Taliban says hostages safe for now
Updated: 2007-08-10 19:42
GHAZNI, Afghanistan - The Taliban said Friday it would not kill any of the 21 remaining South Korean hostages it is holding until planned face-to-face meetings have been held with a delegation from the East Asian country.
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Taliban and South Korean officials have agreed they want to meet for talks to break the deadlock, but have not been able to agree on a location that both sides consider safe.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said negotiations on a location were continuing by phone.
"Until we sit for face-to-face negotiations with the Koreans, we have no plans to kill any Korean hostages," Ahmadi said.
The South Korean government, meanwhile, issued guidelines for its aid organizations saying they must leave Afghanistan by the end of the month for safety reasons, a South Korean Embassy official said on condition of anonymity due to policy.
Last month, the government banned its citizens from traveling to Afghanistan.
Authorities will decide whether they can return to the country after "the situation settles down," the official added.
Ahmadi said the departure of South Korean aid workers would move forward negotiations with the Taliban.
"The pulling out of Korean aid workers will have an effect on our negotiation process because pulling out of Koreans from Afghanistan is part of our demand. It will have a positive effect," he said, without elaborating.
In South Korea, a spokesman for the hostages' families said the mothers of several hostages - five women and a translator - will travel to the emirate of Dubai next week to seek help from the Arab world in securing their loved ones' release.
"The reason why we are sending women, especially mothers, to Dubai is that Islamic culture has more sympathy for women," said the spokesman, Cha Sung-min.
The 23 South Koreans were abducted July 19 in the Qarabagh district of Ghazni province as they traveled by bus from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar. Two of the captives have been executed by the Taliban.
There has not been a breakthrough in negotiations more than three weeks into the hostage ordeal. Afghan authorities say talks with the Taliban, who have demanded the release of Taliban prisoners, are the best way to resolve the problem.
The captives - volunteers from a church group who planned to do health work in Afghanistan - include 16 women and five men.
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