您现在的位置: Language Tips> Audio & Video> Normal Speed News  
 





 
Afghan TV airs German hostage video
[ 2007-08-24 11:07 ]

Download

A kidnapped German engineer held hostage in Afghanistan for over a month has been shown pleading for help on Afghan TV. Efforts to free him and 19 South Koreans held by Taleban insurgents have stretched out for weeks. VOA correspondent Benjamin Sand reports from Islamabad.

The video aired Thursday morning on Afghanistan's private Tolo television station.

The German, identified as Rudolf Blechschmidt, is shown squatting on a black sheet, coughing and grabbing his chest as he appeals for help in English.

The video includes a translation in Dari by the local newscaster.

He says he is living in the high mountains and is in very bad condition.

With some prodding from his captors off screen he says the Taleban is trying to talk to the government and with the German Embassy but time is running out.

Blechschmidt was kidnapped in central Afghanistan on July 18, along with five Afghan colleagues and a second German engineer who later apparently was shot to death.

One of the other captives, who was not identified, was also featured in the video, begging Afghan President Hamid Karzai to help free them.

He says we are all Afghans, including the Taleban. For the sake of our children and for ourselves, he says, please try to release us.

Efforts are also underway to free 19 South Korean hostages in the central Afghan province Ghazni.

On July 19 Taleban insurgents seized 23 South Korean volunteer workers. Two were killed, two others released, the rest are still being held.

Security experts say the rash of kidnappings reflects a new strategy, copied at least in part from Iraq.

Analysts say the insurgents use kidnappings to terrorize communities and highlight the government's inability to protect them.

At the same time, the approach allows the militants to avoid a direct confrontation with better-armed international and Afghan troops.

The militants also, with varying degrees of success, use kidnappings to pressure foreign governments with a military presence in Afghanistan.

German, South Korean and Italian civilians have all been kidnapped in the past few months.

Taleban attacks in general are on the rise, and fighting continues throughout much of the country.

In Southern Afghanistan, a provincial police chief narrowly escaped a roadside bomb Thursday.

At least three civilians were killed and more than a dozen others wounded. A day earlier, a Taleban attack in the same region killed two Canadian soldiers and injured a journalist.

More than 6,500 people have been killed in the past 16 months, Afghanistan's bloodiest stretch since 2001 when a U.S.-led coalition ousted the hard-line Islamist Taleban government.

点击进入更多VOA常速

(来源:VOA  英语点津姗姗编辑

 

 
 
相关文章 Related Stories
 
         
 
 
 
 
 
         

 

 

 
 

48小时内最热门

     
  “我要休假”怎么说
  学两句礼貌用语
  失恋有那么痛苦吗?
  Lin Chi-ling poses during a promotional event
  日本:用牙齿启动你的iPod

本频道最新推荐

     
  女孩的心思谁能猜:Suspended from class
  《说点什么吧》:Say something anyway
  Mountain and cowboy culture meet in Jackson Hole
  Livestock disease spreads in Britain
  Working magic in the garden with beans

论坛热贴

     
  参加BBC在线竞赛 获免费伦敦游机会!
  How to say 亲友团?
  “三班倒”怎么翻译?
  这个小女孩什么意思啊?
  支票或发票的"抬头"怎么说?
  请问工卡英语怎么说