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Taliban sets woman hostage free

A French woman held hostage by the Taliban has been freed, the French foreign ministry said yesterday, confirming an earlier statement from the militant group in Afghanistan.

"The French authorities confirm that one of the members of the Terre d'Enfance [A World For Our Children] organization held hostage has indeed been freed this [yesterday] morning in Afghanistan," it said in a brief statement.

"The release was the result of three weeks of efforts, which should continue with the same determination and the same discretion to secure the release of the other hostages," it said.

Earlier yesterday, Afghan Taliban militants said they had freed a French woman captured more than three weeks ago.

They also extended by a week a deadline for demands to be met for the release of four men taken with her.

Purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said the French woman was handed over to tribal leaders in the Maywand District of southern Kandahar Province.

`Good relations'

"Because she is a woman, to make good relations with the French government, we have handed this woman over to Maywand District tribal leaders,'' Ahmadi said by telephone.

The two French nationals and three Afghans working for the French nongovernmental organization (NGO) went missing on April 3 in the southwestern province of Nimroz.

Ahmadi said the French man and the three Afghans are still being held and reiterated the Taliban's demands to the French government in exchange for their release.

"The French government has to stop giving military support to the Afghan government, and French forces should leave Afghanistan," he said. "When the French government withdraws its forces from our country, then we will negotiate the release of this French man and three Afghans as well."

The NGO's chairman, Antoine Vuillaume, told reporters yesterday that the French woman was now "traveling to Kabul accompanied by French authorities."

"Celine is extremely worn out after 24 days in captivity. She is very weak," he said after meeting French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy.

"Clearly this is a first sign of hope. In any case it is a first result, it is a great relief and brings hope for the other four people," he said.

The Taliban said on April 20 they wanted France to withdraw its 1,000 troops with NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan and for certain Taliban prisoners to be freed in exchange for the hostages.

Douste-Blazy said on Friday there was no plan for the troops to stay for the long term.

The kidnapping came two weeks after Afghan authorities released five Taliban prisoners in exchange for an Italian newspaper reporter, who was abducted along with his two Afghan colleagues in southern Helmand Province on March 5. The two Afghans were killed.

Criticism

The deal was heavily criticized by the US and some European nations. Afghan lawmakers and foreigners working in the country said it gave the Taliban incentive to stage more kidnappings.

The Afghan government has said the prisoner swap was a one-time deal for the Italian journalist and has ruled out any future exchanges.

France pulled 200 French special forces out of Afghanistan late last year and still has about 1,000 troops stationed in the country.
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