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No more hostage deals - Kabul
15/04/2007 20:33 - (SA)
Kabul - Afghanistan's government on Sunday promised to end all hostage deals with the Taliban after two Afghan kidnap victims were executed while an Italian journalist was freed.
Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said kidnapping risked becoming an "industry" for the rebels, but promised to use all "legitimate and possible" means to win the release of two French aid workers.
"What is important in this regard is we must try to prevent kidnapping becoming an industry for terrorists against the legitimate government of Afghanistan," Spanta told a news conference.
The government last month made a deal under which five Taliban prisoners, including high-ranking rebel commanders, were exchanged for Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who was abducted in early March.
But the rebels beheaded his translator, Ajmal Naqshbandi, after the government refused to free two more Taliban officials in government jails. The group's driver was also killed. Becomes an 'industry' The incident was condemned as "barbaric" by the United States and caused a storm of criticism both in Afghanistan and Italy, whose foreign minister went before parliament to defend the government's handling of the situation.
"If you once, twice or for a third time comply with terrorists' demands, it becomes an industrial sector like other industries. It wouldn't have an end," Spanta said.
His comments came after French President Jacques Chirac telephoned Afghan leader Hamid Karzai to demand his support for efforts to free the French workers of Terre d'Enfance (A World for Our Children).
No rebel demand has been made for the two, kidnapped along with three Afghan colleagues in the southwestern province of Nimroz on April 3, but there are mounting concerns.
A purported Taliban spokesperson, Yousuf Ahmadi, said on Sunday the rebels had sent a "proposal" to what he called the Taliban's leadership council about the French hostages and were awaiting orders. Video footage
"We've made a proposal over the French hostages and submitted it to the leadership council. The leaders will decide the fate of the hostages," Ahmadi told AFP in a telephone call from an unknown location.
Video footage of the hostages pleading for their lives was broadcast by a Canadian and an Arabic television channel on Friday.
"The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan within lawful and legitimate limits, I insist within legitimate means, will do its utmost to free the hostages," Spanta said.
"But we shouldn't comply with tribute-taking culture," he added.
The Afghan government's pledge came on the day of the theoretical deadline set by the Taliban to kill one of a five-member team of Afghan medics snatched in southern Kandahar province on March 27.
A Taliban spokesperson had said the doctor would be killed if the government failed to enter into negotiations before April 15.
The Taliban allege the doctor is a cousin of the governor of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan.
The Islamist Taliban, which has led a bloody insurgency since being toppled in 2001, has abducted nearly a dozen people in the past month.
Analysts said the Italian deal - described by Karzai as a one-off - had opened the floodgates for further abductions.
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