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AFGHANISTAN: Italy Talks With Taliban Over Abducted Journalist

The Killid Group*

KABUL, Mar 15 2007 (IPS) - A day after an Italian journalist kidnapped in Afghanistan appeared in a video, shown over television, appealing to Prime Minister Romano Prodi to work for his release, both the Italian Embassy in Kabul and the Taliban have confirmed they are in negotiations.

Italian ambassador in Kabul, Ettore Francesco Sequi, said the embassy was in touch with the Taliban in southern Afghanistan where Daniele Mastrogiacomo, reporter with the Rome newspaper La Repubblica, was abducted from Helmand province along with his guide and interpreter, both Afghans, on Mar. 5.

Mullah Dadullah, so-called senior Taliban commander in the south, confirmed the Taliban are in negotiations with the Italian government through the embassy.

The videocassette was delivered through a well-known Italian non-governmental group, Emergency, which runs a hospital in Lashkargah, the capital of Helmand. Italy’s foreign minister Massimo D’Alema has said Italy was working “through humanitarian channels” to secure the reporter’s release.

Mastrogiacomo, 53, went missing while attempting to interview Taliban leaders in southern Afghanistan. United States, NATO, and Taliban forces are in the midst of the heaviest round of fighting since the 2001 war that toppled the Taliban regime.

The spring offensive, dubbed Operation Achilles, was launched last week in the southern part of the country, and involves more than 4,500 NATO troops and some 1,000 Afghan soldiers.

On Wednesday, the Italian government denied that its troops were involved in joint combat duties with Spanish forces, as reported by a Spanish news agency. Defence Undersecretary Lorenzo Forcieri told the Senate’s Foreign and Defence Committees: “I don’t believe that it’s possible for our troops to be engaged in combat operations against Taliban militants because this is not their task.”

Italy’s 1,900-strong contingent in Afghanistan is deputed on peacekeeping duties like border patrolling in the west and reconstruction. NATO has been urging the Italian government to enlist its soldiers in the fight against the Taliban in the south.

The Taliban want Italy to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan in exchange for the kidnapped journalist.

Another Italian, freelance photojournalist Gabriele Torsello was kidnapped in October 2006 in Helmand province. His unidentified captors released him three weeks later after the Taliban called for his immediate release. Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, the so-called Taliban spokesman, said: “Kidnappers of the Italian journalist are robbers and they have abducted the journalist for money. We will drag them to court if we find them.”

Italian aid worker Clementina Cantoni was kidnapped by gunmen in Kabul in May 2005 and held for 24 days. Cantoni was working for Care International at the time. (*Reporting by Staffers of the Killid Group)