WEF (19.12.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (20.12.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Now that the Taliban have been defeated and removed from power in Afghanistan by the Northern Alliance forces - with considerable help from the U.S. military - the question of what Afghanistan's future will be like is on the table. An important element to consider is whether some form of democracy and religious freedom might be allowed and encouraged in the "new improved Afghanistan."
The Taliban certainly represented a most twisted and fanatical form of Islam. However, the issue now is whether the replacement government will truly be a step forward. According to a report in the New York Times on December 15th, most women in Afghanistan are still wearing their Taliban issue head-to-toe sack dresses, known as burkas, which look more like funeral shrouds than clothing. When asked why they still wore them, one woman said "They say the Taliban beat first and asked questions afterward. They say the Northern Alliance asks questions first and beats afterward."
While this may be an exaggeration, it does illustrate an abiding problem in Afghanistan: the country has long been one of the most religiously intolerant lands on earth, and if past history is any guide, the challenges for the future are still enormous.
WEF recently interviewed a former senior staff member of one of the Western relief and development agencies in the region, who lived in Afghanistan and Pakistan for 18 years. Since he is involved in trying to reestablish Western aid in cooperation with the emerging government, we have respected his request for anonymity.
His assessment of the future of religious freedom in Afghanistan was hopeful but very cautious. He said that Afghans are very devout and conservative in their Muslim worldview, and this left little room for conversion to other faiths or religious freedom in general. "There have been a number of Afghans who have converted to Christianity over the last several decades," he said, "but very few have ever done so publicly. If an Afghan Muslim converts to Christianity and it becomes known, he or she is usually killed by the family; this is the traditional remedy."
He said that the Taliban had made such executions a public policy, but was inclined to believe that the Northern Alliance and other emerging leaders might "look the other way" at individual cases that were not made public. But any outward expression of Christianity or Christian growth in the country could be viewed as setting a dangerous precedent and would not be tolerated.
However, he did express hope that the international peacekeeping force now being deployed, plus press attention, would keep the new leaders on their best behavior. The current proposal will allow the Loya Jirga (grand council) of tribal chiefs to set up an interim government, and after two years create some form of democracy based on tribal consensus to replace the country's many warlords. (The interim government, headed by Hamid Karzai, will be installed this Saturday, December 22.)
"But Afghanistan will not become a democracy overnight," he said. "They have no such tradition and in fact it may be appropriate to support their consensus-based 'jirga' (council) system as a more viable system of representative government."
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By Paul F. Scotchmer
WORLD Magazine 2001 (10.11.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (20.12.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The late J. Christy Wilson, pioneer missionary, built a sizeable underground Christian church in Afghanistan. Each Sunday, behind drawn curtains in his home, Afghan converts together with American and other diplomats assembled for worship (see note below).
When he learned that Dwight Eisenhower planned a trip to Afghanistan in 1959, Mr. Wilson decided to ask the president a favor. The president had just attended the opening of a mosque for Muslim diplomats in Washington. Would the president ask Mohammed Zahir Shah, Afghanistan's king, for permission to build a church for Christian diplomats in Kabul?
The request made its way to Mr. Eisenhower through his pastor, Edward Elson. His answer came back: yes. Shortly after Mr. Eisenhower's visit, Afghanistan's government granted his request.
Plans were drawn and fundraising began. Blind Afghans, students from two schools started by Mr. Wilson's wife, collected coins for the project. The process was long and difficult, but by 1970 workers had finished building the church.
Three years later it was destroyed. Rapidly increasing numbers of Christian converts provoked opposition to Mr. Wilson's work. The government ordered the Wilsons out of the country in March 1973. It closed Betty Wilson's schools for the blind. Then it ordered the destruction of the church building.
Church leaders around the world, including Billy Graham, appealed to the king. German businessman Hans Mohr, who had purchased the lapis lazuli used in the church construction, told the mayor of Kabul: "If your government touches that house of God, God will overthrow your government."
On July 17, 1973, soldiers arrived with bulldozers. They ripped into the new building. They dug 12 feet under the foundation because secret police had informed them of an "underground church" there. While the demolition took place, Christians gathered nearby to pray and later served tea and cookies to the soldiers.
On the night government soldiers destroyed the church, coup leaders overthrew the Afghan monarchy. The king's cousin, Mohammed Daoud, took power.
Afghanistan has never been the same since.
Footnote: Paul Scotchmer, the author of the above article, was asked for some additional details about the church in Afghanistan at that time. Here are his comments:
Although there was a growing community of Afghan converts in Kabul, they were not able to worship openly alongside the diplomats and other members of the international community.
The Wilsons and other Christian "tentmakers" in Afghanistan worked discreetly with Afghan converts.
The most public Christian event involving the Afghan people was an annual Christmas pageant at the Wilson's home, where the Christmas story was openly narrated in the local Dari language by an Afghan Christian. In his book "More to Be Desired than Gold" (1992), J. Christy Wilson writes: "At Christmas in Kabul, we used to have an outdoor pageant under lights in the garden of the house church where we lived. This included a live donkey,
cows, sheep and hybrid Bactrian camels. As hundreds of Afghans came to see the story of Christmas for the first time, Paul narrated it over the public address system in their Dari language."
The man referred to here as "Paul" was known by the Wilsons as "Afghanistan's Apostle Paul." He was a brilliant and courageous convert and eventually a martyr. Despite blindness from the age of five, he managed to memorize the entire Koran in Arabic (a foreign language for him) by the time he was 14. While learning to read Braille at the Institute for the Blind, he mastered English by listening to Christian radio broadcasts. He later learned German (first in his class at the Goethe Institute), Urdu, and Russian (while imprisoned by the Communists).
With the intention of defending Christians persecuted for their faith, he got a degree in Islamic law at the University of Kabul. He then spent several years sharing his faith in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Eventually, he was summoned to appear before the intelligence branch of one of the 'Mujahideen' parties in Pakistan. He went knowing that he might never return and, in fact, was never seen again by his family or friends.
According to several reports, he was brutally murdered in 1988 at age 39; first his tongue was cut out, then he was shot, leaving a wife, three daughters, and a son who was born four months after Paul was taken from his family.
Paul's ministry continues, however, by way of the New Testament he helped translate from Persian into Dari for the Cambridge University Press. Today, an estimated 1,000 to 3,000 Afghan Christians live in Afghanistan, according to "Operation World" (2001 edition).
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By Paolo Pontoniere
Asian Week (23.11.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (28.11.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - As investigators learn more about al Qaeda's operations on U.S. soil, a perplexing question remains: How could terrorists on a suicide mission live among us for so long and not abandon their resolve? The answer, some experts say, is that al Qaeda is not a militant religious group, but a cult.
The events of Sept. 11 upset the conventional wisdom on suicide bombing and martyrdom. "Having analyzed the phenomenon in the Middle East, the intelligence community had decided that suicide attacks were a form of terrorism that could not easily be exported from Palestine," says Brian Jenkins, former member of the Presidential Commission on Airline Safety and senior analyst at the Rand Institute. "The events of Sept. 11 thoroughly disproved this presupposition."
Experts originally held that suicide bombers could be recruited and trained for local struggles only, within a relatively short time before an attack. The al Qaeda Handbook may provide clues to the migration of suicide terrorism to America. A how-to-manual for members of the terrorist organization, the book sheds light on the psyche of al Qaeda terrorists, and paints a picture of a religious cult headed by charismatic leader Osama bin
Laden.
Chapter after chapter, the handbook outlines a pyramidal organization in which the lowest members never get a complete picture of the group's actions. Furthermore, the book makes clear that the lives of these members can be extinguished at any time by those in the upper echelons of the organization.
English authorities found the 180-page manual in May 2000, while searching the home of a suspected bin Laden operative in Manchester, England. A translation of the Arabic manual was introduced as evidence in New York City this year in the trial of four al Qaeda members accused of bombing American embassies in Kenya and Sudan in 1998.
"The manual outlines how to perform a variety of terrorist acts, including assassination, poisoning, and torture," explains Jerrold Post, a professor of political psychology at George Washington University. "But above all, I would say that the manual is a good example of how a cult mentality can hijack and manipulate legitimate religious beliefs and turn them into fanatical tenets. The text reveals an organization that follows a very
peculiar and extreme kind of Islam and that does not hesitate one bit to depart from Islamic teachings to pursue its own interests."
Post testified as an expert witness in the New York City trial and has compiled detailed psychological profiles of dozens of jailed terrorists in the Middle East. "The most disturbing aspect about the al Qaeda members is how normal they appear, when in fact they all fit the profile of the 'true believer,' an individual whose low self-esteem and confusion push him to seek refuge within a charismatic mass movement," Post says.
