By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News ServiceAFGHANISTAN (ANS) – Taleban rebels in Afghanistan have freed 12 South Korean hostages from a group of 19 they have been holding for five weeks, according to BBC, CNN and France 24 TV reports.

Taleban rebels in Afghanistan have freed 12 South Korean hostages from a group of 19 they have been holding for five weeks, according to BBC, CNN and France 24 TV reports.Three women hostages were released first, in the central town of Ghazni. Four women and one man were later freed a few miles away, in the Shabaz area of Ghazni province. All eight are said to be in good health. Another four of the hostage shave since been released, according to France 24 TV.

The Koreans, who work for a Christian charity, were kidnapped on 19 July as they traveled on a motorway. There were originally 23 missionaries in the group, but two men, including their pastor-leader, were killed by the Taleban.

The BBC says The first eight hostages were released with the mediation of tribal elders in two separate locations. They were handed over to officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross and were then taken to meet South Korean government officials in Ghazni.

Haji Zahir, a tribal elder who has been acting as a mediator, told the BBC he and two other elders had travelled to meet the Taleban and bring the first three women by car to Ghazni.

The releases come a day after the South Korean government said it had reached a deal with the Taleban.

The South Koreans were doing voluntary work in Afghanistan.

South Korea has agreed to withdraw troops from Afghanistan as scheduled by the end of the year. It also said it would end all missionary work in the country and stop its citizens from travelling there.

There has been no mention of money being paid, but it is thought that a ransom may have been part of the deal, says the BBC’s Alastair Leithead in Kabul.

The Taleban appear to have dropped their earlier demand that Taleban members be released from Afghan prisons in exchange for the hostages’ freedom, the BBC said.

A Taleban representative, Mullah Basheer, said all 19 would be released “step by step” in the coming week.

“One of our main demands has not been accepted, but our other demands were welcomed. All of the Koreans will be released in less than a week,” Basheer said

The militants kidnapped 23 South Koreans on 19 July as they traveled by bus on the main Kandahar to Kabul highway. They subsequently killed two male hostages and later freed two women following a first round of talks.

The hostages are thought to be held in several different locations in Ghazni province.

Some 200 South Korean non-combat personnel are deployed in the country to help with reconstruction efforts. Seoul had already decided, before the kidnap, to end the deployment.

CNN, quoting the Associated Pres (AP) said Taliban militants released three South Korean hostages on Wednesday, the first of 19 captives scheduled to be freed under a deal struck between the insurgents and the South Korean government.

The first three hostages released all women, were first handed to tribal leaders, who took them to an agreed location where officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross picked them up, according to an Associated Press reporter who witnessed the handover.

The three arrived in the central Afghan village of Qala-E-Qazi in a single car, their heads covered with green shawls. They said nothing to reporters, who were asked by Red Cross representatives not to question them.

Red Cross officials quickly took the three to their vehicles before leaving for an undisclosed location, the AP said.

The AP report said that to secure the hostages’ release, South Korea reaffirmed a pledge to withdraw its 200 troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year and prevent South Korean Christian missionaries from working there. The Taliban apparently backed down on earlier demands for a prisoner exchange.

The Taliban originally kidnapped 23 hostages as they traveled by bus from Kabul to the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar on July 19. In late July, the militants executed two male hostages, and they released two women earlier this month.

The insurgents have said they will free the hostages, whom they are holding in different locations, over the next few days.

The AP said the accord for the South Koreans’ release came during one of the bloodiest periods of the Taliban’s war against U.S. and NATO forces since the Taliban regime was toppled in late 2001 after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

South Korea’s decision to hold face-to-face negotiations with the militants may dismay the United States government, which refuses to talk to the Taliban.

“Maybe they (the Taliban) did not achieve all that they demanded, but they achieved a lot in terms of political credibility,” said Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center. “The fact that the Koreans negotiated with them directly and more or less in their territory … is in itself an achievement.”

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Tuesday that the U.S. wanted the Koreans returned to their families and stressed that U.S. policy was not to make concessions to terrorists.

The deal for the hostages’ release was struck during talks between Taliban negotiators and South Korean diplomats in the central city of Ghazni. The Afghan government was not party to the negotiations, which were mediated by the ICRC.

The hostages’ relatives in South Korea welcomed news of the deal. “I would like to dance,” said Cho Myung-ho, mother of 28-year-old hostage Lee Joo-yeon.

CNN reported that South Korean presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-sun said the deal had been reached “on the condition that South Korea withdraws troops by the end of the year and South Korea suspends missionary work in Afghanistan.”

