OK, I lied. I am doing one more post on the recent Korean hostage situation in Afghanistan.
Earlier this week I got an email under the name of Daun Khan in reply to a piece I had written on the recent hostage situation in Afghanistan. As usual in this kind of situation, I can’t be 100% certain about the writer’s identity but it “rings true” when I read it. I did not see any bylines in the Korea Times with his name but he could have been working with a Korean reporter who actually wrote the pieces.
In the email, he disagrees with some of the stuff I had written previously on the subject, but I can take a bit of criticism and thought that it warranted a larger audience. So I asked Mr Khan if I could reprint his email here and he graciously agreed.
I won’t add anything to what he wrote aside from noted that I would have been just as critical of the Italian government had I been writing for the “Italy Times.”
Everything below the fold is from Daud Khan:
Mr. Andy Jackson,
Reference your article “Taliban Triumph Over Korea” published in the Korea Times on September 3. I appreciate your analysis of the situation and I agree with you on the point that the Korean government should not hold negotiations with the abductors or should not strike the ransom deal with the Taliban.
But what would be the reaction of the Korean government had the Taliban killed all the hostages? The same countries, organisations and the opposition parties, who are now criticising the Roh Administration for entering into the clandestine deal with the Taliban would come out again with the same criticism had the Korean government allowed the Taliban to do whatever they want and refused to talk to them like Germany.
I think the Korean government had done the right thing to save the lives of 21 innocent citizens. It has efficiently fulfilled its responsibility because a government and a state must be responsible to save the lives of its citizes.
Being stationed in Afghanistan and reporting for the Korea Times from here, I wish to mention the blunder committed by the Korean government, the relevant missionary organisation and the Korean embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. I think the Korean people have no or little knowledge about the situation in Afghanistan. Had they know about the situation here, they would never send a group of 23 people to Afghanistan and especially Kandahar, which is the Red Zone of the this insurgency-wracked country from security point of view.
I don’t know who sent the 23 people to Afghanistan, but it was the responsibility of the Korean government, the concerned organisation and the Korean embassy in Kabul to inform the group about the Afghan society, the sensitive areas and the risks involved with group traveling and journey in the southern zone of the country.
The second mistake also committed by the Korean embassy and it was that (I think) they did not inform their government in Seoul about the Afghan culture and society before entering for negotiations with the Taliban. In my articles to Korea Times, I pointed out again and again that Taliban will never kill any of the Korean women. They may kill the five men, but they never kill the women because of a possible reaction from the Afghan society. Afghan culture and traditions never allow the killing of a woman by a man. In such a case, the tribal jirga expell the killer from the area and burn his house and confiscate his property.
Soon after the killing of the two male hostages, the Taliban leadership, sensing widespread condemnation inside Afghanistan, issued stern warning to the concerned Taliban commanders to immediately release the kidnappees and end the issue. Had the Korean government stayed steadfast, the Taliban would be compelled to release, at least the female hostages, without any pre-conditions. After the release of the 18 women, the Korean government would be in better position to discuss the release of the three men from captivity and they would not have to pay such a huge ransom.
As the international criticism and the criticism from the Afghan government, I wish to mention that the same international community and the Afghan government is responsible for encouraging the Taliban to kidnap foreigners. In March this year, the government of Italy had paid huge ransom to the Taliban for the release of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo. As part of the same deal, the Afghan government, which is now criticising the Korean side, had released five key Taliban prisoners from a jail in Kabul.
Just two months before that, the Italian government had paid huge ransom to the Taliban for the release of photojournalist Gabrielle Torsello, who was kidnapped in Afghanistan Helmand province.
So, it is the Afghan government and its foreign backers, who are responsible for encouraging the Taliban to continue kidnapping of foreigners. When Italy can pay millions of dollars of its one citizen and force the Afghan government to release five dreaded Taliban commanders, why not the Korean government should pay to the militants for its 21 citizens?
Yes, it is true that the Korean side had erred at several points. However, they must inform their people before traveling to Afghanistan as well as the Korean embassy in Kabul must have full knowledge of the Afghan society and the Red Zones in this war-battered country.
Thanks
Daud Khan
I’m a journalist working in Kabul. I have covered the hostages crisis for the Korea Times.
13 Comments
I keep hearing that Muslims will never kill women fearing fellow Muslim backlash.
So why is it that it’s OK to kidnap and kill innocent foreign men? Where is the Muslim outrage and backlash against this practice?
