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.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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