Sorry for trouble, say freed hostages

NEWLY freed South Korean church workers apologised to their government yesterday for causing trouble in Afghanistan by being kidnapped by the Taliban for six weeks.

Some fell to the ground in shock when they were told that two members of their group had been killed by their captors.

“I can’t sleep due to concerns that we caused so much trouble,” said Yoo Kyung-sik, 55, in an interview on South Korean television. “I feel very sorry.”

Yoo and Suh Myung-hwa, 29, spoke to South Korean media in an interview in their hotel in the Afghan capital before leaving Afghanistan with the other hostages on a flight to Dubai. Other foreign media were barred from the hotel by guards at the door.

Outside the gates of the Kabul airport, a suicide car bomber targeting a patrol of German soldiers killed two Afghan soldiers and wounded 10 others, officials and witnesses said.

A German soldier was wounded in the blast, the country’s army command said, and Belgium’s defence minister said four Belgian soldiers were slightly wounded. Some 300 Belgian soldiers oversee security at the airport.

In eastern Afghanistan, a barrage of rockets missed a US-led coalition base but hit houses in the nearby village of Babul, killing 10 civilians and wounding seven, said Abdul Sabor Allayar, a deputy provincial police chief. A number of houses were destroyed in the attack, he said.

The 19 South Koreans were taken by the Taliban on July 19, along with four other church workers, and released on Wednesday and Thursday after their government repeated its pledge to withdraw its 200 troops from Afghanistan before the year’s end, and vowed to prevent missionaries from travelling to the country.

The insurgents released two of the church workers earlier this month.

“While kidnapped, all I could think about was staying alive,” Suh said in the television interview.

“I didn’t feel any pain under captivity, I guess because I was in a panic the whole time, but now that the tension is gone my body aches all over.”

South Korean TV showed the former hostages tearfully reuniting and hugging in the hotel.

The group had ignored warnings by their government against travel to Afghanistan. The government has been under intense pressure to bring them home safely and has faced criticism for negotiating with the captors.

A senior Afghan official close to the negotiations alleged yesterday the South Koreans also paid a ransom.

“Definitely there was money but I don’t know how much. I do not want to lie,” said the official on condition of anonymity.

South Korean presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-seon dismissed the claim.

Afghanistan has seen a series of hostage-takings this year. The Taliban are still holding a German engineer and four Afghans kidnapped a day before the South Koreans.