A delegation of Afghan MPs, local and tribal leaders and a former Taliban leader on Saturday joined the negotiations for the release of 22 South Korean hostages, kidnapped nine days ago in the south-eastern Afghan province of Ghazni, officials said. A delegation comprising among others Abdul Salam Raketi, a former Taliban member, were negotiating with the kidnappers and hoped to find a peaceful solution to the problem, according to the provincial spokesman, Shirin Mangal. All members of the delegation were influential and respected people and it was hoped that they would be able to reach a breakthrough in the talks, he added. Earlier on Saturday, an alleged Taliban spokesman threatened that all of the 22 remaining South Korean hostages would be killed if the Afghan government resorted to the use of force to secure their release. "Using force would mean asking for their death," he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. The threat came in response to a comment by Afghan Deputy Interior Minister, Munir Mangal, earlier Saturday, that the government would be willing to use force as a last resort to free the hostages. "The talks are ongoing, we hope to solve this matter in a peaceful way, but if there is no way, of course military means would be the very last resort to solve this," Mangal, who also heads the government team to secure the release of the 22 remaining hostages, told dpa.
