SPEAKING
FREELY Taliban hold Afghanistan
hostage By Haroun Mir
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please click hereif you are interested in
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KABUL -
Hostage-taking in Afghanistan has become a
business for both the Taliban insurgents and
criminal bands. In addition to foreign hostages -
the most recent being a group of South Korean
missionaries still in captivity - a number of
Afghan businessmen
and
their family members have been kidnapped for
ransom, but they don't make the international
media.
Twenty-three South Koreans were
kidnapped by the Taliban on July 19 while
traveling from Kabul to Kandahar. Two male
hostages have since been executed as the Taliban's
demands for the release of 23 Taliban prisoners
have not been met.
On Monday, a Taliban
spokesman was quoted as saying that more
foreigners would be captured. He added that the
fate of the Koreans rested with Afghan President
Hamid Karzai and US President George W Bush, who
are meeting in the United States.
The
Korean abductions follow several others in the
past few months that have gained the Taliban
widespread publicity - and rewards. As one Taliban
commander was quoted as saying, "It's a very
successful policy." Clearly, the Taliban have come
to understand the value of public opinion in
democracies.
This year Italian journalist
Daniele Mastrogiacomo was seized with two Afghans
- his driver and an interpreter. The Italian was
swapped for five senior Taliban prisoners; the
Afghans were beheaded. Mastrogiacomo become famous
overnight, but he gave Afghans the impression that
his life was worth more than those of his Afghan
employees - and he also provided the Taliban with
the incentive to focus more on hostage-taking.
Looking for trouble ... Mastrogiacomo and the Koreans either
misunderstood or ignored the highly volatile
situation in southern Afghanistan. This reckless
behavior had obvious repercussions for them, but
also endangers Afghans and, most important,
foreign experts who work for reconstruction and
development projects throughout the country.
After the Mastrogiacomo incident, in which
the Afghan government was pressured by Italian
Prime Minister Romano Prodi to concede to the
Taliban demands, Afghan authorities should also
have become more vigilant about the free movement
of foreigners in the conflict zone.
The
Korean missionaries fell into the hands of Taliban
who were making a routine check of vehicles on the
Kabul-Kandahar highway. It's impossible to say why
the Koreans chose to go on this road in
insurgent-infested territory when they could have
flown, or organized better protection.
The
church with which the hostages are affiliated - a
large Presbyterian congregation in the Seoul
suburb of Bundang - is fully aware of the dangers
of kidnappings in the Taliban-dominated areas of
Afghanistan. Last year, several hundred South
Korean missionaries came to Afghanistan and wanted
to travel by road to various parts of the country.
But the Afghan National Directorate of Security
(NDS) expelled all of them before they could fall
into danger. This time, a relatively smaller group
might have escaped the scrutiny of the NDS.
From their perspective, the missionaries
obviously wanted to spread the word of God, as
well as aid. But they have ended up jeopardizing
their lives (two already dead) and, crucially, in
undermining the efforts the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization coalition fighting the insurgency and
reconstruction projects financed by the
international community. For example, the Japanese
government plans to remove all of its aid workers
from Afghanistan.
This plays right into
the Taliban's hands, as their short-term objective
is to stall reconstruction projects and prevent
much-needed economic development in the southern
part of the country so that they can win over the
hearts and the minds of the masses themselves.
In future, those who want to take the risk
of traveling to dangerous spots in Afghanistan
should bear the consequence of their acts. It is
unfair to jeopardize the destiny of a nation with
one's personal agenda.
Without the
presence of NATO forces and generous financial
support from the international community,
Afghanistan will fall once again into chaos and
misery. The presence of NATO forces is closely
related to the barometer of public opinion of
their countries back home. The Taliban and their
foreign backers are well aware of this and will
try hard to manipulate it even further.
Haroun Mir was an aide to the
late Ahmad Shah Massoud, Afghanistan's former
defense minister. He works as a consultant and
policy analyst in Kabul.
(Copyright
2007 Haroun Mir.)
Speaking Freely is
an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest
writers to have their say. Please click hereif you are interested in
contributing.
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