DATE=2/14/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=AFGHAN HOSTAGES / RETURN (L)
NUMBER=2-259131
BYLINE=JIM TEEPLE
DATELINE=ISLAMABAD
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Seventy-three former hostages have returned to
Afghanistan - eight days after the plane on which they
were travelling was hijacked to London. V-O-A's Jim
Teeple reports from our Islamabad bureau, it is
unclear what will happen to another 74-hostages who
have asked for political asylum in Britain.
TEXT: The 60-adults and 13-children were greeted by
the Taleban Foreign Minister, Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil,
and representatives from the International
Organization for Migration, a Geneva-based refugee aid
organization.
The hostages were given bouquets of paper flowers and
gifts of Afghan clothing upon their arrival in
Kandahar, the southern Afghan city that is the base of
Afghanistan's Taleban movement.
The Afghan airline plane they were originally
traveling on was hijacked more than a week ago while
on a routine flight from Kabul to the northern city,
Mazar-e-Sharif.
Seventy-four other people who were on the hijacked
plane have asked for political asylum in Britain.
The Taleban Foreign Minister says the Afghans who
stayed in Britain are economic migrants and not
political refugees. Taleban authorities say they will
not face persecution if return to Afghanistan. But
Taleban officials say the hijackers should be
prosecuted and punished.
British authorities are reported to be considering
transferring some of the former hostages to countries
where there are substantial Afghan refugee
populations. British authorities say the 13-men
charged in the hijacking will be prosecuted to the
full extent of the law. The men face long prison
terms if convicted of hijacking.
It is still unclear what the motive of the hijackers
was, although some of the returned hostages say they
believe the hijackers were seeking to simply leave
Afghanistan. The country has been devastated by a 10-
year war against a Soviet invasion and nearly 10-years
of civil war.
Taleban officials say they believe the weapons used in
the hijacking were smuggled on the plane by women
passengers who carried them under their all-covering
burquaa's, the veils Afghan women are required to wear
by the Taleban.
// REST OPT //
British police say the hijackers were armed with a
variety of weapons, including handguns, grenades, and
knives. British newspapers say an elite anti-
terrorism squad was ready to storm the plane after its
crew escaped from a cockpit window and the hijackers
shoved a cabin steward out the rear door onto the
tarmac of Stanstead airport.
It is still unclear when the Afghan Ariana Boeing-727
will be returned to Taleban authorities who are under
a U-N embargo for their refusal to hand over suspected
terrorist Osama Bin Laden. He is suspected of
involvement in the bombing of two U-S Embassies in
East Africa in 1998.
Taleban authorities say they need the plane back as
soon as possible to ferry pilgrims on their annual
pilgrimage to Mecca. The United Nations recently
granted the Taleban a special waiver for pilgrimage
flights. (SIGNED)
NEB/JLT/RAE
14-Feb-2000 09:09 AM EDT (14-Feb-2000 1409 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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