Dutch NGO confirms abduction of two aid workers in Afghanistan

Jul 6, 2009, 14:37 GMT

Amsterdam - Dutch aid organisation HealthNet TPO confirmed Monday that two of its aid workers had been abducted in Afghanistan on Saturday.

'Our local aid workers Abdul Hafiz Shinwari and Said Akbar were on their way from Kabul to the eastern province Khost when they were forced to stop their car by armed militias,' Healthnet TPO spokesperson Geert Leerik told the German Press Agency dpa.

The owner and driver of the car, who were not abducted, had reported the incident to HealthNet TPO in Khost. Leerik said the two aid workers apparently remained uninjured in the abduction, which had yet to be claimed by any organization.

Healthnet TPO alerted Afghan authorities immediately. On Sunday the Afghan public health minister called upon religious and tribal leaders to free the aid workers.

In recent months, TPO Healthnet has repeatedly emphasized the presence of NATO's International Security and Assistance Forces (ISAF) jeopardizes the security of all non-governmental aid workers.

'We are caught in the middle between the Taliban and ISAF,' Leerik said. Taliban fighters were using the aid workers to retaliate against the international forces' activities.

'But even ISAF is very threatening to us too,' Leerik said, adding his aid workers are instructed always to try to keep a distance of some 200 metres from any ISAF military convoy.

Leerik said the difficulties were substantially bigger in areas where ISAF is active, but military commanders usually 'do not listen to us when we explain them our problems.'

HealthNet TPO, headquartered in Amsterdam, is a non-profit organization that works conflict zones or countries disrupted by disaster and poverty.

The organisaion aims to work with local populations in channeling emergency aid into sustainable health care development.