Abducted German woman freed in Afghanistan (2nd Roundup)

Aug 20, 2007, 3:39 GMT

Kabul - Afghan security forces overnight Sunday freed a German woman abducted a day earlier, the Afghan Interior Ministry and police in Kabul confirmed to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The woman, identified as 31-year-old Christina M, was abducted Saturday by four armed men as she was leaving a restaurant in western Kabul in the presence of her husband.

A spokeswoman for the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin confirmed the report of the abductee's release.

'She is in the safe custody of the German embassy in Kabul,' said the spokeswoman, who declined to comment on the health of Christina M, who is believed to be pregnant.

After the abduction, Kabul police cordoned off the district where the woman was snatched, conducted house-to-house searches and threw up roadblocks on major roads out of the city to prevent her from being taken out of the capital. One taxi driver was reported slain by mistaken gunfire.

Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Semarai Bashary told dpa that Christina M was freed in a joint operation by the ministry and the Afghan secret service.

In Berlin, government officials vowed to continue the participation of German Bundeswehr troops in the NATO-led international coalition to stabilize Afghanistan. German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that there was no alternative but to extend the German military commitment.

In a videotape broadcast earlier Sunday by the private Tolo news channel, a captor of Christina M wore a turban and hid his face.

'We have Madam Christina. We are trying hard to keep her safe,' he said. 'We want for the government of (Afghan President) Hamid Karzai to release our innocent prisoners. ... We don't have any other demand. We are not bad people.'

The captor denied being part of the Taliban, the former ruling Islamic militia that was toppled by a US-led coalition in 2001 and has continued a guerilla war.

A Taliban spokesman had previously denied responsibility for the German woman's abduction.

Afghanistan has seen a rash of kidnappings of foreigners since the abduction of an Italian journalist in March led to the release of five Taliban prisoners.

A German man was kidnapped on July 18 in the central province of Maidan Wardak. Negotiations continue for the release of the engineer and 19 South Korean Christian aid workers who were abducted in July. Two ill hostages were killed earlier by the Taliban, and two South Korean women were released last week.

In the videotape, Christina M also spoke.

'I am fine. There is no threat toward me,' she said, reading from a piece of paper and speaking broken Dari, the main language in Afghanistan. 'I want for my country to immediately try to win my release. They should help.'

Christina M is a staffer for Ora International, a Christian aid organization that has operated in Afghanistan since 1991.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin extended gratitude to the Afghan authorities with whom his government had worked 'closely, faithfully and successfully' to safely gain the German woman's freedom.

Steinmeier emphasized that the German Foreign Ministry is continuing to seek the release of the German construction engineer abducted last month, identified as Rudolf B.

The 62-year-old hostage was able to speak by telephone Sunday with a reporter in Kabul from German broadcaster ARD, reporting that his health was deteriorating. The abductee asked why a ransom had not been paid for his quick release and called for the German embassy in Kabul to act more strongly to gain his freedom.

The circumstanced under which Rudolf B was able to make the telephone call were not known.