Taliban hostages tell of terrorization

Survivors of a team of South Korean Christians taken hostage by the Taliban while on a missions outreach in Afghanistan are telling of the terrorization they were subjected to while they were held, according to the Voice of the Martyrs, the worldwide ministry to persecuted Christians.

Nineteen remaining team members recently were released under a negotiated agreement with South Korea. Two were released earlier and two of the team' leaders were murdered by the Taliban.

Returning members of the team have told of being beaten and ordered at gunpoint to convert to Islam during the six weeks they were held, according to statements publicized by the British Broadcasting Corp.

"We were beaten with a tree branch or kicked around," said former hostage Jae Chang-hee. "Some kidnappers threatened us with death at gunpoint to force us to follow them in chanting their Islamic prayer for conversion.

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"I was beaten many times. They pointed a rifle and bayonet at me and tried to force me to convert," the missionary said. "We lived like slaves. We had to level the ground for motorbikes, and get water and make a fire."

The capture created turmoil in South Korea, where President Roh Moo-Hyun was under intense domestic pressure to win the safe return of the hostages, mostly women in their 20s and 30s.

Government officials said in exchange for the release, South Korea agreed to keep to its plan to withdraw its 200 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2007 and to halt Christian teams' evangelical outreaches there.

Indonesian officials as well as leaders of the Afghan Red Crescent had served as mediators in the dispute.

The team's leader, Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu and another man taken hostage were executed by the Taliban.

Han Ji-young, in tears after being freed, recalled her pastor's death.

"Bae didn't even look at us when he was leaving the room. He only said, 'Overcome witih faith,'" she said.

Yu Jung-hwa told interviewers that there were times when the hostages thought their lives were over.

"The most difficult moment, when I had a big fear of death, was when the Taliban shot a video. All 23 of us leaned against a wall and armed Taliban aimed their guns at us, and a pit was before us. They said they will save us if we believe in Islam," she said. "I almost fainted at the time and I still cannot look at cameras."

The Christians had been taken hostage July 19 while traveling by bus from Kabul to Kandahar.

A Japanese newspaper later reported that South Korea paid a ransom – speculated to be as high as $20 million – for the hostages. The reports have had said the payment was made after South Korea decided it was the only way to resolve the crisis, even though officials for both South Korea and the Taliban denied a payment was made.

VOM is a non-profit, interdenominational ministry working worldwide to help Christians who are persecuted for their faith, and to educate the world about that persecution. Its headquarters are in Bartlesville, Okla., and it has 30 affiliated international offices.

It was launched by the late Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, who started smuggling Russian Gospels into Russia in 1947, just months before Richard was abducted and imprisoned in Romania where he was tortured for his refusal to recant Christianity.

He eventually was released in 1964 and the next year he testified about the persecution of Christians before the U.S. Senate's Internal Security Subcommittee, stripping to the waist to show the deep torture wound scars on his body.

The group that later was renamed The Voice of the Martyrs was organized in 1967, when his book, "Tortured for Christ," was released.

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