In this sense, the manual is not just a nuts-and-bolts how-to for terrorists. It also plays a role in the brainwashing of al Qaeda members, encouraging them to subordinate their individual will to the charismatic power of the group's leader, Osama bin Laden. "It's the fitting of the fragmented persona of a true believer into a group identity that benefits the organization. Once that's in place, the terrorist can be aimed like a missile," Post says.
The handbook repeatedly provides religious and ideological justification for actions many Muslims would find profane. For example, lesson 8 in the manual directs the al Qaeda member, when operating undercover, to go to great lengths to avoid Islamic appearance. Lesson 11 exempts him from having to fulfill his Muslim duties, such as praying, fasting, and doing good deeds. "The text implies that if these violations are carried out for the greatness of Allah, they are then permitted," Post says.
Acts such as torture, mass murder, and killing one's fellow members C which are all specifically and explicitly forbidden by the Koran - are explained in practical terms in the al Qaeda manual. At the same time, the book identifies sacred readings to refer to during each heinous activity.
"Of course, very few Muslims would agree with this zealous interpretation of Islam," Post says. Jihad is a word which literally means to struggle for the cause of religion. For a Muslim, the struggle means striving to be a better person, donating money to the poor, fulfilling obligations toward the faith and, in extreme cases, fighting in defense of Islam."
According to the standards of an al Qaeda militant, Post's ideas are simply the interpretation of an infidel. But his opinions are shared by Muslim experts at the Islamic Research Center (IRRC) at Cairo's al-Azhar University, the world's leading authority on the teachings of Islam.
According to the IRCC, a legitimate jihad must meet several requirements: a Muslim must never be the aggressor; a Muslim must fight only those who fight him; and women, children, and the elderly should be spared the duress of war. Ultimately, the handbook shows that al Qaeda could pose a threat to Islam itself if it prevails. Paolo Pontoniere is a correspondent for Italy's leading news weekly, L'Espresso.
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CNN (15.11.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (15.11.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Eight Western aid workers, locked in Afghan prisons and fearing for their lives, were freed by anti-Taliban fighters and spirited to safety aboard U.S. helicopters Thursday.
The aid workers -- four Germans, two Americans and two Australians -- were all safely at their respective embassies and were said to be in good health.
Alistair Adam, an Australian Embassy official, said the workers -- held for more than three months after being detained by the Taliban on charges of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity -- were tired and wanted to wash. "They're very elated to be free at last. They seem perfectly fine to me. They're rational, and they've coped very well with this situation."
Relief evident amid laughter
The German workers were laughing and smiling as they stepped from cars outside the German Embassy in Islamabad. Their relief was evident as Georg Taubmann, head of the aid group in Afghanistan, told reporters how the Taliban had taken the eight with them on the retreat from Kabul.
The Taliban "wanted to take us to Kandahar, and we knew if you end up in Kandahar you would not survive there," Taubmann said, speaking through an interpreter. He said they had stopped Tuesday and their captors "put us all in a steel container. It was terribly cold and they wanted to lock the container and leave us there (until) morning, and we had no blankets..."
The next morning, he said, the detainees were taken to a jail in Ghazni, "which was a terrible place. It was the worst place. We have been in five prisons."
Taubmann said the eight were freed from the prison by anti-Taliban forces. "The Massood people came, and others from the alliance, and broke into the prison and just opened the doors ... We were really scared, and then the alliance people came in ... and we were free and we got out of prison and we walked through the city and the people came out of their houses and hugged us and greeted us, and they were all clapping ...
"I think this was one of the biggest days of my life," Taubmann said.
Bernard Barrett, a spokesman for the International Red Cross in Islamabad, said a local military commander in Ghazni, about 90 miles southwest of Kabul, contacted Red Cross officials in Afghanistan on Tuesday to discuss the detainees.
"(He) told them that he had rescued the eight SNI (Shelter Now International) people and asked for help to arrange for their transportation," Barrett said, explaining that the IRC facilitated communications between the governments of the detainees and the local military commander. SNI is a German relief agency that provided food and homes to the poor of Afghanistan.
'We're amazed how it worked'
The detainees are Australians Peter Bunch and Diana Thomas, Americans Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer, and the Germans -- Taubmann, Katrin Jelinek, Margrit Stebner and Silke Durrkopf. The American and Australian workers appeared healthy as they were driven to their embassies.
There has been no word on the fate of 16 Afghan Muslims who worked for the aid agency and were arrested at the same time as the Westerners.
The aid workers were taken out of Afghanistan around 4:40 p.m. ET (2:40 a.m. Thursday in Afghanistan) by three U.S. Special Operations helicopters.
"It was dramatic up to the last minute," Taubmann said. "We had almost given up that the Americans would find us. But then they did... We're amazed how it worked out so well."
"I'm thankful they're safe, and I'm pleased with our military for conducting this operation," U.S. President George W. Bush said from his ranch in Texas, where he is meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"I am really proud of our armed forces, and I am also thankful for the folks in Afghanistan who helped with this rescue," Bush said.
Neighbors, friends celebrate
As the news of the rescue spread, relatives, friends and members of Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas -- where the two American aid workers -- Curry, 30, and Mercer, 24, are members -- celebrated by cheering, hugging and crying.
Reached by telephone in Islamabad, Mercer's father, John Mercer, told CNN he "doesn't know it's true until" he sees his daughter.
John Mercer has been staying in Pakistan, along with Curry's mother, Nancy Cassell. The parents have not seen the aid workers since September 1 on a visit approved by the Taliban.
Deborah Oddy, Mercer's mother, had just returned to the United States from Pakistan on Monday.
"I heard reports on the news first and frankly couldn't believe it, but now I have it confirmed, it's wonderful news," she said in Lewiston, New York
When asked if her daughter would continue her religious mission work, Oddy said she probably wouldn't for the near future.
"From letters we've received from Heather, I think she just needs some down time," she said.
In Nashville, Tennessee, Curry's stepfather, Jim Cassell, said this was the most exciting day of his life.
"I'm so ecstatic, I don't have the words to say," he said. "The prayer has really brought her into this situation (the release), and got her out of the hands and clutches of the Taliban, those evil people over there."
A day earlier, Bush said the United States was using its full intelligence capacity to make sure the aid workers "stay out of harm's way" during the U.S.-led bombing campaign against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network.
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By Kathy Gannon
Associated Press (13.11.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (13.11.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The squalid prison compound that housed eight foreign aid workers, including two American women, was dingy and dank with muddy gray walls. The bathroom was a hole in the ground hidden by tattered pieces of burlap.
They had been detained in the Afghan capital since Aug. 3, charged with preaching Christianity, but after the Sept. 11 attack in the United States they were taken from a home for wayward children to the prison.
Sometime after 6:30 p.m. Monday, their Taliban captors hustled them into a dark blue pickup truck and headed south. They didn't have time to pack for a departure that appeared rushed C and probably surprised the aid workers who may have expected to be freed.
"They were very happy, because they thought they would be released," said Abdul Raouf, one of the guards at the detention center. Another guard had earlier said they left at midnight.
Columns of Taliban troops headed south from Kabul throughout the night after the opposition northern alliance broke through their defenses and rushed to the edge of the city.
"This is a real mess," said John Mercer, the father of the youngest detained aid worker, Heather Mercer, 24. Contacted by satellite telephone in neighboring Pakistan, Mercer said he was trying to get information from the Taliban Embassy about his daughter.
At the detention center, it was apparent the aid workers had left quickly.
Suitcases were sitting on steel bunk beds in a concrete block room that housed the six women C the Americans, Mercer and Dayna Curry; three Germans, Margrit Stebnar, Kati Jelinek and Silke Duerrkopf; and Australian Diana Thomas.
Two socks had been left to dry on a hanger dangling from a top bunk.
There were only four beds in the room. Cushions were placed on the floor against the wall. The blankets were worn and tattered. One pink quilt had patches sewn on it.
A water pump stood in the center of a sandy courtyard and a black sweater was hanging on a clothesline, still damp. There were several plastic pots where the women might have washed their clothes.
The two men C German George Taubmann and Australian Peter Bunch C had a separate room.
In a steel cabinet in the bedroom where the women slept there was shampoo, some apples, face cream, a small bag of medicine, hand soap and a hair brush. Nearby were language texts entitled, "Learning to speak Afghan Pashtu."
Their guards said they were sad to see the aid workers taken away.
"We liked them. They were good people. I think they will be OK because the Taliban had treated them very good," said Rauf.
