Update: South Korea Buys Freedom of Hostages
We here at Political Vindication have been following This story from the beginning – you can read every sordid step of this game of chicken here.
There was only slim hope that the Taliban would get what they really deserve for the hostages they kidnapped, but I still chilled the champagne for the hanging ceremony that might happen. No such luck – the South Korean government has fallen to its knees, offering the lives of those that come after for the lives held now:
SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) — South Korean negotiators in Afghanistan have reached a deal with Taliban militants holding 19 South Korean Christian aid workers for over a month, a presidential spokesman in Seoul said Tuesday.
Under the terms of the agreement, South Korea agreed to stick by its previous decision to withdraw its 200 non-combat troops from Afghanistan, which work mostly in an engineering and medical capacity.
In addition, Seoul will halt all Christian missionary work in Afghanistan.
The kidnapping of government officials or foreign aid workers has been used increasingly by insurgents in a bid to destabilize the Western-backed government that took power after the defeat of the Taliban in 2001.
Violence in Afghanistan is running at its highest level since the Taliban were expelled from government nearly six years ago.
Those Afghanis that want to live better than animals will now lose the services of engineers and medical personnel. Is that a step toward hope?
More: Michelle Malkin announces news that all the hostages have been released.
More: From the AFP: Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said in an interview with Germany’s RBB-Inforadio Thursday it sent “a very dangerous message to the world” when governments were seen as giving into “blackmail.”
The saga could be seen as a victory for the Taliban, he said.
“It was a blow to the government and a positive point for the Taliban,” an official said in Kabul on condition of anonymity.
In Ottawa, Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier was also critical of negotiations with “terrorists.”
“Such negotiations, even if unsuccessful, only lead to further acts of terrorism,” the minister said in a statement.
Kabul came in for heavy criticism in March when it freed five Taliban in exchange for an Italian hostage, whose two Afghan colleagues were beheaded.
It vowed then not to repeat such a deal amid criticism that negotiating with militants could encourage them.
More: From The Christian Science Monitor: Broadly speaking, the Koreans in Afghanistan operated on a 19th-century missionary model that has evolved considerably in the US, says David Heim, editor of The Christian Century, a magazine in Chicago. “American churches going out to the world and converting people has been critiqued for a century, and most have learned from the criticism,” notes Mr. Heim. “The South Korean churches seem to be in that older independent evangelical model of going off alone. Today relatively few mainline American churches do this. Most send small teams that partner with indigenous churches and local believers. It’s more collaborative.”
In the past decade, the number of NGOs has risen sharply, as have incidents of violence against them, say Larchu of Médecins du Monde and Martin of Mercy Corps. “More than 80 humanitarian workers were killed in 2006 – that’s more than UN soldiers,” says Larchu.
The number of religious groups is also rising and work closely with secular groups. “Worldvision, the Aga Khan Foundation, Catholic Relief Services – which makes no attempt to hide its name – they channel their faith into humanitarian efforts,” says Martin. “When they come into a dangerous place, they either sit at the table with us, or work at cooperation. If, like the South Koreans, we don’t know them, and they don’t know us, that makes it more difficult for everyone.”
Philip Leveque, director of CARE France, says the basics of humanitarian interventionism today are: sending an ethnically diverse team, employing locals, building over time, and becoming familiar with rules and procedures.
“The old days when 8 of 10 aid workers were white guys is over,” Mr. Leveque says. “Maybe the main thing is to know when to leave.” Every CARE mission now has a security chief who can overrule the head office and circumvent the local head of mission in most cases.
McClure says a public misconception abroad is that Christians want to “foist” their beliefs on others. “On the contrary, most Christians today suffer not from a tendency to foist our faith on anyone, but from a tendency to be excessively private about our faith,” she argues. “I have never met a follower of a non-Christian religion who would respect someone who could not and would not express his or her beliefs.”
More: From Reuters: A spokesman for South Korea’s president, Chon Ho-seon, was evasive in responding to questions at a news briefing in Seoul on Wednesday on whether a ransom was part of the deal, saying only South Korea had done what was needed.
Some Afghan officials say South Korea agreed to pay a ransom during negotiations with the Taliban, which one foreign diplomat said started out as a demand for $20 million.
More: The seven remaining South Korean hostages taken captive last July by the Taliban have been released, and insurgents have vowed they will abduct more foreigners.
“We will do the same thing with the other allies in Afghanistan, because we found this way to be successful,” Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi told The Associated Press by phone on Thursday.
More: South Korea welcomes home hostages with widespread anger: Critics said the group’s actions forced their government into negotiations with the Islamic militants that damaged the nation’s international reputation.
Scathing comments, written with the cloak of anonymity, flooded Internet message boards. Newspapers published critical editorials.
Most noticeable was the feeling the hostages themselves and the church that sent them to Afghanistan were to blame because they did not heed repeated government warnings to stay away from the volatile Central Asian country. One advisory cited an intelligence report that insurgents were targeting Koreans.
“They were told not to go,” said Kim Young-soo, 42, a travel agency employee in Seoul. “They shouldn’t have gone there in the first place.”
The apparent ignoring of the warning levied a high price on the government, critics argued, forcing it to deal directly with the Taliban in violation of the international principle of not negotiating with terrorists. Seoul is also alleged to have made a secret ransom payment to the insurgent group, although the government denied it.
MORE: The Telegraph: Taliban use hostage cash to fund UK blitz – “Millions of dollars handed over to secure the release of South Korean hostages in Afghanistan have been used to buy weapons deployed against British and American forces in the country, the Taliban claims.”
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