Ex-hostages told to pay up

SEOUL - South Korea has told 19 former hostages to pay some of the costs of their rescue from Afghanistan’s Taliban, amid increasing criticism of the ill-fated trip by the Christian aid workers.

President Roh Moo-Hyun “instructed his cabinet to exercise the government’s indemnity right on strictly legal grounds,” said his spokesman Cheon Ho-Seon.

Cheon has said the government will recoup expenses including air fares and the cost of bringing back the bodies of two murdered hostages.

Yu Kyeong-Sik, spokesman for the group of former captives, apologised repeatedly on their arrival in Seoul yesterday. “We owe the country and the people a great debt,” he said.

The church group undertook the trip in defiance of foreign ministry warnings.

Before departure it was pictured posing with an airport notice warning against travel to the Central Asian nation.

“By ignoring the government’s warning and rashly carrying out a mission in a politically unstable Muslim country, the captives have laid a great burden on their country,” JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said.

“By violating international principles and directly negotiating with a terrorist group, our country has invited censure from other countries. Korean churches cannot escape the scathing criticism that their aggressive missionary work put the lives of several innocent young people in dire jeopardy.”

The group was freed after Seoul government negotiators reached a deal with the Taliban. They have been taken to Sam Anyang General Hospital south of the capital for checks.

“Most patients are in stable condition and have no serious health problems,” a hospital official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“Further checks will be conducted, along with psychiatric treatment, and access to them is restricted for two weeks.”

The Taliban had threatened several times to kill more hostages unless their demands were met.

The official said there were no particular signs that some had been badly beaten.

A pastor from the Saem-Mul Presbyterian church at Bundang on the outskirts of Seoul, which organised the mission, said Sunday that some hostages had been “severely beaten” for refusing to embrace Islam.

He said two men were threatened with death for refusing to convert and some of the women had been “at risk of being sexually assaulted.”

There was no immediate confirmation of his claims.

The group was abducted in insurgency-plagued southern Afghanistan on July 19.

The Taliban murdered two men last month to press their demands to exchange the Koreans for Taliban prisoners, a condition rejected by Kabul.

After starting talks in Afghanistan with South Korean officials, the Taliban on August 13 released two women. They freed the remainder last Wednesday and Thursday.

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