A German engineer kidnapped by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan more than a month ago appeared in a video today appealing for help from his family and the German government.
A video clip shows German Rudolph B kidnapped by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan more than a month ago. Image: Reuters.
The man was one of two Germans and five Afghans the Taliban abducted in Wardak province, southwest of Kabul, on July 18th, the day before the insurgents seized 23 South Koreans from a bus in neighbouring Ghazni province.
"I live in the mountains with the Taliban 3,000 metres high, and the Taliban try to negotiate with the Afghan government," said the man, who identified himself as Rudolph B, in the video shown on the private Afghan channel Tolo TV.
"But the government not talk with the Taliban, and the Taliban tried to get in connection with the embassy to release us, but if the time is over they want kill us," he said, speaking in English and lying on a ground sheet clutching his chest and coughing.
The other German suffered a heart attack soon after they were abducted and was then shot dead by his captors, who are demanding Berlin withdraw its 3,300 troops from Afghanistan.
The German government has refused to do so but is under pressure from opposition parties and public opinion and faces a key vote in parliament next month on whether to renew the mandate for its force in Afghanistan.
"I ask my friends, my family and my two sons to increase the pressure on German government agencies to get us free," added the 62-year-old hostage, speaking in German.
"My medicine for my heart problem will have run out in three days time. And the time, the time is running."