Taliban expert seeks serious talks to ensure safety of S. Koreans

A prominent scholar of Pakistan's Afghan policy said Monday he believes that the failure to negotiate the release of 23 South Korean hostages in Afghanistan reflects a serious shortcoming in the U.S., NATO and Afghan policy vis-a-vis Afghanistan's Taliban rebels.

''If there is genuine sympathy with the abductees, then serious negotiations have to be made,'' said Khalid Rehman, a veteran Afghan-watcher at Islamabad's Institute of Policy Studies, which is dedicated to the study of regional issues and politics.

Taliban militia kidnapped the group of South Koreans on July 19 in turbulent Ghazni Province as they were heading to Kabul from Kandahar in southwestern Afghanistan.

The kidnappers are demanding the release of Taliban prisoners in exchange for the hostages.

As the kidnapping saga continues, South Korean envoy Baek Jong Chun has met Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul and discussed the efforts being made for the release of the hostages, according to a report by Afghan Islamic Press.

Rehman, who is deputy chairman of the institute, has extensively studied and written about the Taliban phenomenon and the Afghan jihad against Soviet troops after the then Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979.

He pointed out the Taliban are known to have never maltreated women and it is difficult to conceive they will change that policy with the South Koreans, the majority of whom are women.

He cited the case of a British female journalist kidnapped by the Taliban who was reportedly so well-treated that after her release she embraced Islam and emerged as a champion of interfaith harmony.

''It would very much depend on how you engage them,'' Rehman said when asked if the Taliban would carry out their threat to kill the 22 remaining hostages.

One hostage, a South Korean pastor, was killed last week.

Rehman said the Taliban are in ''a war-like situation'' and it is necessary that the Afghan, U.S. and NATO authorities hold serious talks with them.

''If they are in that position they should engage them. If they are not doing this, if they are incapable of doing this, it is their failure,'' he said.

In a statement Sunday, the Taliban high command accused Afghan and South Korean negotiators of failing to engage in serious talks about the exchange of Taliban prisoners for South Korean hostages and gave Monday noon as a new deadline for the release of prisoners.

There has been no indication so far if the Afghans are prepared to meet the Taliban demands.