Taliban: 23 South Korean Christians Die If Troops Stay
By Michael F. Haverluck
CBNNews.com
July 21, 2007
CBNNews.com - Foreign Minister Song Min-soon publicly announced that 23 South Koreans Christians were kidnapped shortly after the Taliban gave a warning that each of the kidnapped would be killed in 24 hours if South Korea refused to pull its soldiers out of Afghanistan.
It was also stated by South Korea's foreign minister that the hostages are safe.
In response to the current crisis, Song made this statement on Saturday, "The government is in preparations to implement its plan to pull its troops out of Afghanistan by the end of the year as previously planned."
Traveling on a bus from Kabul on the main highway to Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar, the South Koreans were kidnapped at gunpoint Thursday.
"Twenty-three Korean citizens, 18 women and five men, were very carelessly traveling in a chartered bus from Kabul to Kandahar yesterday," said Afghani Interior Minister spokesman Zemari Bashari. "On the way to Kandahar, their bus was stopped by armed men. and they took them away."
According to a Korean embassy official, a search operation and negotiations are already under way with the kidnappers, who were also ordering that Taliban prisoners be released from Afghan jails.
The abduction was the largest taking place since the Taliban regime fell some six years ago.
Currently, approximately 200 South Korean soldiers are serving in Afghanistan alongside 8,000 troops in the U.S.-led coalition.
The South Korean government has been concerned about the safety of missionaries to Afghanistan for some time.
Just last year, a group of 2,000 South Korean Christians were planning to attend a peace conference, but the South Korean government attempted to stop the trip out of safety concerns.
Still, 900 ended up making the conference, causing an outrage in the predominantly Muslim nation of Afghanistan. The Christians were all deported accused of being evangelical missionaries.
Taliban: 23 South Korean Christians Die If Troops Stay
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