Baba Hafeez, an old man who looked to be about 70 years old, came to the detention center on his bicycle and quickly identified himself as the cook.
"They got very good food and they were very healthy and very happy," he said. "They always treated me very nicely and would give me money."
On the windowsill was a piece of paper, with Heather Mercer's name on it.
"What a friend I've found. We serve a God of miracles. I cry out. God is good all the time. My hope is in you Lord faithful one, so unchanging," it read.
Heather's father, her mother, Deborah Oddy, and Curry's mother, Nancy Cassell, have been waiting in neighboring Pakistan for word of their daughters.
Cassell said she hoped her daughter had left behind personal items in the Kabul detention center such as letters, and copies of songs that the aid workers wrote together.
Cassell said that before they left Kabul, she had been preparing to send a box of winter clothing, including coats, shoes and gloves.
"I guess it's going to be a little warmer" if the aid workers are taken to Kandahar, said Cassell, of Thompson's Station, Tenn. "Maybe they won't need those things."
Mercer, Oddy and Cassell were in Kabul before the Sept. 11 assault in the United States and were evacuated within two days because the U.S. government feared for their safety. They said they were brokenhearted to have left.
They have not heard from their children since late October when their Pakistani lawyer, Atif Ali Khan, was last in the capital of Kabul.
A package was delivered to the aid workers from their family less than two weeks ago. But the Taliban had refused to allow anyone to see them.
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by Patricia Pearson
USA Today (05.11.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (06.11.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - At the Pentagon memorial service last month, President Bush called the al-Qa'eda network "a cult of evil," and for the first time, I thought: "Yes, that sounds right." It is a kind of cult, and Osama bin Laden - far from being the Muslim world's Che Guevara, is its evil and manipulative guru.
There has been a great deal of semantic confusion about who, precisely, our enemy is. Bin Laden has succeeded in linking his lunatic cause with a broader sense of anger and frustration that persists in the Muslim world. We cannot allow him to maintain that link.
The enemy of this particular war is not Islam, and it isn't the Muslim world, for very few Muslims, regardless of their policy grievances, would die for the sake of killing our children.
Two years ago, the eminent American psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton wrote a book about cults called Destroying the World to Save It, documenting what he called a "loosely connected, still-developing global subculture of apocalyptic violence."
Lifton, who has also written about Nazi doctors and the psychology of totalitarianism, focused his analysis on the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Japan, which released sarin gas into the Tokyo subway in 1995, killing a dozen people.
Why? Why indeed. Aum Shinrikyo built a rationale for mass murder on a "global stew" of New Age religion, ancient rituals and science fiction. Lifton was fascinated by how ordinary people could be persuaded to engage in extraordinary horrors.
In Aum Shinrikyo's ranks one found doctors, research scientists and other members of the Japanese professional classes - not unlike the demographics of the Rajneeshee cult in Oregon, whose members laced salad bars with salmonella bacteria in 1984, or the members of Jonestown who committed mass suicide in 1978.
People do not need to be impoverished or brutalized to transform themselves into apocalyptic warriors. In Aum Shinrikyo, members appear to have come together out of vague spiritual or social malaise and then fallen under the charismatic spell of Aum's guru, Shoko Asahara. Over time, and a great deal of brainwashing, they developed a "collective megalomania" that culminated in the subway attack.
Reading profiles of the Sept. 11 hijackers, one glimpses a similarly disturbing ordinariness. The hijackers were not traumatized victims of American foreign policy; nor did they spring from deeply orthodox Muslim families. Some drank; some had Western girlfriends; Mohamed Atta's sisters are a doctor and a zoology professor.
Understanding al-Qa'eda purely in the context of Islamic fundamentalism is unsatisfactory. It leaves something out, some process of psychological transformation for the individual members.
Consider, by contrast, the suicide bomber who assassinated Indian President Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 - a Tamil woman who reportedly had been raped by Indian soldiers during the Sri Lankan occupation. Her quest for justice took a terrible route, but one can at least discern a connection between personal trauma and revenge.
Curious about the cult analogy, I called Steve Hassan, formerly a high-ranking member of the Unification Church, also known as the "Moonies," and now a leading expert on mind control. We talked about the fact that many of these hijackers were reportedly leading a normal life when, after coming into contact with certain Islamic groups - on a university campus in Hamburg, Germany, for instance - they suddenly turned inward, becoming secretive and aloof. That rang very loud bells for Hassan, who fell in with the Moonies on a New England college campus in 1974 after befriending three "attractive young women" who encouraged him to come to meetings.
"There's a big difference between a personality change as a result of religious epiphany and a personality change as a result of a systematic social influence," he says. "I did not realize that I was being manipulated. (But) by the end of 3 days, I was blown away. My parents said I looked like I was on drugs.
"I had been taught that the world was facing Armageddon and that God had chosen me, and that Satan would work through the people I loved to try to talk me out of it. I was indoctrinated into distrusting my own thought processes and into believing that killing people was for their own good."
Hassan observes that many of the techniques that he encountered with the Moonies are evident in bin Laden's camps: "social isolation, controlling their sleep, showing them non-stop videos of Muslims dying, being buddied up, so that they're never alone. ... Destructive mind control strips away their ability to think for themselves."
The cult framework goes a little way to explaining the dissonance between who these hijackers were and what they eventually did on behalf of al-Qa'eda.
My sense of this was confirmed by John R. Hall, the co-author of Apocalypse Observed: Religious Movements and Violence in North America, Europe and Japan.
"There are two kinds of apocalyptic sects," he told me. "One kind engages in a withdrawal from society at large to another world, which they establish as a utopian heaven on earth." Most American cults fall into this category, Hall says, although they resort to violence if they feel threatened.
"The other kind of apocalyptic group," he says, "is the warring sect. It seeks to bring on the final battle of Armageddon by launching a holy war against the existing social order. Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda is definitely of the latter type; indeed, it is a classic case."
Many pundits are saying that the eradication of bin Laden will be fruitless unless certain "underlying causes" in the friction between East and West are addressed. But that presumes a rational stance in modern terrorism, and there is none.
America needs to get across to the Muslim world this absolutely essential fact: Bin Laden is not championing their cause or proposing to lead them to a better future. He wants to destroy the world, and that can be no sane man's cause.
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by Ken Walker
Baptist Press News Service (26.10.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (05.11.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The trial of two American women in Afghanistan has been postponed indefinitely, leaving their families and supporters wondering what will happen next.
"We just have to wait and see," Danny Mulkey of Antioch Community Church, Waco, Texas, said in an interview from Pakistan on Oct. 24, a day after Reuters News Service reported the delay. "It's crazy. Nobody knows what happens next."
Dayna Curry, 29, and Heather Mercer, 24, are among eight foreign aid workers, with German-based Shelter Now, arrested Aug. 3 for allegedly sharing their Christian faith. They are being held in a jail in the capital of Kabul.
Reuters reported that the group's director, Georg Taubmann, denied the charges in a September court appearance, insisting they had not converted a single Afghan Muslim.
On Oct. 23, Reuters reported that the detainees' attorney, Atif Ali Khan of Pakistan, said Afghanistan's supreme court cannot hold regular sessions because of the chaos caused by U.S. air strikes against the country.
All eight were able to speak to their families by telephone recently; Mulkey said all are doing well. Besides the two Americans, the other foreign defendants are from Germany and Australia.
"They're fine," said Mulkey, assistant pastor of the Waco church. "I talked to Dayna's mother [Nancy Cassell] and she's doing well. I talked to the lawyer today and he says they're all doing well. But now, we don't know if the [U.S., German and Australian] governments start appealing to the Afghan government or what."
During his seven weeks in Pakistan, Mulkey said he has learned to deal with frustration on more than one level. Things don't happen in another culture like one expects them to, he said.
However, after a while, he learned to accept what happens and move on, he added. And, while he knows that Curry and Mercer -- both Baylor University graduates - have been through ups and downs, he said they aren't upset about the latest delay.
"They're saying, 'Lord, it's up to you,'" Mulkey said. "That's the same thing we're saying here. You hit a little brick wall of disappointment now and then, but then you go to the Lord, express disappointment and realize it's in His hands.
"My response has been, 'OK, Lord, the trial didn't work, so what's next?' This didn't take God by surprise, so I say, 'Lord, I can't see how you're going to pull this off, but you're still in control.'"
The women are still reported to be safe amid the bombing. Mulkey said he hadn't received any further information since a week earlier, when he learned the nearest bombing targets were approximately 2.5 miles from the jail where the women are being held.
