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WORLD / Middle East

Taliban say to start releasing Koreans

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-08-29 14:52

KABUL -- Taliban?will on Wednesday start releasing the 19 South Korean
Christian volunteers they kidnapped nearly six weeks ago, a
representative of the group said.

This combination picture released August 28, 2007 via Yonhap shows the 19
remaining South Koreans kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan. [Reuters]

"Our decision is today," said Qari Mohammad Bashir, who was involved in
the talks with a South Korean team on the release of the hostages. "We
are trying to start the work today."

A South Korean government official would not comment on the report.

In South Korean, missionary groups said on Wednesday they would pull out
of Afghanistan to comply with a deal Seoul struck with Taliban insurgents
for the release.

The Taliban said they would release the remaining 19 provided Seoul pulls
out its troops and stops Korean missionary work in Afghanistan by the end
of this year.

South Korea had already decided before the crisis to withdraw its
contingent of about 200 military engineers and medical staff from
Afghanistan by the end of 2007. And since the hostages were taken it has
banned its nationals from traveling there.

The 23 volunteers sent to Afghanistan by the Saemmul Church were seized
on July 19 from a bus in Ghazni Province. The insurgents killed two male
hostages early on in the crisis, but released two women as a gesture of
goodwill during a first round of negotiations.

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