Envoys Press Afghanistan to Free 8 Foreign Workers

Eight foreign aid workers detained in Afghanistan on charges of proselytizing are likely to be expelled rather than executed, U.N. officials said Wednesday, but negotiations over their fate are still at a “very sensitive and delicate” point.

U.N. officials and foreign diplomats in Kabul met Wednesday with the ruling Taliban Council of Ministers to press them to release members of the Christian aid group Shelter Now International, who were jailed Sunday for allegedly preaching Christianity in the Muslim nation. Promoting any religion other than Islam is a crime punishable by death in Afghanistan, but diplomats have been heartened by a recent Taliban edict that allows foreigners caught proselytizing to be detained for three to 10 days, then expelled.

“The Taliban officials are working on a review of the case and said it will take a few days,” said Letizia Rosano, the acting spokeswoman for the U.N. coordinator’s office in Kabul, the Afghan capital. “We are assured that the workers are being well treated, but so long as people are being detained, it’s a very sensitive issue.”

In addition to the foreigners--two Americans, Dana Curry and Nicole Barardhollon; four Germans; and two Australians--the Taliban arrested 16 Afghan staff members and 64 young boys who the Taliban says were being taught Christianity by the Shelter Now workers. The boys will be sent to a re-education center, a Taliban spokesman said. The fate of the 16 local workers is unknown.

Diplomats from the U.S., Germany and Australia are due to visit the imprisoned workers today, the Taliban-run Bakhtar News Agency reported. But diplomats and U.N. officials are trying to keep negotiations low-key to prevent a backlash against other aid workers in the country.

“As long as they are in detention, it might not help them if we talk about death sentences,” said one U.N. official, who asked not to be named. “We hope that aid workers can go about their work unhindered, but at the same time, we want to be careful of the Taliban’s extreme sensitivities.”

At a news conference in Kabul on Tuesday, officials from the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice displayed religious items that were confiscated from Shelter Now International’s offices and allegedly used to convert Muslim families. They included Bibles translated into the local Dari language, slips of paper with the frequency of a Christian radio station written in Dari, and a computer video that told of the coming of Jesus Christ.

Mohammed Salim Haqqani, the Taliban deputy religious police minister, said the detainees would be dealt with according to the regime’s strict brand of Sharia law.

“Our message to other aid agencies is to respect Afghanistan’s culture and religion, which are precious,” he told reporters.

The Taliban has had a conflicted relationship with humanitarian aid agencies that have helped provide much-needed food and shelter to Afghans beleaguered by years of civil war and the worst drought in decades.

Shelter Now International, which was building housing for displaced people in preparation for Afghanistan’s bitter winters, has clashed with authorities before. After being threatened for allegedly preaching Christianity in Afghan refugee camps several years ago, the U.S.-based agency handed its leadership over to a German agency called Vision for Asia.

In July, the Taliban required every international aid organization to sign a letter laying down the rules for operating in Afghanistan. The letter forbade proselytizing, obscenity, drinking, loud music, eating of pork and distribution of material defaming the Taliban government. It also ordered foreign women to not drive.

Relief organizations have complained that official harassment has made it difficult for them to carry out aid work. The Taliban enforces a strict version of Islamic law, which prohibits men from seeing women to whom they are not related. The government also bars foreign workers from visiting Afghan homes.