GHAZNI, Afghanistan, 14 August 2007 — Two women from among the 23 South Koreans kidnapped by the Taleban in mid-July were freed yesterday on a rural Afghan roadside and then driven to a US base, the first significant breakthrough in a hostage drama now more than three weeks old.
The two women, who broke into tears after seeing the international Red Cross officials there to take custody of them, got out of a dark gray Toyota Corolla driven by an Afghan elder and into one of two waiting Red Cross SUVs. The women said nothing to reporters alerted to the handoff location 10 km southeast of Ghazni city by a Taleban spokesman.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry identified the freed hostages as Kim Kyung-ja and Kim Ji-na. Previous media reports said they were 37 and 32 years old, respectively.
The women were then driven to the US base in Ghazni city, where American soldiers searched the women and then let them into the base. Both carried bags with them.
They were brought to the arranged meeting point on the side of a road in rural Ghazni province by an Afghan named Haji Zahir, who also got into the Red Cross vehicle with the freed hostages.
The Taleban decided to release these two “for the sake of good relations between the Korean people and the Taleban,” said Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the insurgent group. “We are expecting the Korean people and government to force the Kabul administration and the US to take a step toward releasing Taleban prisoners,” Ahmadi said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Ghazni Gov. Merajuddin Pathan ruled out a Taleban prisoner swap. “Our position is the same, we are not releasing (any Taleban prisoners),” Pathan told reporters.
“There was no payoff for their release,” Pathan added. “There won’t be any for the rest of the hostages,” he asserted.
The release is the first breakthrough in the hostage drama, which took a downturn in late July when two male captives were executed by gunfire. Fourteen women and five men are still being held.
Meanwhile, a German held hostage in the country since last month said in a telephone conversation orchestrated by his Taleban captors yesterday that he was ill and the militants had threatened him with death. The man identified himself to The Associated Press as Rudolf Blechschmidt and asked that the message be delivered to the German Embassy and to his son, Markus. He spoke stiffly and with frequent pauses, as though reading from prepared remarks.
