taliban Hostages’ Families to Go to Dubai
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Some family members of the 21 Koreans held hostage by Taliban militants in Afghanistan will visit Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, to meet the Arab press and plead for the safe release of the captives.
Cha Sung-min, representative of the hostages’ families, said Friday that five family members and an interpreter from the Bundang Saemmul Church will leave for the Middle East country on Monday. Dubai is now the base of the Asian press in the Middle East, including Aljazeera.
He said the family members initially wanted to go to Afghanistan or Pakistan, but the government refused to allow them to travel due to safety concerns and so they came up with Dubai instead. They are scheduled to return home Friday.
They include Je Chang-hee’s mother, Lee Chae-bok; Yoo Jung-hwa’s, mother Kwak Ok-gang; An Hye-jin’s mother, Yang Sook-ja; Lee Young-kyung’s mother, Kim Eun-ju; and Lee Jung-ran’s brother, Lee Jung-hun.