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AFGHANISTAN: Journalists Appeal for Release of Kidnapped Colleague

Ricardo Grassi

KABUL, Apr 4 2007 (IPS) - Afghan and Italian press associations appealed Wednesday for the Islamic Taliban movement to release Afghan journalist Ajmal Naqshbandi, who was kidnapped on Mar. 5.

Naqshbandi was captured in southern Afghanistan together with Daniele Mastrogiacomo, a journalist for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, for whom he was working as an interpreter, and their driver Sayed Agha. Agha was beheaded on Mar. 13, but Mastrogiacomo was freed on Mar. 20.

The three men had been “arrested for entering our territory without authorisation,” according to the Taliban, the movement that ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.

The Taliban, who control the southern province of Helmand, said that the captives were interrogated on suspicion of spying for the British armed forces who are involved in a military offensive against the Islamic movement.

Mastrogiacomo was released in exchange for four Taliban leaders held in jail in Kabul, but the Taliban commander Mullah Mohammad Dadullah decided to keep Naqshbandi in captivity.

Dadullah then demanded that the government of President Hamid Karzai negotiate with him for the exchange of Naqshbandi for three other imprisoned Taliban leaders. Two days ago he gave an ultimatum, threatening to kill Naqshbandi when a one-week deadline has elapsed.


>From the start, Dadullah’s main aim has been the release of former Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif, who is suspected of having collaborated with the Afghan government after his capture in January. According to unconfirmed reports, Hanif is refusing to leave prison because Dadullah would kill him as a traitor.

“We journalists can never be considered prisoners of war. Our mission, instead, is to report objectively the Afghan process,” said the Italian-Afghan appeal, delivered at a press conference covered by Afghan and international media.

The appeal is addressed to the Taliban “and in particular to Commander Mullah Dadullah who is holding our colleague,” and it requests the “immediate release” of the 25-year-old Naqshbandi.

“We make ours the recommendation stated by Afghan journalists and civil society workers on March 29, 2007,” at the first Afghanistan Media and Civil Society Forum, organised by the Afghan media group The Killid Group and international news agency IPS in Kabul:”‘That all sides involved in the armed conflict must protect and respect journalists’ freedom…while at the same time ensure the immediate release of those in captivity,'” the message went on.

The armed conflict, waged mainly in the south, is between the Taliban and other insurgents and some 40,000 NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) soldiers, mostly from the United States, and the Afghan army.

The Taliban governed this country until November 2001, when they were overthrown by U.S. forces who invaded Afghanistan in response to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, which were attributed to the Al Qaeda terrorist network. Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, was living in Afghanistan.

At the close of the Kabul Forum, the Afghan foreign minister, Rangin Spanta, said he “would never have agreed to negotiate with the Taliban to free imprisoned terrorists.”

The release of Taliban leaders was immediately criticised by local politicians and members of parliament, and by the United States, although no objections were raised during the course of the negotiations.

Last Saturday, parliamentary deputies criticised the government’s “indifference” to the fate of Naqshbandi.

In what has been interpreted as a refutation of Dadullah’s accusation of biased reporting by the Western media, the appeal adds that: “We, Afghan and Italian media workers remain open and ready to report the on-going conflict from the field.”

The appeal was forwarded to Dadullah through one of his spokesmen, and will be broadcast by Afghan, Italian and international media Wednesday and Thursday.

Among those present at the press conference were Lorenzo Cremonesi of Corriere della Sera, Duilio Giammaria of Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI), Danish Karokhel, the editor of Pajhwok Afghan News, Zia Bomya and Fazel Sancharaki, representatives of both Afghan press associations, and Munir, one of Naqshbandi’s brothers.

Giammaria also called on the government to provide information about Rahmatullah Hanefi, the Afghan manager of a hospital run by the Italian organisation Emergency in Lashkargah, near Kandahar, who mediated in the negotiations with the Taliban.

Hanefi was arrested by government intelligence services in the early hours of Mar. 20, shortly after Mastrogiacomo’s release, and not even his relatives have been able to see him since.

The appeal comes at a time when many in Afghanistan are angry because they believe that the Italian and Afghan governments’ negotiations with the Taliban had the sole aim of securing the release of the Italian journalist.

“How could the Afghan government and the international community let this happen?” Shahir Zahine, president of The Killid Group, which publishes two weeklies and owns two radio stations, complained to IPS.

“The Taliban will lose credibility, because they freed a foreigner while they killed an Afghan, and are threatening to kill another,” he added.

“In the last five years, the Taliban had not harmed journalists. There were threats, but that was all. Now they know they can exchange us for money or for imprisoned Taliban,” editor of Pajhwok Afghan News Danish Karokhel told IPS.

“While they were being held we did everything in our power: we organised press conferences and wrote a letter to the Taliban… Our hope was that the Italian government would help free the Afghan journalist too. It wasn’t difficult. Why did they accept the release of only one of the journalists, in exchange for four Taliban?” said Rahimullah Samander, the head of a journalists’ association.

Now everyone is waiting on Dadullah’s reaction to the Afghan-Italian appeal.

 
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