Afghanistan kidnaps force Korean rethink on missionary drive
By Anna Fifield in Bundang, South Korea
Published: July 27 2007 03:00 | Last updated: July 27 2007 03:00
Two young women hugged each other tightly inside the Saemmul Presbyterian church on Thursday, their sobs echoing through the cavernous hall where Bae Hyung-kyu, a Christian pastor killed by his Taliban captors on Wednesday, once preached. Around them, a handful of other women prayed silently in pews, rocking back and forth.
People in Bundang, the commuter town south of Seoul that is home to the Saemmul church attended by 23 South Korean missionaries taken hostage in Afghanistan, were in disbelief yesterday that the Taliban carried out their threat to start killing the hostages. So mingling with the grief was a sense of urgency at the need to secure the release of 22 members of the Saemmul congregation still being held.
"I feel very disappointed that they went to Afghanistan despite the government's warnings, but I feel very sorry for them," said Lee Sang-yong, who manages a convenience store opposite the church. "The government should now do everything it can to save them, even agreeing to the Taliban's demands."
The Korean government condemned the killing of Mr Bae, who was the leader of the group and died on his 42nd birthday, leaving behind a wife and nine-year-old daughter.
Mr Bae was one of the founding members of the Saemmul church, a congregation of 5,000, the vast majority under 40. He was due to go to Uganda a week after returning to Korea.
"Our pastor who was killed was a very good Christian and a very peaceful person," said Park Eun-jo, the senior pastor at the church.
The 23 missionaries were taken hostage when the Taliban intercepted their bus on the road between Kabul and Kandahar last Friday. Church leaders said the Koreans were in Afghanistan as volunteers and were there to work in hospitals and schools rather than proselytise.
"Afghanistan is one of the most miserable countries in the world and we wanted to help them by building hospitals and schools and bridges," said Mr Park.
The hostage crisis has dominated the Korean media, with television networks broadcasting footage of the distressed relatives, and hundreds of Koreans joining candlelight vigils.
But the incident has caused many to question Korean missionaries' zeal for going to the world's most dangerous places, especially since the Saemmul members ignored government travel warnings.
A photograph showing three of the women hostages posing next to a Korean airport noticeboard advising against travel to Afghanistan has been widely circulated on the internet.
It is not the first time Korean missionaries have been in trouble in Afghanistan. In August last year the Afghan government forcibly deported a group of more than 1,000 South Korean evangelical Christians who entered the country on tourist visas and were accused of proselytising, punishable by death in Afghanistan.
"I cannot believe that they ignored the warning sign at the airport," one Korean user wrote in a chatroom on Naver, Korea's most popular internet portal.
More than 33,000 people have signed an online petition asking the government to try to recoup the costs of the rescue if the remaining hostages are returned safely.
The incident has also caused introspection in churches across Korea, which, although traditionally Buddhist, aggressively adopted Christianity in the first half of the 20th century.
About a third of South Korea's 48m people now call themselves Christians and, with more than 16,000 people preaching abroad, the country is the world's second-largest exporter of missionaries behind the US.
"We need to reconsider our missionary works as a result of this kidnapping incident," said Park Seung-cheol, of the Korean Council of Churches.
Additional reporting byAunohita Mojumdar in Kabul
