Hope rises for release of Afghan hostages
Taliban-linked kidnappers of three UN election workers, including an Irish woman, claimed today that a deal could be close for their release.
But the United States indicated it would not free jailed militants in return.
A businessman from Kosovo who has travelled to Kabul to seek the release of one of the captives also said the trio could be freed as early as tonight.
Afghan officials have reported progress but still not confirmed any negotiations with the shadowy Jaish-al Muslimeen group – or Army of Muslims - which claims to have staged the abductions from the capital Kabul 13 days ago.
The group says 26 prisoners, 11 of them in Guantanamo Bay, must be freed if it is to spare the lives of the three foreigners: Annetta Flanigan from Co Armagh, Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo, and Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayan.
“We have been given signals that the prisoners whose release we demand will be freed,” said Jaish-al Muslimeen leader Akbar Agha in a telephone call.
He said the group was insisting a prisoner exchange be finalised by tonight and take place shortly after.
“We will not leave it until tomorrow,” Agha said. “We want our colleagues holding the hostages to be free and go home for Eid,” the end of the Muslim fasting month, expected on Sunday.
Behgjet Pacolli, a businessmen seeking Hebibi’s release, said he too had assurances that a deal was in the offing.
“Unless something very bad happens, the process of freeing the hostages will start today,” Pacolli said. “This night or tomorrow night” they will be released, he forecast.
Pacolli, who runs a business in Switzerland, said he was in contact with the hostages through intermediaries he declined to identify. He insisted he offered no ransom.
The militants say 15 of the prisoners they want released were seized by American troops near the southern border town of Spin Boldak last month and are still in the country. The others were apparently detained earlier.
Military officials in Afghanistan have declined to say whether they will release any suspects. But visiting US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said there was little room for manoeuvre.
“I pray for the safety of those who are held hostage,” Armitage told said in Kabul. “But having said that, it is the United States’ view that negotiating with hostage-takers, compromising with hostage-takers only encourages more.”
President Hamid Karzai said yesterday that his officials were working “on a minute-to-minute basis day and night” to free the UN workers – who helped manage last month’s election which returned him to power.
“They have helped us in Afghanistan tremendously. And it’s a shame that this has happened in our country. Our people condemn it,” Karzai said
Relatives and officials said yesterday that two of the hostages, Hebibi and Nayan, had been allowed to call home to say they were all right.
Philippine officials also said they were talking to possible intermediaries of the kidnappers.