Cha Sung-min, whose 32-year-old sister, Cha Hye-jin, was among the hostages, said he was “sorry to the public for causing concern, but we thank the government officials for the (impending) release.”

“Still, our hearts are broken as two died, so we convey our sympathy to the bereaved family members,” said Cha Sung-min, who has served as a spokesman for the hostages’ relatives.

Disappointment at the hostage freedom deal

Meanwhile, the release of the hostages has elicited mixed reactions in the Christian community in the United States.

Michael Foust, assistant editor of Baptist Press, writes that two prominent Southern Baptists expressed thankfulness Aug. 28 that the Taliban apparently would release 19 South Korean Christian hostages, but were dismayed that as part of the deal the South Korean government has pledged to ban Christian missionary work in Afghanistan.

The 19 hostages from Saemmul Presbyterian Church just outside of Seoul were kidnapped July 19 when armed Taliban gunmen stopped their bus as it traveled on a road to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. The party actually had 23 members at the time, but two later were executed and two were released.

Writing just hours before the first of the hostages were released Foust says that in return for the hostages’ release, South Korean Presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-seon said South Korea agreed to keep its promise to pull its troops out of Afghanistan by the end of this year — something it had announced last year — and to ban “missionary work by Korean Christians in Afghanistan.” A Taliban spokesman confirmed the agreement, the Los Angeles Times reported. The two sides had been in negotiations for weeks.

Southern Baptist Convention President Frank Page, pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, South Crolina, said the news about the hostages elicits mixed emotions.

“I have prayed for the release of these hostages,” he told Baptist Press. “I have spoken to persons within our own government about this situation. I have spoken with several persons in the Korean Christian community. So, therefore I am delighted that they are being released.

“But I am saddened about some of the conditions for the release. I had encouraged the Koreans not to negotiate with terrorists, and had hoped that they would be released out of sheer human kindness and/or military intervention. While the statement is made [by the South Korean government] that missionary work will stop, God’s work will not stop in Afghanistan.”

Foust said the Taliban initially had demanded the release of Taliban prisoners in exchange for the release of the hostages.

During negotiations, however, South Korean officials told Taliban representatives they had no authority to release the Taliban prisoners, since the prisoners were being held by the United States military and other governments, Cheon said. No money was involved in the agreement, Cheon added.

“While I rejoice that terrorists are releasing innocent victims, I am truly saddened by the conditions to which the government of South Korea has agreed,” said Daniel R. Heimbach, who worked in the first Bush administration and currently serves as professor of Christian ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. “Matters of international justice should not be dictated by those who threaten the lives of aid workers motivated only by love.

“Christian aid workers and missionaries put their lives on the line every day and, while Christians believe that physical life is precious, we also believe that sharing the Good News of eternal life is worth vastly more. The government of South Korea has acquiesced to terms no Christian can accept and no one called of Jesus Christ can obey.”

The U.S.-led coalition drove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan following the terrorist attacks of 2001, but the Taliban has been trying to make a comeback, partly through kidnappings. Earlier this year Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed to swap five Taliban prisoners for a kidnapped Italian journalist, the Los Angeles Times noted.

In July two South Korean hostages — 42-year-old church staff member Hyung Kyu Bae and 29-year-old Sung Min Shim — were executed by the Taliban when it became apparent the U.S. and Karzai were not going to release any Taliban prisoners.

“I believe that the two who were killed earlier were martyred for their faith in the Lord Jesus, and I believe were welcomed into heaven with open arms such as the martyr Stephen,” Page said.

The London Financial Times (FT) says there was some confusion surrounding Tuesday’s deal. Seoul had already agreed to pull its army units out of Afghanistan by the end of the year and imposed a complete ban on travel to the country following the seizure of the hostages.

Korean media had previously reported that the Taliban were seeking payment for the return of the hostages but there was no word on Tuesday of any money changing hands.

The FT says the families of the hostages, who have been gathered for the last six weeks at the Saemmul Church in the commuter town of Bundang, south of Seoul, were overwhelmed by Tuesday night’s news, crying and rejoicing in equal measure.

The newspaper says Korea as a nation has similarly run the gamut of emotions since the hostage crisis began. After the initial period of shock, during which there were large demonstrations calling for the hostages’ safe return even if it meant paying money to the captors, there was widespread anger at the missionaries’ defiance of travel warnings against going to such a dangerous country.

The FT said that in the last two weeks the sense of crisis has significantly lessened, as the Korean government sought to calm the situation and create a suitable climate for a low-key deal to be reached without endangering more lives.