Freed Japanese journalist says his kidnappers not Taliban+

TOKYO, Sept. 6 Kyodo -
A Japanese freelance journalist, who was released Saturday after going missing
in Afghanistan in late March, returned home Monday.
Before his arrival in Japan, Kosuke Tsuneoka, 41, said on his Twitter account
that his abductors were ''a group of corrupt armed factions'' in northeastern
Afghanistan, denying the kidnappers were Taliban insurgents as claimed by
Afghan security authorities.
Following his return, Tsuneoka told Kyodo News he had felt anger at his
kidnappers as they abducted him for money, even though he is a Muslim as they
are, and that he had been told by the kidnappers on Friday that he would be
released.
He arrived at Tokyo's Haneda airport on Monday night via Kansai International
Airport in Osaka.
At Kansai airport he told reporters, ''I feel relieved. I thought I would
definitely be killed for the first two months.''
He also said, ''I have caused great worry to my family and friends. I am very
sorry.''
In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said Monday the Japanese
government did not pay a ransom for the release of Tsuneoka. ''It is not the
case that the Japanese government or his family paid a ransom (for his
release),'' he told a news conference.
Sengoku voiced appreciation for the Afghan authorities' help in realizing
Tsuneoka's release butdid not go into details about how Tsuneoka was freed,
saying that if he did there was a risk of impeding efforts to prevent similar
abductions.
According to Tsuneoka, he was blindfolded and kidnapped by two armed military
people on April 1 when he was walking with a Taliban member in Kunduz. During
his captivity, he said he was locked in a residential house or moved from one
battlefield to another.
He said he was never physically assaulted but had seen a bloodied civilian
brought into the same house one time during his captivity.
''The civilian, with both his hands and feet tied, was brought into the same
house I was locked in. He must have been executed later,'' Tsuneoka said. ''At
that moment I realized that the kidnappers kill civilians easily. I became
aware that I would be next.''
''I didn't understand how dangerous non-Taliban groups were. That was my
complete mistake,'' Tsuneoka said. ''I will make public what I have seen.''
''During my captivity I was thinking only of food. I wanted to eat Japanese
food,'' he added.
In messages posted in Japanese, Tsuneoka said the factions in Kunduz and Takhar
provinces who kidnapped him pretended to be Taliban and ''tried to extort'' the
Japanese government. He said Afghan authorities were unable to publicize the
fact as the group's commander is very close to the Afghan government.
He also said in separate messages posted early Monday that he thought during
his more than five months in captivity that he would be killed to ensure his
silence once the group had stopped trying to get money from the Japanese
government.
Tsuneoka said he believed he survived because senior members of the group, who
he described as ''totally corrupt,'' could not justify putting him to death and
faced growing criticism from subordinates, who he thought were ''good people.''
In June, Afghan security officials said Taliban militants had demanded the
Afghan government pay a ransom for Tsuneoka and that negotiations were under
way to pay several hundred thousand dollars in return for his release.
The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency said Sunday a Taliban
commander in Kunduz has claimed responsibility for holding the journalist,
citing an interview with the commander.
The Japanese Embassy in Kabul, however, said the kidnappers' affiliation is
still not clear.
Muneo Suzuki, a Japanese lawmaker who was visiting Kabul, said upon returning
to Narita airport that Afghan President Hamid Karzai ''worked behind the scenes
to save the life'' of Tsuneoka.
Tsuneoka went missing while traveling in Kunduz to interview senior Taliban
officials. On April 1, Tsuneoka's friends received a message saying he had been
kidnapped.
On Friday, two English-language messages posted on his Twitter account, the
first since April 1, read, ''i am still allive, but in jail,'' and ''here is
archi in kunduz. in the jail of commander lativ.''
Afghan Islamic Press reported Sunday that Tsuneoka was released in the
Dasht-e-Archi district of Kunduz and quoted the Kunduz commander as saying,
''We treated him very well. He would vouch for this.''
AIP said the Japanese journalist was released because he is a Muslim and that
his captors wanted him to celebrate Eid, the Islamic festival at the end of
Ramadan, with his family.
Tsuneoka, who formerly worked for Nagasaki Broadcasting Co., has been covering
war-related stories as a freelance journalist, traveling to war zones in
Afghanistan, Ethiopia and elsewhere.
According to Tsuneoka's personal website, he is interested in reporting ''war
stories from the standpoint of people who are vulnerable in war.''
==Kyodo