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| On Wednesday, the Taliban released twelve of the 21 missionaries held hostage for six weeks in Afghanistan. Yonhap/Reuters |
With Taliban's release of Korean Christian hostages, caution for missionaries
Aid groups working abroad are rethinking their operations in the wake of the six-week ordeal.
By Robert Marquand | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the August 31, 2007 edition
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Paris - This week brought relief in South Korea, as the Taliban released 21 Korean Christians held hostage for six weeks in Afghanistan.
The missionaries were part of a robust effort by Korean Evangelicals to work in "frontier missions" – places with few other believers. Yet after South Korea's reported deal with the Taliban to withdraw troops and possibly pay a ransom, the risks of private groups doing good in hot spots are being rethought by humanitarian and church groups.
One lesson is the interdependence of aid groups and the need to protect one other, especially in 2007 when outsiders are more at risk in many parts of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Missionaries and humanitarian groups must coordinate: conduct local assessments, know the unwritten codes, work with locals, and work together as a way to deflect harm that might ensue through rash decisions, they argue.
Unlike proselytizing in the West, "When [Evangelicals] go to Afghanistan, their actions have a huge impact on the rest of us and the and the things we're trying to accomplish," says Randolph Martin, director of global emergency for Mercy Corps International. "In [the South Koreans'] case, the Taliban also got a reward, because the Korean troops will pull out."
South Korea has also banned its citizens from traveling to Afghanistan since the 23 Evangelicals were captured in July.
In 2007, hot spots are ever more complicated, experts say.
The fall of the Berlin Wall, the 9/11 attacks, and especially the invasion of Iraq, have resulted in more fragmented and weaker states, the rise of guerrilla groups, land and power grabs, and manipulation of ethnic and religious feeling. The environment in places like Iraq, Darfur, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Haiti, and Gaza is a turbulent mix. On the ground is every type of foreigner – undercover intelligence, civil society groups, private security, and state military, doctors, construction teams, mine clearing groups, journalists, humanitarian aid workers, and church people, some of whom do both gospel and aid work.
Views on missionaries whose chief aim is sharing the gospel in hot spots vary widely among the nongovernmental (NGO) and religious communities. But even those who accept missionaries argue that good intentions, enthusiasm, and bravery must conjoin with a professional approach.
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