The Taliban commander, identified as Mullah Mateen, was among 16 militants killed in fighting late Monday and early Tuesday in Ghazni province, where the South Koreans were abducted and all but four of them freed last week, said Ghazni Deputy Governor Kazim Allayar and a senior police officer in statements.
However the militant Taliban movement denied the dead man was one of them. It came amid reports Tuesday, September 4, that the youth pastor who led the group of South Korean Christians, was killed for refusing to convert to Islam.
"Among the 19 hostages who returned on the second (of September), some were asked by the Taliban to convert and when they rejected, they were assaulted and severely beaten," said Park Eun-jo, pastor of the hostages’ home church – Saemmul Presbyterian Church in Bundang, near Seoul, in published remarks.
"I heard from the hostages that they were threatened with death," he was quoted as saying by the Seoul-based Christian Today newspaper and the online Christian Post publication. "Especially it is known that the reason Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu was murdered was because he refused the Taliban’s demand to convert." He was killed on his 42nd birthday and his bullet riddled body discovered July 25. A week later 29-year-old Christian missionary Shim Sung-min was killed.
SECRET PRAYERS
In South Korea, freed hostages said they held Christian prayers in secret as not to anger their Muslim captors. "We prayed, taking turns, pretending we were talking and with our eyes open" said Kim Ji-na, 32. Kim was one of two hostages freed on August 13, two weeks before the remaining 19 hostages were released. She denied allegations that the group was ill prepared for the mission in Afghanistan.
"I had drawn up a will," Kim told reporters, adding that had been suggested to the group as part of preparations for the trip. The group was kidnapped in Ghazni province in southeastern Afghanistan on July 19 as they were traveling in a tour bus. Direct negotiations between the South Korean government and the Taliban soon began as two male hostages were killed.
Kim said her group, was moved up to 16 times during the ordeal. One of the two male hostages to be killed, Shim Sung-min, was kept in the same group, trying to comfort the others. "Sung-Min said, ‘Don’t worry, it will be OK,’" Kim explained. "He put us at ease."
Kim said that on July 31 the Taliban called Shim and told the other hostages he had "gone back home". She said they did not know he had been killed until they were freed. Shim was found shot dead on a road that same day.
DEATH THREATS
Although the Taliban reportedly threatened to kill all the hostages with guns, some were kind, Kim said. "When we met good Taliban we tried to talk to them," she said, without elaborating. South Korean Christians have said however they want to spread the Gospel and love of Jesus Christ to all people, including Muslims.
The press conference ended abruptly when an apparently pale-looking fellow former hostage, Kim Kyung-ja, called for a doctor, who asked reporters to end the gathering. It underscored concerns about the physical and mental health of hostages, although medical officials denied reports that female hostages were raped.
One hospital chief Cha Seung-gyun told reporters that some of the 5 South Korean men freed from captivity last week reported being beaten by their Taliban abductors for refusing to convert to Islam and for protecting their female colleagues.
"We found through medical checks that some male hostages were beaten,” Cha Seung-gyun told reporters. Medical examinations reportedly showed no signs that the last 12 women were raped. Mirajuddin Pathan, the governor of Ghazni province, had said he received reports that “various Taliban commanders were fighting over the women hostages" and that “they were abused over and over."
QUESTIONS REMAIN
Not all questions were answered during the press conference, including the circumstances surrounding their release. The South Korean government has denied consistent reports that it paid $20 million for the release of the hostages, which at least one Taliban commander said would be used to buy arms and prepare suicide attacks.
In addition, media have condemned the national spy chief, Kim Man-bok, dubbed "the sun glass man" for appearing in public to take credit for his agencies’ role in ending the crisis.
Yet in a commentary in The Korea Times newspaper, American veteran journalist Tom Plate suggested that international criticism about the South Korean decision to negotiate with the Taliban was unfair. "After all, when human lives can be saved, it is difficult, if not morally reprehensible, to turn one’s back on their plight," he wrote.
"Even so, no government wants to be seen as being weak on terrorism. Yet if the enemy has you in a box and the only way out of it is direct negotiation, is it not moral cowardice to strike the tough-guy pose while real lives are lost?"