While Mulkey had been hoping for a resolution of the case during the previous weekend, he asked that prayer supporters not relax their efforts.
"When things get dragged out, the tendency of people everywhere is to let up," Mulkey said. "My request is that they press in. Pray more, not less, and see what God does."
He also asked for prayer for encouragement for the detainees as well as their parents and family members. When they experience a "bump in the road," discouragement can set in, he said.
The news of the trial's delay comes against word of continued fierce fighting in Afghanistan.
The Associated Press reported Oct. 24 that 22 members of an anti-American militant Pakistani group were killed during a U.S. attack on Kabul. The AP said it was the deadliest known strike against a group linked to Osama bin Laden since the air campaign began Oct. 7.
The 22 militants were members of the Harkat ul-Mujahedeen ("Movement of Holy Warriors"), which was declared a terrorist organization years ago by the United States. They were meeting in a house that was struck by a U.S. bomb.
The news service also reported that U.S. jets continue to pound Kabul with bombs day and night, with huge explosions in the direction of Taliban military sites on the city's outskirts.
Despite the fighting in Afghanistan, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said Oct. 23 that the war on terrorism will likely cause more casualties here than among troops overseas.
Speaking to the International Republican Institute, which awarded him and his wife, Lynne, the 2001 Freedom Award, Cheney said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America had put the nation on notice that the enemy is resourceful and ruthless.
"We have to assume there will be more attacks," he said, Reuters reported. "In this conflict, for the first time in our history, we will probably suffer more casualties here at home than will our forces overseas."
Commenting on the irony of people worrying about their safety in Asia while anthrax attacks are spreading fear in this country, Mulkey said Americans tend to be ethnocentric and think the world revolves around them.
"The perception is usually that things are crazy in that other part of the world, wherever that is," Mulkey said.
"My prayer is that this is a wake-up call to Christians, and to nominal Christians. You can't put your faith in a country or a social system, because it's got cracks. Your faith must be in God."
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Taliban transfer jailed aid workers to night-time bunker
by Barbara G. Baker
Compass (24.10.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (25.10.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - As U.S.-led bombing raids over Afghanistan intensified into the third week, anxious families of eight Western aid workers jailed in Kabul learned that Taliban guards have begun transferring the six women and two men to other quarters every night.
The eight foreign Christians are being moved at nightfall from their daytime detention facilities into what was described as a "bunker-like hideout," reliable sources reported.
The new arrangement is reportedly less comfortable, requiring them to sit "at close quarters" from six o'clock every evening until late morning the next day. However, the presumably more secure location fulfills a Taliban promise made on September 14, when spokesman Abdul Hai Mutmaen declared: "We will try to protect them if America attacks."
But according to their Pakistani defense lawyer Atif Ali Khan, who returned home from Kabul yesterday, trial proceedings against the German, Australian and American Christians are now at a standstill before the Taliban Supreme Court.
The lawyer's repeated attempts over the past three days to meet with Taliban Chief Justice Noor Mohammed Saqib were fruitless. Finally Khan was advised by a protocol officer at the court that the 15 supreme court justices slated to review the case were "all busy, and now not concerned about this case."
Khan told Reuters news agency when he crossed the border into Pakistan last night that "some judges involved in the trial" against the eight Shelter Now staff told him the courts could "not hold regular proceedings" due to the war chaos in the country, nor could they set a date for the next court hearing.
However, the lawyer said he was permitted to have a lengthy meeting with the detainees before he left Kabul yesterday. "All the eight have spoken to their families by telephone with the permission of the Taliban authorities," he told Reuters. "They were very happy to talk to their families."
Khan had filed his written defense for the eight Westerners in Kabul on October 14. Although given no specific timetable for the court's verdict, Khan had told reporters when he returned to Pakistan that he expected the court "might review the case for two or three additional days before it would render a decision."
But within days a military strike disabled a telecommunications building in Kabul, leaving Khan unable to make direct contact with court officials in the capital. As soon as the Taliban's Islamabad Embassy issued a visa, he headed back to Kabul, expecting the court to convene on his clients' long-pending case sometime this week.
Khan's shuttle advocacy has taken him on three trips into Kabul from neighboring Pakistan, the last two since the American air strikes began on October 7. He first met his clients last month, when they formally nominated him as their defense attorney and received their first written indictment on September 30. On each visit, he has been permitted to deliver clothing, medicine and letters to the detainees from their families.
Arrested nearly 12 weeks ago, the expatriate relief workers are accused of preaching Christianity among Afghan Muslims. Sixteen of the aid group's Afhgan employees are being jailed separately, suspected of complicity in the foreigners' alleged missionary activities. The group's German director, Georg Taubmann, who is one of the detainees, denied the charges before the court, declaring they had not converted any Afghan to Christianity.
According to one source in Islamabad who was allowed to read a rough English translation of the written charges, the eight Christians are apparently to be judged individually, rather than as a group. Three of the women, as well as Taubmann, appeared to be implicated for the most serious charges, the source said.
"Some of the charges involve things like not having the correct permission for the children's project," the source said, "and not properly registering their personal computers."
Two views of evidence
On the eve of his third trip into Kabul, Khan told the Pakistani daily "The News" that he was confident that the court would give a decision in favor of his clients.
However, he admitted in the October 20 article, "If the judiciary decides that they are guilty, there is no big punishment for them." Conviction for proselytizing, as well as converting from Islam to another religion, both carry potential death sentences under the strict Taliban interpretation of Islamic law. But Taliban supreme leader Mohammed Omar reportedly decreed earlier this year that any foreigners convicted of such activities in Afghanistan should be jailed for a few days and then deported.
Regarding Taliban claims of proof to convict the Shelter Now relief workers of attempted evangelism, Khan commented, "The evidence is there." But, he continued, "There are two ways of looking at the evidence. Yes, these things [a video cassette, a Christian CD, Bibles] were taken from them, but that does not mean that they are guilty. There is a valid explanation to that, and we are sticking to this."
Khan, who had prepared his defense brief in English, went over it personally with the eight detainees for about three hours during his second visit. Khan, 26, has a degree in Islamic law from Pakistan and a master's degree in international law from Washington's American University.
"I have discussed my reply with my clients and they have shown complete confidence in it," Khan told "The News" from Kabul on October 12. After being translated into the Dari language, the defense brief was accepted by Chief Justice Noor Mohammed Saqib on October 14.
Khan has said he is convinced the Taliban court would not be influenced by the U.S.-led military strikes. "The chief justice says he is not associating the trial at all with the bombing, and we believe that," he told Reuters on October 15.
But from his home in Peshawar, Pakistan, Khan admitted that the tension in Kabul was "increasing every day because of the intensified bombing." Although he said he was not frightened during the daylight hours, he admitted he felt nervous in the evenings, when he and an associate were the sole guests in the city's Intercontinental Hotel.
"It was quite normal during the day, but they close the city after 8 p.m. and there is no electricity, and it feels tense," Khan said.
In addition to Taubmann, the jailed Christians include Germans Katrin Jelinek, Margrit Stebner and Silke Durrkopf; Australians Peter Bunch and Diana Thomas; and Americans Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer.
"God is in control of this whole situation," Taubmann wrote in a fax he was allowed to send out in early October, "and despite all that is going on, we have a deep peace and have put our trust in Him."
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British reporter shared women's cell last week
by Barbara G. Baker
Compass (10.10.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (11.10.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - As aerial military strikes by U.S. forces continued to pound Afghanistan for the fourth consecutive day, the defense lawyer for eight Western relief workers imprisoned in Kabul left Pakistan this morning via the Khyber Pass to return to the Afghan capital.
According to the German headquarters of Shelter Now, Pakistani lawyer Atif Ali Khan was believed to be making the 10-hour trip overland with a companion.
Khan was hopeful that he would be able to submit his formal written defense to the Taliban Supreme Court tomorrow, German Foreign Ministry sources monitoring the case told Shelter Now. Travel visas for Khan and his interpreter were issued yesterday by the Taliban Embassy in Islamabad.
The eight jailed Christians include four Germans, two Australians and two Americans -- six of them women. All staff members of the Christian humanitarian aid group Shelter Now, they are accused of preaching Christianity among Afghan Muslims, a capital offense under the strict Taliban interpretation of Islamic law.
Official Taliban sources confirmed last night from Kabul that all eight were safe and in "good spirits" in their current jail location.
Last weekend, the aid workers' dilemma swung to the center stage of world news when hard-liners in the Taliban linked their fate to the impending American military action.
In a Foreign Ministry statement released October 6, the Taliban offered to release the eight prisoners, who include two Americans, if the United States stopped its "massive propaganda campaign of military action against the Afghan people."
