Taliban Deny Diplomats' Requests
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The Taliban refused Wednesday to allow Western diplomats to see eight jailed aid workers accused of preaching Christianity in this devoutly Muslim nation.
U.S., Australian and German diplomats have been in Kabul since Tuesday, hoping to see the foreign workers, but they have been largely rebuffed by the military regime. Taliban ministers stayed in an all-day meeting Wednesday, and it seemed unlikely the diplomats would meet with any senior Afghan officials before their scheduled return to neighboring Pakistan on Thursday.
``We asked the foreign ministry to allow us to see the detainees on humanitarian grounds. We want to let their families, who are living around the world, know that they are well,'' said Alistair Adams, the Australian diplomat.
The foreign aid workers - two Americans, four Germans and two Australians - were arrested more than a week ago. The aid organization - Shelter Now International, operated by the German-based Christian organization Vision for Asia - has denied the workers were proselytizing.
Adams and the other diplomats from Pakistan, David Donahue of the U.S. Embassy and Helmut Landes of the German Embassy, brought supplies for the jailed workers and messages from their families.
``We want to see them face to face,'' Adams said.
The Taliban's Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, who left the Afghan capital of Kabul on Wednesday without seeing the diplomats, said earlier that there would be no visits to the jailed workers until after an investigation into the charges that they promoted Christianity.
There was no indication of when that would be. Muttawakil also said the Taliban's Supreme Court would decide the aid workers' punishment if the investigation confirms they were trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.
According to Taliban law, the punishment for foreigners is a short jail term and expulsion. But 16 Afghan employees of Shelter Now International could face the death sentence if they are found guilty of spreading Christianity.
So far the Taliban have not said what charges have been filed against the Afghan staff or where they are being held.
Mohammed Wali, the Taliban's minister for vice and virtue, earlier said that the Afghan staff would be charged because ``they must have known what these foreigners were doing and they did not report them.''
The Taliban's protocol officer showed the diplomats Christian material they confiscated from the group. The first arrests were made Aug. 4, at the home of an Afghan family where two Shelter Now International employees were allegedly showing Christian films translated into the local Dari language.
Shelter Now International runs several projects throughout Afghanistan providing food aid and rebuilding war-destroyed irrigation systems and homes. The Taliban have closed all their projects.
The Taliban also have said other aid organizations, including the United Nations, will be investigated to determine whether they are spreading Christianity. Other aid organizations in Kabul have denied any involvement in religious education.
Originally published August 15, 2001.
