Emal Pashtunyar
Special to Korea Times
KABUL _ Unable to cow the Afghan government or its international backers into giving in to their conditions regarding the release of their prisoners in exchange for the safe liberation of the Korean hostages, Taliban militants are now desperately in search of ways to save face on the stalled issue.
Emboldened by the kidnapping of Italian journalist Danielle Mastrogiacomo in Helmand province March last year and the subsequent release of five of their high-profile prisoners in exchange for his safe freedom, the Taliban were disappointed the beleaguered Afghan government did not response similarly this time.
Finding the Afghan government a hard nut to crack this time _ partly under pressure from its main backer the United States; and partly due to internal pressure _ the Taliban are now searching different means to enter into some sort of deal with the Afghan government or the Korean delegation over the hostages, of whom two have already been coldheartedly executed with the fate of the rest still hanging in balance.
The recent example is the Taliban offer of the exchange of women prisoners for the release of female hostages. The fact is that Taliban have no female members in their ranks; neither are there women prisoners in U.S. custody in Afghanistan. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, during in a chat with this scribe, admitted that they had no female Taliban member and hence none of their women are in American detention facilities in Afghanistan .
However, he was quick to point out that many Afghan women (non-Taliban) are in jails and the Afghan government can ponder over whether to enter into a deal with the Taliban on the release of those women in exchange for the equivalent release of Koreans.
About a week back, the militants informed media about the poor health of some hostages. Later they offered the swap of two "seriously sick" female hostages with two of their prisoners. However, the Afghan government still did not reciprocate.
While killing a man is not a problem for the Taliban, who have been engaged in a guerilla war against the incumbent Afghan government and the foreign troops over the previous six years, they have certainly got themselves into a fix as far as the kidnapping and keeping of women is concerned.
The Taliban may be trying to dupe conservative Afghan society by propagating that the women were preaching Christianity in Afghanistan or by telling their people that women among foreign troops are targeting their villages and killing civilians in air strikes.
At the same time, the society is also showing reaction due to the continued captivity of the female Koreans. The two rallies in Ghazni and Kandahar provinces in support for the release of the women hostages were examples of that reaction which might spread if the hostage crisis is prolonged.
Hence, a catch-22 situation is developing for the kidnappers, who can neither release the hostages without their demand being fulfilled, nor can they kill them for fear of a possible backlash from the Afghan society. After the outright rejection of their demand regarding prisoners' swap by the Afghan government, the militants now want some kind of middle path to free the hostages and the Afghan government must cash the opportunity by giving them some leeway to save the lives of the remaining 21 abductees. At the same time Korea, which is struggling to establish face-to-face contacts with the kidnappers, should ponder over presenting such a solution where both sides - the Afghan government and the Taliban - find themselves in a win-win situation.
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