By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Families of the hostages held by the Taliban in Afghanistan opposed a recent move holding the United States responsible for failing to participate in negotiations for the safe return of their loved ones.
Some family members said Friday that anti-American rallies staged by progressive activists could further endanger the lives of the hostages.
``We've tried to stop anti-U.S. rallies, as they may have a bad influence on negotiations for the hostages' release. Such movement may be what the Taliban want,'' said Lee Jeong-hun, vice representative of the hostages' families.
``Some anti-American civic groups said they would stage candlelight vigils for us and would accompany us to the U.S. Embassy, but we refused all. We think this incident should not be turned into anti-American sentiment,'' he said, adding such movement could endanger the hostages' lives.
When the families visited the U.S. Embassy to plead for help Wednesday, some civic groups held rallies nearby to call on Washington to proactively engage in negotiations with the Taliban to free the abductees.
They claimed the U.S. is partly responsible for the crisis, as the Taliban militants kidnapped the Korean volunteers to disturb the U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, including Korean troops. Some extremists called for scrapping the Korea-U.S. alliance.
``We worry that people may consider anti-American movement and our stance as the same. What we want is their safe return. Although those groups have their own political stances, we hope they will hold their opinions for a while and appeal to the world for help together with us,'' said Cha Sung-min, representative of the families.
Seo Jeong-bae, father of two hostages, Seo Myung-hwa and Seo Kyung-seok, said, ``We are not in the position of blaming the U.S. or anybody. All we want is to rescue our families, and it is not important who does it. It is not the time to irritate the U.S. but the time to cooperate with it.''
The families said they wish to head for Pakistan to plead with the Islamic world for support. They previously wanted to visit Afghanistan and the U.S. before the summit meeting between presidents of the two countries, but dropped the plan, as security is not guaranteed in Afghanistan and the visit to the U.S. is expected to have no practical gain.
They expressed their new plan to the government, but have not received any clear answers.