GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AP) - Amnesty International said it has directly appealed to the Taliban to free 21 South Korean hostages, warning the militant movement that holding and killing captives is a war crime.
The human rights group said it made the appeal in a phone call to a purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi on August 2.
"Hostage taking and the killing of hostages are war crimes and their perpetrators must be brought to justice," Irene Khan, secretary-general of the London-based group, said in a statement.
Ahmadi told Amnesty that "we are trying to resolve this issue ... acceptably," but did not agree to protect the hostages from harm and release them immediately, the statement said.
The call for freeing the captives, who include 16 women and five men, came as South Korean lawmakers went to Washington to urge the United States to help end the hostage crisis.
Richard Boucher, assistant U.S. secretary of state for South and Central Asia, said August 2 the use of military force to free the hostages had not been ruled out.
"All pressures need to be applied to the Taliban to get them to release these hostages," said Boucher. "There are things that we say, things that others say, things that are done and said within Afghan society, as well as potential military pressures."
Afghan officials said Taliban captors agreed to meet with South Korea's ambassador to Afghanistan, but they had not yet agreed on a venue.
"If the Taliban want to come to the area where we are for the sake of these hostages, 100 percent, they will be safe," Ghazni Gov. Marajudin Pathan told a news conference August 2.
But both sides have proposed places that could put them at risk - including the office of the provincial reconstruction team, which is run by international troops.
"The Koreans told the Taliban to come to the PRT, and the Taliban told the Koreans to come to their base," Pathan told The Associated Press after the news conference.
Taliban's Ahmadi said the remaining 21 hostages were still alive, but that two of the women were very sick and could die. A group of local doctors, meanwhile, traveled from Kabul to Ghazni in a hope of being able to reach the hostages, and treat those in a need of medical care.
The human rights group said it made the appeal in a phone call to a purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi on August 2.
"Hostage taking and the killing of hostages are war crimes and their perpetrators must be brought to justice," Irene Khan, secretary-general of the London-based group, said in a statement.
Ahmadi told Amnesty that "we are trying to resolve this issue ... acceptably," but did not agree to protect the hostages from harm and release them immediately, the statement said.
The call for freeing the captives, who include 16 women and five men, came as South Korean lawmakers went to Washington to urge the United States to help end the hostage crisis.
Richard Boucher, assistant U.S. secretary of state for South and Central Asia, said August 2 the use of military force to free the hostages had not been ruled out.
"All pressures need to be applied to the Taliban to get them to release these hostages," said Boucher. "There are things that we say, things that others say, things that are done and said within Afghan society, as well as potential military pressures."
Afghan officials said Taliban captors agreed to meet with South Korea's ambassador to Afghanistan, but they had not yet agreed on a venue.
"If the Taliban want to come to the area where we are for the sake of these hostages, 100 percent, they will be safe," Ghazni Gov. Marajudin Pathan told a news conference August 2.
But both sides have proposed places that could put them at risk - including the office of the provincial reconstruction team, which is run by international troops.
"The Koreans told the Taliban to come to the PRT, and the Taliban told the Koreans to come to their base," Pathan told The Associated Press after the news conference.
Taliban's Ahmadi said the remaining 21 hostages were still alive, but that two of the women were very sick and could die. A group of local doctors, meanwhile, traveled from Kabul to Ghazni in a hope of being able to reach the hostages, and treat those in a need of medical care.
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