"I live in the mountains with the Taliban 3,000 meters high and the Taliban tried to negotiate with the Afghan government…"
The hostage was then prompted by an off-camera voice that whispered the word "government" and the hostage continued.
"…but the government will not talk with the Taliban and the Taliban tried to get connection with the embassy to release us, but if the time is up they want kill us," the hostage said, while lying on a sheet on the ground, clutching his chest and coughing.
"I ask my friends, my family and my two sons to increase the pressure on German government agencies to get us free," added Blechschmidt.
"My medicine for my heart problem will have run out in three days time. And the time, the time is running (out)."
The 62-year-old hostage was kidnapped in southern Afghanistan on July 18 with another German engineer and four of his Afghan colleagues, one day before a group of South Korean aid workers were also abducted.
One of the Afghan captives was also shown in the video pleading for Afghan President Hamid Karzai to try to secure their release.
"In the name of God, we are five Afghans and two Germans, abducted by Taliban, among us one of the Germans had a heart attack and has died, and the second German has diabetes, he has heart problems, he is sick," one of the Afghan hostages said.
"We Afghans demand the Karzai administration's help to release us because of our children," he said, standing with a group of men in front of a rocky outcrop.
"We are Afghans. The Taliban are also Afghans, we are sure there is possibility the Karzai government can release us."
The Taliban captors are demanding Berlin withdraw its 3,300 troops from Afghanistan, but the German government has flatly refused to do so despite being under pressure from opposition parties. |
