Afghan recovers body of slain hostage

WORLD / Asia-Pacific

Afghan recovers body of slain hostage

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-08-01 04:04

ARZOO, Afghanistan - Afghan authorities on Tuesday recovered the body of
a second South Korean hostage shot dead by Taliban kidnappers who
threatened to kill more of their 21 captives if Kabul fails to free rebel
prisoners by 0730 GMT on Wednesday.

The blood-stained body of the bespectacled man was dumped in a field of
clover beside a road in Arzoo, a village some 10 km (6 miles) from the
eastern city of Ghazni.

"If the Kabul administration and Korean government do not give a positive
reply to our demand about the release of Taliban prisoners by tomorrow
1200 (local time), then we will start killing other hostages," Taliban
spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by telephone from an unknown
location.

President Hamid Karzai's spokesman said bowing to Taliban demands would
encourage more kidnapping, adding "we are doing what is the best for the
interests of the hostages, and government".

Karzai came under harsh criticism in March for releasing a group of
Taliban prisoners in exchange for an Italian journalist.

Taliban spokesman Yousuf said Afghan negotiators had not contacted the
Taliban since the second hostage was killed on Monday and said the
insurgents suspected the Afghan government and foreign troops were
planning a rescue bid.

Any attempt to rescue the hostages by force would put the Koreans' lives
at risk, he said.

The victim was identified as Shim Sung-min, 29, a former employee of an
IT firm who did volunteer work to help the poor. He was shot after the
expiry of other deadlines the Taliban had set for the release of rebel
prisoners.

Body Recovered

Police recovered his body from Arzoo, some 80 km (50 miles) from where
the group of 18 women and five men were seized near Qarabagh on the main
road south from Kabul. The distance between the two places undermines
government claims the kidnappers are surrounded.

On Wednesday, the Taliban killed the leader of the group.

Negotiations are deadlocked with Afghan authorities seeking the release
of the 18 women before any prisoners are freed and the kidnappers
insisting its fighters be let out of jail first, a Western security
analyst said.

US State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said the hostages were
"innocent people who certainly have no party to any of the conflicts in
Afghanistan and it's again representative of the viciousness of the
Taliban that they're engaged in this".

The crisis has focused attention on growing lawlessness in Afghanistan,
where Taliban influence and attacks are spreading to areas previously
considered safe, undermining support for a government unable to provide
security.

Five Health Ministry officials, including three doctors, abducted by
gunmen in southern Afghanistan on Sunday were freed unharmed on Tuesday,
a provincial police chief said.

Shim's mother cried hysterically after hearing the victim may have been
her son. "Why did you kill him? Please save his life," she said through
her tears.

Seoul called the killings a "heinous act" carried out on innocent Korean
civilians whose government had no power to release Taliban prisoners from
Afghan jails.

South Korea would hold "the perpetrators responsible," a presidential
statement said.

The seizure of the Koreans came a day after the Taliban had seized two
Germans and five Afghans in nearby Wardak province.

The body of one of the Germans was found with bullet wounds, but the
other German and four Afghans were still being held by the Taliban who
want Germany to pull troops out of Afghanistan. One of the Afghan
captives managed to escape.

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