It was the first time the Taliban had linked the Christian defendants to the crisis over Osama bin Laden. It marked a flat contradiction of Supreme Court Justice Noor Mohammed Saqib's pledge the previous week, reported by Agence France Press: "The present situation will have no impact on the court. This will be a fair trial."
U.S. officials dismissed the conciliatory offer as a stalling tactic, repeating U.S. President George W. Bush's firm refusal to negotiate with the Taliban.
The eight Westerners were detained 10 weeks ago after two of their number were allegedly caught showing a documentary film on the life of Jesus in an Afghan home. No contact has been allowed with Shelter Now's 16 Afghan employees arrested at the same time, although the Taliban claim they will be tried separately.
The Christians' trial before the Taliban Supreme Court was disrupted after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, when diplomats, relatives and all other foreigners in Afghanistan were ordered to leave the country.
But after their Pakistani attorney traveled to Kabul, another public hearing was held on September 30. There for the first time the specific charges filed against the eight Christians were read out, along with a list of materials confiscated as "evidence" against them.
Judge Saqib gave the lawyer 15 days to prepare his defense, guaranteeing him access to meet with his clients as needed. Khan told CNN on October 4, after he had reviewed an English translation of the charges, that they were "not that strong."
"They talk about three or four people who have actually tried to convert people by going in the homes of Afghans," Khan said. "The charges against the rest of them are not that compelling." Khan had returned to Islamabad on October 5 to do legal research on the case.
Although Saqib reportedly told the lawyer that the parents of the American women were "most welcome" to return to Kabul to visit their daughters, the Taliban Embassy in Islamabad has so far declined to issue them visas.
Women of 'tremendous inner strength'
Meanwhile, Yvonne Ridley, the British journalist released into Pakistan last night by the Taliban after 10 days in captivity, confirmed that she had shared a cell briefly last week in Kabul with the six women relief workers.
"They'd been there for two months, and those women just had a tremendous inner strength," Ridley declared in an article published by the "Daily Express" in London yesterday. Ridley described the cell where the six women were being held as "about 20 square yards, not even that big," and noted that although the Taliban had cleaned it, "it was still squalid."
Ridley said that one of the six Christians was on a hunger strike, and hadn't eaten for 20 days. All of the detainees have suffered some from stomach problems, according to sources close to their families.
According to a handwritten fax last week from prisoner Diana Thomas to her pastor in Australia, the detainees have been moved to a location where they are able to cook their own meals and even order food from a nearby restaurant.
The Shelter Now Germany office has confirmed that they received new faxes from some of the detainees yesterday morning, but declined to reveal any of the contents.
The eight prisoners include German citizens George Taubmann, 45; Katrin Jelinek, 29; Margrit Stebner, 43; and Silke Durrkopf, 36; Australians Peter Bunch, 57, and Diana Thomas, 50; and Americans Heather Mercer, 24, and Dayna Curry, 29. All are single except Taubmann, who is married with two teenage sons.
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Kabul court to resume Christians' trial Saturday
Pakistani clerics, Jesse Jackson offer to mediate with Taliban
by Barbara G. Baker
Compass (27.09.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (28.09.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The Taliban Supreme Court announced it will resume trial proceedings on Saturday against eight Western aid workers who have been jailed in the Afghan capital for the past two months on charges of preaching Christianity.
According to Australian diplomats based in Islamabad, judicial hearings against the two Australians, two Americans and four Germans "would definitely proceed" on September 29 in Kabul.
The diplomats, who were not identified in an announcement released today by Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra, said their source was Taliban Foreign Ministry official Abdur Afghani.
The foreign Christians' trial before Afghan Muslim clerics was suspended two weeks ago, after Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden was accused of masterminding the devastating September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
U.S. President George W. Bush has threatened military reprisals if the Taliban do not hand over Bin Laden and his associates, harbored by the Kabul regime since 1996. In a September 20 address before a joint session of Congress, Bush also demanded the release of the foreign aid workers, saying they were "unjustly imprisoned."
Together with 16 Afghan employees, eight foreign staff of Shelter Now were arrested the first weekend in August, accused of spreading Christianity in Afghanistan under the pretext of doing humanitarian work. Although the foreign prisoners were allowed visitors after three weeks, the Taliban have refused access to the Afghan staff, saying they will be tried later, separately.
Last seen by a visiting Pakistani delegation on September 18, the eight foreign Christians -- two men and six women -- were reportedly visited two days ago by Taliban officials. Chief Justice Noor Mohammed Saqib told Reuters on September 25 that all eight of the foreign prisoners were well and "awaiting the arrival of their lawyer from Pakistan." The prisoners are George Taubmann, Katrin Jelinek, Margrit Stebner and Silke Durrkopf, who are all German; Australians Peter Bunch and Diana Thomas; and Americans Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer.
Local officials confirmed on September 21 that the eight had been moved "for security reasons" from the Kabul reformatory where they were incarcerated for the first six weeks. Officials declined to say exactly when the prisoners were transferred to "a jail operated by the Taliban intelligence service."
The aid workers' Pakistani defense lawyer is due to travel from Islamabad to Kabul tomorrow, Taliban sources said, presumably overland. Although he and his assistant were issued visas by the Taliban days ago, air travel into Afghanistan remains suspended and Pakistan's border crossings are closed. The lawyer's assistant is believed to be his Pashto interpreter.
A graduate of the same religious schools which trained many Taliban leaders, Asif Ali Khan is a Peshawar-based attorney described as an expert in Islamic law.
"I'll do my best to defend the accused," Khan told the Associated Press (AP) in Islamabad today. However, at age 26, he admitted that this was his first major case, and that he had not received any court documents yet relating to the charges against his clients.
Under the Taliban's purist interpretation of Islamic law, any attempt to convert Muslims to another religion is a crime punishable by death.
Jackson's offer unclear
Meanwhile, African American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson said that he received a telegram from a spokesman at the Taliban Embassy in Islamabad yesterday, inviting him to lead a "peace delegation" to Pakistan to help resolve the stand-off between Washington and the Taliban.
Jackson told CNN that he was still weighing just what the invitation meant, and was both undecided and "reluctant" to accept. But he said he was open to such a trip if it would "prevent the deaths of innocent Afghan civilians" and encourage the Taliban "to dismantle those terrorist bases, to choose to hand over the suspects, and to release the Christians."
However, Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef told the Afghan Islamic Press today that Jackson had approached them, as had a separate delegation of Pakistani Muslim clerics requesting to meet in Kandahar this weekend with the reclusive Taliban leader.
"We have not invited [Jackson], but he has made an offer to mediate which has been accepted by our leader Mullah Mohammed Omar," Zaeef said.
Although Jackson discussed the proposal with key White House leaders, administration officials who were asked about it today repeated Washington's refusal to negotiate with the Taliban. "The White House was urging him not to go," AP observed. And if he does, the British Broadcasting Corporation concluded, "he won't have the authority to negotiate on Washington's behalf." Interviewed on CBS' "The Early Show" this morning, Jackson confirmed that he had telephoned to Islamabad today to talk with the parents of the two American women under arrest in Kabul. He gave no details of their conversation.
According to a senior White House official who spoke today with Fox News, Washington does not consider the detained relief workers to be hostages. "Those people should be released anyway," the official said. "There is no connection between the Taliban hosting terrorists and the circumstances surrounding the people being held."
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Jailed Christians left isolated in Afghanistan
Still "Absolutely No Word" on Afghan Prisoners
by Barbara G. Baker
Compass (18.09.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (19.09.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - As a stunned world's attention swung from last Tuesday's carnage in New York and Washington to remote Afghanistan, prospects for the release of eight Christian aid workers jailed weeks ago by the Taliban regime seem more distant than ever.
Left behind in the rush of Westerners evacuating Afghanistan before a possible U.S. attack, the eight foreign relief workers -- six women and two men -- remain on trial for their lives, accused of trying to convert Afghan Muslims to Christianity.
"We will try to protect them if America attacks," chief Taliban spokesman Abdul Hai Mutmaen stated last Friday.
Taliban officials had already ordered all foreigners to evacuate the country, declaring it could "no longer guarantee their safety" in the event of a U.S. strike.
In response, the United Nations ordered a complete pull-out of remaining foreign relief workers by last Thursday. This left only 15 expatriates in Kabul working with the Red Cross, which rarely retreats from a war-torn country. But by Sunday, they had also bowed to direct Taliban orders, withdrawing their entire staff.
