The tensions between the government' s offensive and its hardline reality are epitomised by the release of three International Committee of the Red Cross hostages on 8 December. The American pilot, Kenyan co-pilot and Australian nurse were captured 38 days earlier by Karabino Kuanyin Bol after landing at Bunrok, near Gogrial. Karabino, once deputy to Colonel John Garang, who then gaoled him for nearly six years, signed April' s Political Charter with the government. Many Southerners say Karabino joined the National Islamic Front because he was always short of money, as he had five wives and numerous children. Since the Charter, he is said to have married three new wives.
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