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Sunday, October 31, 2004
Afghan group threatens to kill Pinoy, 2 others
MANILA -- A breakaway Taliban group claiming to hold a Filipino and two other foreign nationals working with the United Nations (UN) threatened Saturday to execute them unless foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan and condemn its "invasion" by US-led forces.
"Our demand is the invader countries that these people belong to should withdraw their troops from Afghanistan and rethink their policies towards Afghanistan," Mullah Mohammad Ishaq, a spokesman for the Jaishul-Muslimeen (Army of Muslims), said.
When it was pointed out to Ishaq that neither Serbia nor the Philippines had troops in Afghanistan, he replied: "Their countries should condemn the invasion by other countries of Afghanistan.
"If they don't do so, we will kill the hostages."
The abducted UN workers are a British-Irish woman, Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayan and a woman from Kosovo, a province of southern Serbia, who are working with UN in overseeing the recent elections in Afghanistan.
On the other hand, Undersecretary Rafael Seguis suggested the Philippine government would not give in to the demands of the kidnappers in Afghanistan as it did in Iraq when militants abducted Filipino truck driver Angelo dela Cruz in July.
"Not all abduction cases would follow the pattern of government action as that taken in the Angelo dela Cruz case," Seguis said.
He said the government was coordinating with UN over the fate of Nayan, who was abducted on Thursday along with two other UN election workers.
Seguis said "the Angelito (Nayan) case has specific and unique circumstances" that a special crisis committee was addressing.
Seguis stressed the UN had the lead role in the case, adding the Philippines would follow its wish for a "low-profile policy" in handling the resolution of the kidnapping.
"The Philippines has a common interest with the United Nations in eliminating terrorism including the means to pursue it such as abduction," Seguis added.
President Arroyo was "saddened" by Nayan's abduction and has met with Nayan's brother and sister to assure them the government would do everything possible for his safe return, Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said.
In the Iraq kidnapping, Arroyo obtained the release of hostage dela Cruz by pulling out the small military contingent serving with US-led coalition forces in Iraq.
However this action angered close allies, the United States and Australia who said Arroyo was merely encouraging more kidnappings.
There are about 37 Filipinos serving with the United Nations in Afghanistan but there are no Filipino troops and the government has no diplomatic presence there.
No force
A US-led military coalition invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 and toppled the hardline Islamic Taliban regime for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden, head of the Al-Qaeda network responsible for the September 11 terror attacks on the United States.
An 18,000-strong military coalition, dominated by 16,000 US troops, is still in Afghanistan hunting Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters.
Another 9,000 peacekeepers from around 30 countries are patrolling mainly in Kabul as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
The US-led coalition and the peacekeeping force have no troops from Serbia or the Philippines, spokesmen for both forces told Agence France Presse.
The three UN employees had been overseeing Afghanistan's first presidential election and were nearing the end of their work when they were kidnapped at gunpoint Thursday from their car in front of a UN office in Kabul.
Incumbent leader Hamid Karzai, who is still waiting for his landslide election victory to be certified, has condemned the abduction as a "criminal act ... aimed at derailing the process of peace."
Foreign Minister Abullah Abdullah on Saturday expressed "deep dismay and regret" at the abduction.
"These cowardly acts, perpetrated by the terrorists and the enemies of Afghanistan, will never shake the resolution the Afghan people or discourage our partners in the international community from taking great strides towards stability and prosperity," he said in a statement.
Ishaq said the abductors had originally targeted 25 election workers for helping "the fake elections in our Islamic country to support the infidels' puppet (US-backed Karzai) to fool the people of Afghanistan". (AFP)
(October 31, 2004 issue)
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