Except for a handful of journalists, the four Germans, two Australians and two Americans on the staff of Shelter Now are believed to be the only Westerners left in Afghanistan.
The eight detained Christians were working on humanitarian aid projects in Afghanistan run by Shelter Now, a Christian relief group based in Germany.
In the context of last week's U.N. pull-out, the three diplomats representing the four German, two Australian and two American Christians were requested by their governments to leave Kabul. Reluctantly, the parents of the American prisoners also agreed to return to Islamabad on U.N. planes last Thursday.
"Tears flowed as the parents stood on the runway of Kabul's war-battered airport," reporter Barry Bearak of "The New York Times" wrote on September 13.
"You can imagine what it must be like for a mother to leave her daughter in a situation like this," American Nancy Cassell told a press conference in Islamabad yesterday. Cassell's daughter, Dayna Curry, 29, is one of the two American women facing trial before the Taliban Supreme Court.
Addressing the press yesterday, John Mercer, whose 24-year-old daughter Heather is the other American prisoner, stated that earlier in the day, he had begged Taliban officials at the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad to allow him to take his daughter's place, but they gave him no answer.
Mercer and Cassell have reportedly written twice to the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, asking him to show mercy to their daughters. A Pakistani lawyer described as an "Islamic scholar" and alumnus of the same religious schools attended in Pakistan by many Taliban leaders has been hired to defend the eight Christians. Originally scheduled to arrive in Kabul on Saturday to meet with his new clients, the unidentified lawyer was finally issued an Afghan visa by the Taliban authorities in Islamabad last night.
Although the Taliban closed Afghan airspace yesterday, "A Red Cross plane was trying to get clearance to fly, and he might be able to go in that way," a source in Islamabad told Compass today. Otherwise, the lawyer would have to travel overland to Kabul, a 10-hour trip from Islamabad.
The Taliban's chief justice, Noor Mohammed Saqib, has declared the trial will continue and promised that the defense lawyer will have "regular access" to his clients. But there has been no indication how long the trial may last. In Kabul yesterday, Saqib said the Islamic judges were "still reviewing the evidence" and waiting for the lawyer to arrive.
Although the lawyer knows Pashto, the language used in the Taliban courts, he told American relatives of the prisoners that he would address the court in English, and rely upon a Pashto interpreter.
"We are not sure how much difference a lawyer will make," Cassell told Compass today from Islamabad, "since Mullah Omar has the final say. But I believe that God can work through any instrument," she said. After meeting the lawyer, she said she believed he "knows the mind of his opponents."
According to a "New York Times" report, the Taliban chief justice told the aid workers when they were brought to court on September 8, "We're going to produce evidence and proof that will convince the world and you people. You will be satisfied with the proof against you."
When the charges against the eight were cited in court, prisoner George Taubmann declared they were "simply not true" and that they were all "shocked" by the accusations.
Despite fears that the Taliban might use the eight Western Christians as pawns or even "human shields" in the conflict over Osama bin Laden, Cassell said she continues to "cling to my hope and trust in our God to deliver them."
Now in their seventh week of detention, the foreign staff of Shelter Now were allowed several visits by their relatives and diplomatic representatives during the past three weeks. Before a Pakistani delegation left Kabul today, it met with the eight Christians and asked the Taliban to release them. The officials "promised to consider the request," a Pakistani government spokesman told Associated Press late today.
The alleged "crime" of the relief aid workers could under Islamic law carry the death penalty, although the Taliban leader decreed earlier this year that any non-Muslim caught preaching Christianity would be jailed for up to 10 days and then expelled from the country.
But much more grim is the plight of the 16 Afghan employees of Shelter Now, arrested with the eight foreigners on August 5 on suspicion of "aiding the spread of Christianity" in Afghanistan. "There is absolutely no word about how they are being treated," a source in the region confirmed.
Kabul officials have so far refused access to the Muslim defendants, stating they will be tried separately. While declaring that some of the 16 would be sentenced to either life in jail or death by hanging, the Taliban have not claimed that any are accused of converting to Christianity.
Meanwhile, Compass has learned that members of the ousted Shelter Now-Afghanistan team, as well as the Shelter Now-Pakistan staff based in Peshawar, left Pakistan yesterday, most en route to their home countries. They included Marianne Taubmann, wife of jailed Shelter Now Afghanistan director George Taubmann, and their two young sons.
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By Kathy Gannon
The Associated Press (13.09.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (14.09.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The United Nations and several foreign aid
organizations completed a swift withdrawal from Afghanistan on Thursday, fearing a U.S. strike on targets associated with Osama bin Laden, a leading suspect in the terror attacks on the United States.
A group of foreigners who left Kabul's war-ruined airport aboard three U.N. aircraft included relatives of two American aid workers who are being tried by the devout Muslim nation's hard-line Taliban rulers on charges of preaching Christianity. Six of their fellow workers - four Germans and two Australians - are also being prosecuted.
American Deborah Oddy, the mother of 24-year-old defendant Heather Mercer, held a mandatory shawl tight around her head, her eyes brimming with tears. She only had been allowed one visit with her daughter since arriving in Afghanistan on Tuesday, hours before the attacks on New York and Washington.
Heather's father, John Mercer, left very reluctantly. Until late Wednesday, he said he was determined to stay, but in the end he left along with David Donahue, consul-general of the U.S. Embassy in neighboring Pakistan. Mercer wouldn't talk as he boarded the aircraft.
Nancy Cassell, the mother of American Dayna Curry, 29, also left. She had seen her daughter five times since arriving more than two weeks ago.
Cassell and Oddy wrote farewell letters to their daughters on Wednesday. They said it was a devastating experience.
Aboard the three U.N. aircraft were about 35 international aid workers, the relatives of the detained Americans, a handful of journalists and three diplomats - including Donahue - who had been seeking information about the Taliban case against their compatriots.
The International Red Cross evacuated its nonessential staff members, saying it would continue to evaluate the safety of those who remained. All other Western aid workers are believed to have left Afghanistan.
``I don't feel well about leaving. It is unfortunate, but it is due to the situation. I cannot change it,'' said Helmut Landes, of the German Embassy in Pakistan. Australian diplomat Alastar Adams also left.
A Pakistani lawyer for the detained aid workers, whose trial is under way in beleaguered Kabul, was expected to arrive Saturday. The diplomats would not identify him, but he was described as an Islamic scholar and alumnus at one of the religious schools in Pakistan that many Taliban leaders have attended.
Several Arabs and their families also left. At least three families were seen heading out of Kabul, their destinations unknown.
Like the foreigners who pulled out, Afghans also feared a U.S. attack.
``If you die today or tomorrow, it is written with God. There is nothing you can do,'' said Mohammed Ali, a Kabul man who wondered aloud when a U.S. strike might occur. ``We will just wait.''
The Taliban have urged the United States not to attack, insisting bin Laden was not involved in Tuesday's onslaught. ``Osama and other Arabs who are living in Afghanistan have no connection with the attacks in the United States. They are not even capable of doing these things,'' Taliban-run Radio Shariat said Wednesday.
The Taliban demanded to see evidence backing allegations that bin Laden runs a global terrorism network responsible for the strikes.
``We will study their evidence first. This is the first phase. The question of extradition comes later,'' Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan, said Wednesday.
Without television - banned under the severe brand of Islamic law the Taliban enforce - Afghans saw no footage of the devastation at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But throughout the capital, people held small transistor radios to their ears to listen to news accounts.
They heard the Pashtu- and Persian-language services of the British Broadcasting Corp. and the Voice of America. Radio Shariat quoted ``foreign press reports'' to inform them of the terrorist attacks.
``It's terrible. It makes me sad. No one can bear to see a country attacked,'' said Inayatullah, a drugstore manager who uses only one name.
``It is a very bad action on humanity,'' he said. ``Nobody, but nobody, wants that criminal action.''
Many people appeared upset that the Taliban government has protected bin Laden, who is wanted in the United States for prosecution on charges of masterminding the deadly 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa.
Despite U.N. sanctions, the Taliban have refused to hand him over.
``Of course he should go,'' said Zamair Khan, a carpenter in Kabul.
The United States retaliated for the embassy attacks by sending 70 Tomahawk cruise missiles smashing into eastern Afghanistan, targeting training camps operated by bin Laden. He escaped unhurt.
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Taliban arrest 35 more Afghans in alleged missonary probe
Foreign press 'punished' for photographing defendants
by Barbara G. Baker
Compass (10.09.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (11.09.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Taliban authorities arrested 35 more Afghan aid workers over the weekend, bringing the total to more than 50 Afghans jailed by the strict Islamist regime since early August on suspicion of aiding covert Christian missionary work.
