Kidnapping booms in Afghanistan after Italian exchange

LA Times:

The government's exchange of five Taliban prisoners for a kidnapped Italian journalist last month appears to have touched off a spate of abductions, as some critics had feared.

In the last two weeks, at least 13 Afghans and two French aid workers have been kidnapped in three incidents. The Taliban claims to be holding at least 10 of the hostages and has said it will free some only if more jailed Taliban are released.

Meanwhile, interpreter Ajmal Naqshbandi remains in captivity nearly five weeks after he and the Italian journalist, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, were abducted, with their driver, during a reporting trip in southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban's resurgence is strongest. The driver was beheaded.

Some critics said Afghan President Hamid Karzai's decision to swap five Taliban prisoners, two of them fairly senior members of the radical Islamist group, for Mastrogiacomo's freedom would only encourage more kidnappings. Others faulted Karzai for not securing the release of the interpreter as well.

Mastrogiacomo was released March 19.

Naqshbandi's captors have publicly taunted Karzai, suggesting that he should show the same concern for the life of an Afghan as for a foreigner by releasing three more of their fellow Taliban. The government has refused to comply.

"This act will not be repeated in anyone's case, with no one, and there will be no favor to any country," Karzai said at a news conference Friday, referring to the deal that won Mastrogiacomo's release. "It is not possible."

The Afghan president said he had been under pressure from Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, whose government "was facing collapse." Karzai said Prodi "called me several times and asked for cooperation from our side."

...

The Italians used the old weakness strategy in negotiation with the Afghans. They are a bunch of wimps when it comes to paying ransom. They enriched the enemy in Iraq to get a commie journalist released. She became infamous because the driver of her get away car failed to heed a US check point and got several people killed, not to mention the people she got killed as a result of funding the enemy. The Italians need to act more responsibly and have less concern for their media hostages. They are only creating more.