No progress has been made in the talks to
release the twenty-one South Korean
hostages held by the Taliban so far. Afghanistan’s
president Karzai, who is currently on a visit to the US, has stated that there
will be no deals from his side to release Taliban prisoners held in
Afghanistan. The
Hostage crisis has exposed growing divisions
within the international coalition operating in the region. Hundreds of
South Koreans have joined broader protests against the U.S.-led military
operation in Afghanistan. Within
Afghanistan, rumors and conspiracy theories abound linking the
kidnappers to neighbor Pakistan. There are reports that members of Islamabad''s powerful intelligence
agency known as the Inter Services Intelligence(ISI) are involved in the crisis. Such insinuations,
gaining wide currency in the in the
local media in Afghanistan, could seriously impair efforts to mend a growing
diplomatic rift between the Pakistan and Afghanistan., both of whom are key U.S. allies..Pakistan was a
prominent supporter of the Taleban
until September 2001, when it announced that it had severed links with the
militant group and agreed to support the U.S.-led war against terror. The
Taliban has demanded the release of eight prisoners, most of whom are related
to the kidnappers and are not senior in the Taliban hierarchy. They also want a
former Taliban spokesman freed. But the Afghan
government appears unlikely to
agree after it was widely criticized earlier this year for releasing five
Taliban in exchange for an Italian reporter. President Hamid Karzai''s spokesman
says the government can''t allow kidnapping to "become an industry."
Would the U.S. initiate a rescue effort? The kidnappings took place in
Ghazni province, where U.S. soldiers are already stationed. However , most
security experts agree that a military effort may be very risky and not have a
great chance of success.
While American officials report regular contact between U.S. and South
Korean officials it is a fact that
Seoul is leading the discussions on the hostage issue.. Payment of
ransom is another option with the negotiators. While high-level Taliban
commanders probably would not consider this solution, it is possible that the
lower rung of kidnappers who are actually holding the hostages could be persuaded, It
is reported that about seventy percent
of kidnapping cases across the
world are resolved by ransom payments, although these are
never disclosed or discussed .
More abstracts about the Options in Korean hostage crisis