According to international aid workers who asked not to be identified, at least 35 Afghans employed by the recently banned International Assistance Mission (IAM) were taken into custody at the Planning Ministry office in Kabul when they came to get their salary payment.
Quoted yesterday by Associated Press (AP), the sources said a state-run radio broadcast had ordered Afghan staffers of IAM to come and collect their pay at the Planning Ministry, which coordinates all foreign aid organizations.
"When the Afghans showed up, they were arrested," AP reported.
In a separate report from the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), an expatriate aid worker said she knew of some 15 to 17 Afghan employees of IAM who had been arrested by the Taliban's religious police since the Christian relief group was shut down on August 31.
"I do not know the reason for their arrest," the aid worker told APP, "but they were taken into custody during the first week of September and have not been seen since then."
The Taliban have not yet confirmed or commented on the reported detentions.
A private volunteer agency that had 117 professionals from 17 countries working in five cities of Afghanistan, IAM had employed some 300 Afghans in its projects of health, economic development, education and rehabilitation.
Its entire foreign staff was expelled from the country 10 days ago. The Taliban have accused IAM and another Christian agency, SERVE, of links with the Shelter Now relief organization, shut down in early August for allegedly trying to convert Muslim Afghans to Christianity. The regime's religious police arrested eight foreigners and 16 Afghans working for Shelter Now.
Speaking from Kabul today, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told Compass that their office had no "precise information at this moment" about the alleged arrest of 35 Afghan IAM staff.
Following established procedure, the Red Cross had last month informed the Taliban of their readiness, "upon the regime's invitation," to visit Shelter Now's 16 Afghan detainees. A similar offer had been extended on behalf of the Christian relief group's foreign detainees, eventually visited by the ICRC on August 25.
"But so far, we haven't been called for the Afghans," the representative said.
A senior Taliban official told Associated Press last week that some of the 16 Afghans working for Shelter Now would be either sentenced to life in jail or death by hanging. Those most endangered, local sources said, were the Afghans involved in teaching the local languages to the foreigners.
According to the Taliban's deputy minister of religious police, any Afghan convicted of converting to Christianity would be given three days to recant and return to Islam. But even if spared the death penalty for repenting, the official said, the defendant would still face other punishments for "betraying their religion and traditions."
Taliban Minister for Vice and Virtue Mohammed Wali declared that the Afghans must be charged "because they must have known what these foreigners were doing, and they did not report them."
Although the Taliban claim to have "strong evidence" that Shelter Now's foreign staff were preaching Christianity, they have not presented proof that any Afghans had actually converted.
Taliban officials continue to sidestep the death penalty possibility which hangs over both the foreigners and their Afghan workers, stating that once a verdict is reached, the punishment will be decided "according to the principles of Islamic law."
"If the crime is worthy of imprisonment, they will be imprisoned," Chief Justice Noor Mohammed Saqib of the Taliban Supreme Court told Afghan Islam Press (AIP) last week. "If the crime is worthy of hanging, they will be hanged."
Foreign media under hotel arrest
Meanwhile, some 12 foreign journalists covering the Kabul trial of the eight foreign Christians were barred yesterday from leaving their hotel, and their rooms were searched for cameras, film and videos.
Taliban authorities said the journalists were being punished for taking photographs of the foreign defendants when they appeared in court the previous day. It was the first time the six women and two men had appeared in public since they were taken into custody, although a few diplomatic and family visits have been permitted.
Although both still and video filming of people is technically banned by the Taliban, the rules are usually relaxed for major news stories. Several of the reporters' official Afghan interpreters were also detained, reportedly for failing to stop their foreign charges from taking pictures.
The four Germans, two Australians and two Americans under investigation were accompanied by several relatives and a diplomatic representative from each of their countries to the court on September 8, where for the first time they heard the charges filed against them.
"We have not had a chance to defend ourselves," declared German George Taubmann, Shelter Now's Afghanistan director and one of the eight prisoners. "It is simply not true. We have not converted anybody. We are shocked about all the accusations."
With the press corps confined to Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel, it was unclear whether any of the Afghan or foreign detainees had been brought before the Supreme Court yesterday or today. Taliban authorities, who declared the Afghan "suspects" would be tried separately, have not said whether they would be called to give evidence against their foreign employers at the first trial.
Although the majority of media coverage has focused on the fate of the eight expatriate Christians, a U.N. official told Reuters last week, "We are more concerned about the Afghan staff of SNI." The international body has called for a fair trial in which justice will be done for "all 24 of the accused foreign and Afghan aid workers."
According to United Nations' figures, some 250 foreign aid workers are overseeing relief operations that employ at least 20,000 Afghans across the country.
With jobs scarce and local income averaging $4 per month, Afghans have until now coveted the chance to work for Western aid organizations. But last month's crackdown against foreigners has made Afghans nervous about even being seen in public with any foreigner, according to Kabul-based aid workers.
"Friendship with infidels is forbidden," Chief Justice Saqib intoned during his sermon at Friday prayers in Kabul's Pul-e-Khishti mosque on September 7. The judge sternly warned the Muslim faithful to stay away from non-Muslim "infidels," declaring they were evil and trying to destroy their faith.
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By Kathy Gannon
The Associated Press (11.09.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (11.09.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - After weeks of trying, three Western diplomats met Tuesday with eight foreign aid workers to try to sort out their legal options, more than a week after their trial on charges of preaching Christianity in Afghanistan began here.
The diplomats met their nationals - two Americans, four Germans and two Australians - three days after the defendants appeared for the first time in the Taliban's supreme court and were told to decide either to hire a lawyer or to represent themselves.
Since then, the diplomats from the United States, Germany and Australia, as well as the parents of the two American women, have been considering lawyers who practice in a variety of countries, including several Muslim nations.
On Tuesday, Chief Justice Noor Mohammed Saqib received a written document from the aid workers, being held in a center for delinquent children in the heart of Afghanistan's beleaguered capital. He refused to disclose what it contained. But Rehmatullah Akhundzada, a court official, said: ``We received information about what they want to do in terms of a lawyer.''
Afterward, the diplomats were allowed to see the aid workers at their detention center.
The foreign aid workers of Shelter Now International, a Christian aid organization, were arrested in the beginning of August, along with 16 Afghan workers.
The Afghan staff are to be tried separately, although no date for their trial has been set.
David Donahue, the consul-general of the U.S. Embassy in neighboring Pakistan, said earlier that he and his colleagues want to meet with all eight aid workers in one room.
So far, the two male aid workers, German George Taubmann and Australian Peter Bunch, have been kept in a room separate from the six women: Americans Heather Mercer, 24, and Dayna Curry, 29; Australian Diana Thomas; and Germans Margrit Stebnar, Kati Jelinek and Silke Duerrkopf.
The families of the American women also have asked to visit their daughters.
Previously, those American families included Nancy Cassell, Curry's mother, and Heather Mercer's father, John. However, on Tuesday, Mercer's mother arrived. She refused to give her name or hometown at the airport in Kabul.
The Taliban espouse a harsh version of Islam that they say follows the literal interpretation of the Islamic holy book, the Quran. Their interpretation has often run contrary to other Muslim countries and Islamic scholars.
However, they maintain their version is a ``pure'' Islamic system.
In July, the Taliban issued an edict saying the penalty for a foreigner suspected of proselytizing a religion other than Islam was jail and expulsion, but Saqib has refused to say whether he is operating under that edict.
The penalty for Afghans who preach or convert to another religion is death.
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Taliban presents anti-worker evidence
By Kathy Gannon
The Associated Press)/ HRWF International Secretariat (10.09.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - As the trial of eight foreign aid workers charged with preaching Christianity finished its third day Thursday, outside the court the ruling Taliban displayed Christian materials it said were evidence of proselytizing by two other relief groups.
The hard-line Islamic Taliban seized the items when it closed the offices of the International Assistance Mission and expelled its estimated 50, mostly American, employees a week ago.
It also shut down SERVE, a self-described Christian aid group, last week and told its foreign workers to leave the country.
The eight aid workers - two Americans, four Germans and two Australians - on trial were employees of Shelter Now International, a Christian aid organization headquartered in Germany. They were arrested nearly a month ago and it is unclear how long their trial will last.
The parents of the two Americans, Dayna Curry, 29, and Heather Mercer, 24, visited their daughters Thursday afternoon - their third visit since arriving in the capital 10 days ago.
After a visit on Saturday, they said their daughters were healthy and in good spirits.
Also on Thursday, three Western diplomats met Taliban foreign ministry officials, their first meeting in more than a week.
