Taliban Threatens to Start Killing 'A Few' Korean Christian Captives
A purported Taliban spokesman said Wednesday that talks over the fate of the 23 South Korean Christian hostages have stalled and that the militants plan to kill "a few" of the captives.
Qari Yousef Ahmadi, the alleged news representative for the Taliban, said the Afghan government had not submitted to any of the Islamic militant group's demands and that the insurgents would kill "a few" of the hostages before 5:30 a.m. EDT, according to The Associated Press.
Three deadlines have passed since the Koreans were abducted last Thursday, with the latest being Tuesday 10:30 a.m. EDT.
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There was no immediate update on the situation of the hostages after the deadline passed.
"The Taliban have lost their patience with it all so they will be killed…because a lot of time has passed since the deadline and there has been no response," Ahmadi told AP by satellite phone. "The Taliban takes no responsibility for the killing."
Yet Ali Shah Ahmadzai, the police chief of the Ghazni province where the hostages were captured, said negotiations were moving in a positive direction and the latest threat came as a surprise.
"I don't know why they've suddenly changed their mind," Ahmadzai said, according to AP. Several of Ahmadi's past statements have turned out false or contradicted other statements by Taliban, leading some to question the reliability of his information.
"My message to the Taliban is to use tolerance and be patient," the provincial police chief said. "This (killing hostages) is against the Afghan culture."
It has been nearly a week since the group of South Korean Christians was kidnapped while riding in a bus through the Ghazni province – one of the most insurgency-hit regions in Afghanistan – as they made their way toward the southern city of Kandahar.
The 23 South Koreans, which include 18 women, work at an aid organization in Kandahar, said Sidney Serena, a political affairs officer at the South Korean Embassy in Kabul.
Despite accusations that the Koreans were on an evangelistic mission, South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun as well as the senior pastor of the hostages' home church, the Rev. Park Eun-jo, emphasized that the volunteers were there to provide free medical or educational services with no missionary intentions.
It is illegal to share the Gospel in Afghanistan under the Taliban.
"There are some who misunderstand us but we didn't attempt any aggressive missionary activities," said the Rev. Park on Monday, according to the Korean newspaper The Hankyoreh.
"We love Afghanistan and respect Muslim culture. We want to continue our community service work in medical facilities and schools in a way that is desirable to the people of Afghanistan," said Park.
South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon, who is currently in Afghanistan for negotiations, said the hostages are held in different locations and had no health problems, according to AP.
The Taliban is demanding for the Afghan government to release a similar number of Taliban prisoners and for South Korea to remove its 200 troops from the country in exchange for the captives.
Thus far, the Afghan government has not agreed to release the prisoners and South Korea has emphasized that the troops will leave Afghanistan by the end of the year as scheduled. It was also noted that the Korean troops are mostly working on humanitarian projects.
Meanwhile, Christians worldwide have been called to lift up prayers for the abducted group.
"We pray that our Korean brothers, sisters and their families will experience a special nearness of God to them and find comfort in the knowledge of His power in their time of anguish," said the Rev. Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe, the international director of the World Evangelical Alliance.
"We pray for the government officials and kidnappers who are in negotiations, may they agree to a peaceful resolution quickly and allow the hostages to be reunited with their families," he concluded.
Last week's kidnapping was the largest abduction of a group of foreigners in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.
