UPDATE: Because one of the hostages is a blogger, his capture by the Taliban has special significance for me and possibly for many others. Please pass the word on to other bloggers about this. Keep them in your prayers and join me in demanding their immediate and unconditional release.
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The hostages are a) French and b) aid workers, but I'm sure that many will find some reason or another to blame America.

The communique only said that the man's name was "Eric" and the woman was named "Salma". I am nearly certain that the man is Eric Damfreville, who runs the NGO. The picture on the right comes from their website. Salma?

[UPDATE: Oh my Lord. One of the hostages is a blogger. Here is Eric Damfreville's photo-blog. Last entry is April 2nd. If you look around the blog you'll see lots of photos of the kind of great work Eric and his NGO were doing.

I hate to be the one first mentioning Eric Damfreville's name in public, but my experience with hostage families has been that they would much rather have the news out there and have your prayers and well wishes on their behalf than the normal diplomatic secrecy.]

The group they work for, Terre d'Enfance (A World of Children), runs the Kôdakân e-Zamîn Children's Center. I'm not sure if this is an "interesting" fact or not, but Zarandj, the city where they work, sits on the border with Iran. Attacks from Taliban positions in Pakistan seem to be way down.

The two French hostages, and the 3 Afghans, were in the region trying to help educate children. Especially, girls.

They say this about the work they do:

By implementing solidarity programs for the development of popular education and by supportting vulnerable children, TERRE D'ENFANCE aims at improving the acknowledge and the respect of the Children's Rights, and at contributing to the building process of an active, respected and emancipated Youth.

providing girls with preferential access to education and culture

UPDATE: Howie reminds me that the Taliban are holding, at a minimum, 6 other hostages. These five Aghans (a doctor, 3 nurses, and their driver), and Mastrogiacomo's Afghan driver--looks like the Italian hostage's driver was murdered. But the translator is still hostage (thanks Vicki). His name is Adjmal Nakshbandi. RTE:

Afghanistan's Taliban rebels claimed responsibility today for the kidnapping of two French aid workers and three Afghans guides in the southwest part of the country.

In an Arabic-language statement posted on the Internet, the militant group said: 'The mujahideen of the Islamic state detained on Wednesday, April 4, 2007, two French nationals -- a man called Eric and a woman called Salma with three Afghans.'...

The French man and woman, who work for the French aid agency Terre d'Enfance, went missing with their local driver and two others in an area of Nimroz province where there has been a rash of Taliban attacks....

Posted by: Rusty at 02:54 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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