By Yoon Won-sup with Emal Pashtunyar in Kabul
Staff Reporter
Taliban militants holding 21 Korean hostages in Afghanistan made a new demand Tuesday for the Afghan government to release two male Taliban prisoners in return for the freeing of two sick female hostages.
Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, the purported Taliban spokesman, said in an interview with The Korea Times, ``The Taliban are ready to make a prisoners-sick hostages swap.''
Ahmadi said the two female hostages were those he had earlier said were seriously ill and might die without proper medical assistance.
The demand came amid criticism among Muslims who learned that some of the female hostages are suffering from dehydration and intestinal disorders.
However, Seoul officials said no hostage has contracted any serious illness so far.
``There are no signs that the hostages are seriously ill,'' Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said during a Cabinet meeting. ``Their health cannot be perfect after 20 days in captivity. In that sense, it is not good overall.''
Ahmadi said the Taliban received only a small quantity of medical supplies sent by a group of Afghan doctors.
Meanwhile, he flatly denied a report that the militants proposed an exchange of female hostages for woman Taliban prisoners.
``The Taliban do not have female members in our ranks.''
The jailed women are just simple supporters who were convicted of providing food or shelter to Taliban fighters, he said.
``There are Afghan women imprisoned by the U.S. military at Bagram and Kandahar bases and the Taliban can negotiate on that if the Afghan government offers such negotiations,'' he added.
The insurgents once demanded a hostages-prisoners swap by the same number regardless of gender or illness. But the Afghan government has made it clear several times that it would not accept that demand for fear of encouraging more kidnappings.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. President George W. Bush also reconfirmed their longstanding position that they would not make concessions to the kidnappers during their summit on Aug. 5-6.
Prior to the summit, Ahmadi threatened to kill more hostages, saying, ``Karzai and Bush will bear the responsibility for whatever happens to the hostages.'' The Taliban have already killed two male hostages.
The Taliban are seemingly responding to international and domestic pressure to release the hostages, particularly those that are sick.
Meanwhile, the captives are following their situation by listening to a local radio, the Japanese daily Mainichi Shimbun reported.
Japan's NHK also reported that a 200-strong special forces unit sent to Ghazni Province, where the Taliban kidnapped the Koreans on July 19, has been withdrawn.
The pullout was made at the request of the Korean government, which has opposed any military operation out of concern that it could further imperil the hostages, according to the broadcaster.
Korean negotiators are still trying to establish face-to-face negotiations with the militants, after agreeing on a venue and an agenda.
The Taliban want to hold the negotiations in an area they control _ otherwise the insurgents need U.N. security guarantees should the Koreans want talks to take place outside these areas.
The Korea government sees a U.N. security guarantee as unviable and is considering mediation and security guarantees by international non-governmental organizations, which are well received in the Islamic world.
The remaining Korean captives are 18 women and three men, mostly in their 20s and 30s who went to Afghanistan on July 13 to offer volunteer services.