Cantoni of CARE International was released late Thursday, June 9, after more than three weeks in captivity, Italian and Afghan officials said. Cantoni was abducted May 16 when her unmarked car was stopped as she was driving home in Kabul, in a case that added to fear among Christian and other aid workers in the region. "We tried during these 24 days to persuade the abductors to release her," Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmed Jalali told reporters.
"She came from Italy, left her home and helped the Afghan people. She was working with widows, the most vulnerable victims of war." It came after the Italian government said recently she was in "good health" and that negotiations were ongoing.
Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini reportedly welcomed Cantoni’s release and expressed "enormous relief." However officials declined to reveal the demands of Cantoni’s kidnappers or their identity, except to say "they are criminals, not Islamic militants," the Voice of America (VOA) network and other reports said.
DEEP CONCERN
News of her release came as a relief for CARE International which had "expressed deep concern" and was among those calling "for her immediate release."
The organization said earlier that Cantoni had been engaged in humanitarian work for 10 years and lived in Afghanistan since March 2002. "Since September 2003, she managed the ‘Humanitarian Assistance for the Women of Afghanistan’ project for CARE International, providing food assistance and income-generating activities for 11,000 widows and their children," CARE International said.
In recent weeks hundreds of Afghan widows were also seen gathering in Kabul to demand the immediate release of Cantoni, who had been helping them and thousands of other impoverished widows to support themselves and their children.
CARE INDEPENDENT
CARE International, an independent, non-sectarian humanitarian organization, began work in Afghanistan in 1961, and currently works with Afghan communities on projects including education, health, water and sanitation, natural resources and small economic activity development.
The organization has programs in over 70 countries and claims to touch the lives "of over 45 million of the world’s poorest people." The kidnapping had added to concern among Christian and other aid workers in Afghanistan, which has seen several anti-American protests in recent days.
The gang who kidnapped Cantoni reportedly told police they were also involved in the kidnapping in Kabul last year of three United Nations workers, who were released unharmed one month later. This was the second high profile kidnapping case for CARE International in just over half a year.
OTHER KILLED
In November 2004, its Iraq Director Margaret Hassan, 59, was kidnapped and eventually killed by militants in Iraq. It was unclear when she would see her family, after reports Candoni’s mother was taken to hospital during the abduction apparently because of shock symptoms.
There were nail biting moments in recent days after Afghan television stations aired a videotape of Cantoni on May 29 when some media outlets reported she had been killed.
Those reports prompted denials from her purported captor, Temur Shah, who had threatened
to kill her if the government failed to meet his demands.
Those demands included more Islamic schools, more aid for opium farmers and the removal of a liberal radio show from the airwaves, news reports said. Cantoni is the fourth Italian to be kidnapped and released in the last 12 months. Three others were freed in a "coalition operation," and two more were killed by their kidnappers. (With BosNewsLife News Center, BosNewsLife Research and reports from Afghanistan and Italy)