#1: I keep hearing that too, with very little to actually back it up — especially in light of video shown on CNN (back before the war — when they were busy painting the Taliban as demons) of women being shot in the head in the middle of a soccer pitch by Taliban men. So what’s the big difference now?
As I’ve said before, the developing world views men and women fundamentally differently. They are given A LOT less rights BUT… are seen as a lot more helpless and harmless. Thus, killing them for political gain would draw a very negative reaction from society. This lack of understanding of the developing world (3rd world) mentality, illistrated by a lack of understanding regarding traditional gender roles, etc. is one of the reasons I think nations like the U.S. do so badly in fighting insurgency movements in 3rd world countries.
They don’t know how to win “hearts and minds” because they know so little about the hearts and minds they are trying to win.
Being a woman and a naturalized dual citizen of Iraq didn’t spare Irish-born Margaret Hassan a videotaped execution.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4019809.stm
Although I agree with almost everything he/she says, I can’t agree with this==
“I don’t know who sent the 23 people to Afghanistan, but it was the responsibility of the Korean government… Korean embassy in Kabul to inform the group about the Afghan society, the sensitive areas and the risks involved with group traveling and journey in the southern zone of the country.”
Doesn’t the Korean government already warn citizens from going to Afghanistan? Isn’t this a common knowledge? I mean, would the New York City Hall also be responsible to inform visiting tourists from jogging at 3 am in the central park?
“It has efficiently fulfilled its responsibility because a government and a state must be responsible to save the lives of its citizens.”
Why should the government spend tax payer money to save people who want to die? Why should the Korean government essentially endorse Christian missions?
Already the Taleban is claiming Korean government didn’t fulfill their part of the deal. I wonder if this has made Korea a terror target now.
In response to this debacle, there will be great pressure to prevent any and all Korean nationals from Afghanistan. Even Christian groups who have been working intelligently will feel the heat. What about Korean members of NGOs like Doctors without Borders? Will they have to pack up and go home too?
It’s difficult for me to have a sigh of relief at this.
Sure, radical-jihadist Muslims will easily kill women, for a variety of religion-based reasons. Moses had plenty of women excecuted for violating his “laws”, read the Bible. Nothing new there…
I don’t believe Daud Khan is a native Korean. He must be a foreign journalist. The article is well-written and quite fair. I did not sense any sort of rabid nationalism or anti-American sentiment. Thus, I do not believe a Korean could have written that email.
Nothing like reading someone’s bigotry first thing in the morning…
Good response to your post. I believe both Khan and events underscore the fact that the “Taliban” is hardly a united force operating under a single code of discipline. Thus each faction’s actions are colored by local (tribal) precepts. There is a Shura that states: “Be kind to women and children, and God will surely be pleased with you.” Yet women in the muslim religion are subject to the same punishments referred to by Sanshinseon, i.e., stoning for not being virgins, for being caught in adultery, etc. And, as in Margaret Hassan’s case, they can be specifically targeted for death, likely for suspicion that she was serving western intelligence.
Hadn’t the Korean government explicitly warned its citizens of the danger involved in visiting Middle Eastern war zones after the execution of Kim Song-il in Iraq several years ago? I was under the impression that it had.
“….I think nations like the U.S. do so badly in fighting insurgency movements in 3rd world countries….”
At least we are willing to fight. That’s more than you can say for some countries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non_sequitur_(rhetoric)
“They don’t know how to win “hearts and minds” because they know so little about the hearts and minds they are trying to win”
Wang, you are obviously created from a civilized society or you wouldn’t have the ability to think like that. It is precisely the ability of “tolerant” societies to tolerate the intolerable that make them so dangerously susceptible to their own demise. There are places in this world, Afghanistan being the prime example, where digression toward the mean of their population reveals the type of barbaric behavior illustrated in these kidnappings and murder.
This type of behavior doesn’t need to be “understood,” it needs to be eradicated. You assume because you hold a certain set of beliefs, for example that life is valuable, that everyone must hold those values dear as well. This is not the case. It is the ultimate western arrogance to assume that all people are really good, and within every people group there must be a little bit of what they hold dear in their hearts as well.
In the movie “Full Metal Jacket” an Army officer is berates a Marine saying “..We are here to help the Vietnamese, because inside every gook there is an American trying to get out.” This is the ultimate self destructive hubris; to assume that inside these uneducated and barbaric people there is a good decent person that we need to try to understand. In reality, theirs is culture of murder, abject cruelty, and defies almost every worthy value that most modern civilizations try to promote.
They don’t need to be understood. We need to understand the world that produces these kind of murders better.