotiating successfully with a foreign government. South Korea and the Taleban have said no money changed hands as part of the deal.
An Indonesian government official who took part in the negotiations Tuesday between three South Korean officials and two Taleban commanders where the deal was struck also said money was not brought up. “From what I saw and from what I heard in the talks, it was not an issue,” Heru Wicaksono told the Associated Press.
Wicaksono, a high-ranking official at the Indonesian Embassy in Kabul, said the Taleban were motivated by “humanitarian feelings” to free the captives.
The Afghan government was not party to the negotiations, which took place in Ghazni and were facilitated by the ICRC.
Earlier yesterday, the Afghan Defense Ministry said that a wanted Taleban insurgent leader, Mullah Brother, was killed in a US-led raid in the southern province of Helmand. But a Taleban member, Qari Mohammad Bashir, denied that Brother had been killed, saying the report was a government lie.
Brother served as a top military commander for the Taleban government until its removal from power in 2001 and was a member of the movement’s leadership council led by its fugitive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar.
The raid was launched after Taleban insurgents ambushed an Afghan Army convoy between Sangin and Sarwan districts of Helmand, the ministry said in a statement.