"While the meeting was cordial, we were not able to learn anything new about disposition of the case,'' U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington. "We'll continue our efforts to meet with Taliban authorities to discuss the trial.''
Boucher also said the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Wendy Chamberlain, along with her German and Australian counterparts sent a letter to Taliban officials Wednesday asking for a commitment that the detainees would have legal representation. The letter also sought interpreters at the trial and asked that consular access be resumed.
No response has been given so far, Boucher said. "Our concerns remain for the welfare of the American citizens and that they be treated fairly and in a lawful manner,'' he said. "But we want to see this case resolved as soon as possible.''
Meanwhile, the Taliban foreign ministry handed out copies of the IAM's constitution, which says the group's purpose was to ``help in strengthening the Christian Church in Afghanistan.''
The Taliban also displayed Persian language Bibles and Pashtu-language children's books about the life of Jesus Christ. There were several slides depicting the life of Christ. They showed flash cards for learning the Bible in local languages, embroidered crosses and a crucifix.
The group was also accused of using Bibles to teach English. They ran extensive English-language classes for Afghans throughout the country.
"The two (groups) said they didn't know the reason for their expulsion. They forced us to show you what we have found,'' Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil said.
The Taliban also announced a new commission designed to "prevent anti-Islamic activities of international aid organizations,'' the Taliban's Hawad newspaper reported Thursday.
Muttawakil told reporters the commission would enforce existing rules that international aid organizations had previously ignored, like depositing their money in the Afghan State Bank and hiring a Taliban-approved Afghan to run the group.
The commission includes representatives of the foreign ministry and the ministry for the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice, which runs the religious police.
The religious police enforce Taliban edicts based on their interpretation of the Islamic holy book the Qur'an. They publicly punish offenders.
The Taliban's Chief Justice Noor Mohammed Saqib has refused to say when the aid workers' trial will be completed or whether the families of the American women, who are in Kabul, will be allowed to attend the hearings.
Sixteen Afghan staff were arrested along with the foreign aid workers. They will be tried separately.
In an interview with the Taliban's Bakhtar News Agency, Saqib on Wednesday said the accused would be allowed to hire a lawyer - either foreign or Afghan.
Saqib and 14 fellow clerics are reviewing the evidence collected by the religious police. But the final verdict and sentencing rests with the Taliban's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.
In July, the Taliban issued an edict saying the punishment for a foreigner caught proselytizing was jail and expulsion.
But Saqib said it is ``premature'' to discuss what the punishment would be at this stage in the trial.
Christian prisoners plead innocence in Taliban court
By Tahir Ikram
Reuters (08.09.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (10.09.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Eight foreign aid workers on trial for promoting Christianity in Islamic Afghanistan appeared for the first time on Saturday in the ruling Taliban's Supreme Court, saying they were innocent of proselytising.
The hearing, now in its fourth day, was presided over by Chief Justice Noor Mohammad Saqib and 18 bearded, white-turbaned judges.
"During the investigation we were accused of many things but that was not true," Georg Taubmann, Afghanistan director for German-based Christian relief agency Shelter Now International (SNI), told the court.
"We have never converted anybody. We are shocked with the accusations," he added.
Saturday marked the first time any of the detained foreigners -- four Germans, two Australians and two Americans -- had been seen or spoken in public since their arrest five weeks ago. Six are women and two men.
Twenty-four SNI staff -- the eight foreigners and 16 Afghans -- were held on charges that could carry the death penalty.
The detainees, who appeared healthy, have been identified as Taubmann, Katrin Jelinek, Margrit Stebner and Silke Durrkopf, who are all German; Australians Peter Bunch and Diana Thomas; plus Americans Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer.
Islamabad-based diplomats from Germany, Australia and the United States, plus three relatives of the detainees and international media were allowed to attend the trial on Saturday.
Earlier the detainees arrived at court in a van accompanied by a pick-up truck carrying armed guards from the Taliban's ministry for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, or religious police.
However, security was less tight when they were taken away again a couple of hours later.
Fair trial
Chief Justice Saqib reassured the accused, who all appeared healthy, that the trial would be fair and they were entitled to hire lawyers or defend themselves, as they wished.
"We once again want to assure the detainees that the proceedings will be strictly in accordance with justice...and on the basis of Islamic Sharia (law)," said Saqib, who was sitting with two swords hanging on the wall behind him.
"We also assure the accused that they should not fear that because we are Muslims so they will be punished," he added.
The small courtroom was hot and stuffy as around 70 people -- judges, Taliban guards, diplomats, relatives and the accused -- crowded in.
But the atmosphere was relaxed with detainees and diplomats free to speak as and when they wished, with all comments translated by an official Taliban interpreter.
The foreign women each covered themselves in long shawls in accordance with the Taliban's strict dress code for women, while the two men wore traditional long shirts over loose baggy trousers.
The diplomats requested further consular access to their nationals, while some detainees said they were unsure what the accusations were. Saqib replied that was why the court hearing had been called. He said the initial phase of the investigation was coming to an end.
"When this initial phase is over it will be followed by a second phase in which a grand assembly of ulema (Muslim scholars) will be called," he said.
The Taliban say Mullah Mohammad Omar, the movement's supreme leader, has the final say on punishment.
It was unclear whether the detainees would be produced again on Sunday when the court next sits, and whether the 16 Afghans, who are expected to be tried separately, would be called to give evidence.
The diplomats said while the day's proceedings had helped, the legal process remained clouded with uncertainty.
"It looks like it's going to go on for some time, especially since they have given us the option to select legal representation," said Australian diplomat Alistair Adams.
Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil said on Thursday a decree offering lenient treatment to foreigners accused of spreading Christianity did not apply in this case.
The Taliban, who espouse a purist form of Islam, have been internationally condemned for rights abuses -- especially against women -- and the destruction of pre-Islamic heritage.
Taliban press ahead with aid workers' trial
CNN Europe (05.09.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (05.09.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The Supreme Court in Afghanistan has begun a second day of deliberations in the trial of a group of aid workers accused of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.
Eight Western charity workers and their 16 Afghan colleagues from the German-based charity Shelter Now International are facing charges of proselytizing.
None of the accused has yet been brought to court.
The ruling Taliban say the alleged crime has offended Muslims, not only in Afghanistan but worldwide.
Three Western diplomats seeking to gain access to the trial proceedings and meetings with the international aid workers have been blocked from doing so by the Taliban authorities.
There has also been no indication yet whether family, friends, reporters or any other observers might be allowed to monitor the trial.
The diplomats from Australia, the U.S. and Germany say they have been virtually stonewalled by the Taliban authorities for the past week with no official word on the progress of the trial or the legal process they face.
They have been pressing for a meeting with the Taliban Chief Justice, Noor Mohammad Saqib, to discuss the case.
Legal aid
On Wednesday he was quoted by the Islamabad-based Afghan Islamic Press as saying the accused aid workers would be allowed to hire non-Muslim lawyers from outside Afghanistan for their defense if they wished to do so.
He added that the case would be dealt with on a fair basis but he did not know how long it would last. "They have the complete right to defend themselves in court. If they want to use a lawyer we have no objection," AIP quoted Saqib as saying. "They can even bring in foreign, non-Muslim lawyers to defend themselves."
The 24 aid workers were arrested last month on charges that could carry the death penalty. It is however unclear whether Taliban prosecutors intend to press for that particular punishment in this case.
A decree issued by the Taliban's supreme leader early this year set the death penalty for Afghan Muslims converting to another religion. But the punishment for foreigners found preaching Christianity is unclear.
Punishment 'will fit crime'
The Taliban have previously said the group's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, would have the final say on the fate of the aid workers no matter what the court decided.
Quoted by AIP, Chief Justice Saqib said the punishment would accord with any crime they are eventually convicted of.
"The detained Shelter Now people will be sentenced according to Islamic Sharia law," he said.
"If the crime is worthy of imprisonment they will be imprisoned, if the crime is worthy of hanging, they will be hanged."
The Taliban say they have strong evidence that the Shelter Now staff were involved in trying to convert Afghan Muslims to Christianity but had no proof any conversions were actually made.
Agency officials in Germany say their staff are told not to proselytize, an act considered illegal under the strict Islamic law enforced by the Taliban.
In recent days, the Taliban have evicted the foreign staff of two other Christian humanitarian groups -- International Assistance Mission and Serve -- saying they were connected with Shelter Now.
Workers with Christian organizations leave Afghanistan as crack down against Christians intensifies
by Stefan J. Bos
ASSIST News Service (04.09.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (05.09.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - More | 