Hostages Negotiations Deadlocked
By Yoon Won-sup with Emal Pashtunyar
Staff Reporter
KABUL _ Taliban militants Monday denied a report that Korean hostages have begun a hunger strike following a demand to be kept together instead of being divided into groups.
``The report is baseless,'' a Taliban spokesman Zabeehulah Mujahid told The Korea Times.
Yonhap reported Sunday that the captives started a hunger strike to realize their demand to stay together.
Mujahid, one of the two spokesmen of the Taliban with Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, said that the Taliban are ready for negotiations with the Korean delegation but there has been no progress. Mujahid became a spokesman to replace his predecessor Hanif, who was arrested by the Afghan Intelligence Agency last year.
Mujahid said the talks would have no meaning for the militants if there is no progress.
The spokesman again made clear that their only demand is the release of Taliban fighters imprisoned in Afghanistan in return for the release of the remaining 19 hostages.
``We will not take back our demand,'' Mujahid said. ``We're not going to release the hostages unless our demand for a prisoners-hostages swap is accepted.''
Asked about any new deadline on the lives of the captives, he said there is no new deadline, saying that it is the work of the Taliban leadership.
Earlier, the militants threatened to kill the hostages unless the Afghan government free the Taliban prisoners. The insurgents have already killed two male hostages.
The negotiations for the hostages have made no progress after the Taliban released two female hostages last Monday.
So far two rounds of face-to-face talks between Korean officials and Taliban negotiators have been held _ the first lasted for nearly three days and resulted in the release of the two women.
The second round of talks lasted less than a day after which the militants suspended them for an indefinite period, saying the Afghan government and the Korean delegation were not interested in releasing the Taliban prisoners.
The remaining hostages _ 16 women and three men, mostly in their 20s and 30s _ went to Afghanistan on July 13 to offer volunteer medical services. The Taliban kidnapped them on July 19 in Ghazni Province.