German kidnapped in Afghanistan 04/07/2007 00:00

4 July 2007

Kabul/Berlin (dpa) - A German national has been kidnapped in Afghanistan, the governor of the south-western province of Nimroz, Gholum Dastagir, confirmed Wednesday.

It was not clear if the kidnappers were members of the ousted extremist Taliban regime or criminals, Dastagir told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa.

The victim was abducted in the district of Delaram, which is located between Nimroz and the neighbouring province of Farah.

Security sources also confirmed that the man had been taken in Delaram, which until recently was a part of Nimroz province but is now administered by Farah.

The German man was last seen in a restaurant in a small market in the district.

The man disappeared on June 28, German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said.

A crisis team set up by the ministry met last Saturday to discuss the matter. The German embassy in Kabul has also taken up the case, Jaeger said.

The spokesman declined to give details of the missing man, but said he was not a soldier, a journalist or a member of a German aid organization in Afghanistan.

Unconfirmed reports said that the man had been travelling on the ring road to Herat in the west of the country.

It was the first kidnapping of a German in Afghanistan since April 1993 when guerrillas seized drug enforcement official Stefan Ehlert along with a Briton and a Dutch national near the border town of Spinbuldak. The trio was released after a month.

Germany currently has around 3,000 troops stationed with the NATO- led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

Most of them are confined to the relatively peaceful north where they form part of Provincial Reconstruction Teams building up infrastructure, schools and other institutions.

DPA

Subject: German news