Two of the South Korean aid workers held hostage in Afghanistan were to be released within hours, a Taliban commander said yesterday, as new talks began over the three-week crisis.
Commander Abdullah Jal said the two women were still in the hands of the militants, but would be released yesterday as a goodwill gesture from the Islamist hardliners.
"God willing, they will be freed this afternoon as a gesture of good intention from the Taliban leading council," said Jal, the commander for the Ghazni region where 23 South Koreans were abducted on July 19.
PHOTO: AP
Two of the hostages have since been murdered by the Taliban, which has threatened to kill the remaining 21 unless the Afghan government meets their demands to release a similar number of key Taliban prisoners.
A Taliban delegation and a South Korean team meanwhile began a third day of talks at the offices of the Afghan Red Crescent Society in Ghazni, 140km south of Kabul.
"The third round of talks started between the Taliban and South Koreans," Ghazni Province intelligence chief Mohammad Jaseem Khan said.
The talks, which began on Friday, were being held behind closed doors. Journalist were barred from even assembling outside the venue yesterday.
Intelligence agents had warned photographers against taking any pictures in the town, an AFP photographer said.
The talks coincided with fresh hopes that two of the 16 women in the group would be free later in the day.
The Taliban first announced the release on Saturday but hours later the regular spokesman for the group, Yousuf Ahmadi, said the handover appeared to have been delayed by "transport difficulties."
Earlier yesterday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted Ahmadi as saying, "Our leaders have changed their minds and suspended their earlier decision to free two female hostages."
Ahmadi however did not rule out the possibility of a release later.
"The plan to release two female hostages first is still valid, but the timing has not been fixed yet," he said. "There might be confusion and misunderstanding ... I hope the situation will be resolved quickly."
South Korean officials refused to confirm the report, and Ahmadi could not be reached directly for comment.
Direct negotiations between the Taliban and a South Korean team are seen as one of the final options to save the group.
On Saturday the Taliban repeated a demand for the release of jailed militants in exchange for the remaining hostages, a condition the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai has rejected, saying it could encourage kidnappings.
The hardliners are also involved in the separate abduction last month of two German engineers, one of whom has since been killed.
The Taliban has also demanded a prisoner swap for the surviving German, who is being held with four Afghans.
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
COOPERATION: The president’s announcement about Taiwan aiming to increase its defense spending would help boost the nation’s deterrence, Mark Pottinger said Taiwan hopes to strengthen cooperation with the US in critical technologies and innovations to jointly build a safe and resilient “non-red supply chain,” President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Lai made the remarks at a meeting with former US deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger and retired US rear admiral Mark Montgomery at the Presidential Office in Taipei. “Increased cooperation between authoritarian countries is posing risks and challenges to the geopolitical landscape and regional security,” Lai said. “Only by bolstering our defense capabilities can we demonstrate effective deterrence and maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and around the
RSS