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Afghan militants to decide fate of UN hostages
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-11-18 01:37
A murky Taliban splinter group which has held three UN workers hostage in
Afghanistan would be released.
Jaishul Muslimeen (Army of Muslims) militants, who claim to be holding the
three and have threatened to kill them, said their tribal council would meet
late Wednesday to decide on their fate, a spokesman for the group told the
Afghan Islamic Press.
"It is possible to set a new deadline for three hostages and to hold
negotiations again. To execute them. Set the trio free. Take decision to free
someone among the three," Syed Mohammad Akbar told the private Pakistan-based
news agency.
Jaishul Muslimeen, a shadowy breakaway faction of the Taliban rulers who were
ousted by a US-led military campaign in 2001, has set and broken a series of
deadlines for the government to agree to their demands which include the release
of 26 Taliban prisoners.
There was no word on the hostages fate at 9:00pm (0430 GMT) or further
statements by the militant group.
There are doubts over whether Jaishul Muslimeen militants are holding the
group or whether the hostages have been captured by a criminal gang seeking
ransom money, an Afghan government official said on condition of anonymity.
Akbar denied reports that the UN hostages were not being held by Jaish
militants.
"These people are still with Jaish," he told AIP.
Annetta Flanigan, Shqipe Hebibi and Angelito Nayan were snatched from busy
lunchtime traffic in downtown Kabul on October 28 and had been in Afghanistan
working on the country's first presidential election won by President Hamid
Karzai.
After their families issued an emotional plea for their release Tuesday, the
US military and a spokesman for the NATO -led peacekeeping force here were
upbeat on the prospects for the trio's release.
"We continue to remain hopeful that ... the three UN workers abducted in
Kabul on the 28th will be released unharmed," US military spokesman Major Scott
Nelson told a press briefing.
A spokesman for the NATO-led peacekeeping force here said that there had been
success in negotiations between the hostage-takers and Afghan authorities.
"The fact that indicators suggest that these three individuals are still
alive, I think is testament to the success that the government and the hostage
negotiators have had over the last couple of weeks," Lieutenant Commander Ken
MacKillop said.
Sources close the investigation told AFP Tuesday that talks with the
hostage-takers were ongoing but that progress was slow.
There had been hopes that the three would be released over the weekend on the
Eid-al-Fitr holiday which celebrates the end of Ramadan, the Muslim month of
fasting, but progress stalled.
Syed Khaled, another spokesman for the hostage takers told AFP earlier this
week that comments by US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage had
disrupted talks.
Armitage said negotiating with hostage-takers would only encourage more
kidnappings.
The kidnapping is the first of foreign UN or aid workers in Kabul since the
Taliban regime collapsed three years ago.
It has raised concerns that Afghanistan could see a repeat of the frequent
hostage-takings that have plagued Iraq, where more than 30 foreign hostages have
been killed by their captors.
United Nations staff in Kabul are now under strict curfew and are travelling
with armed escorts. Many aid agencies have curtailed unnecessary movement of
their staff.
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