Afghanistan Closes Aid Groups’ Offices

The country’s ruling Taliban closed the offices of two more Christian relief organizations Friday after accusing them of links to aid workers who are jailed on charges of promoting Christianity.

Taliban security officials said they had closed the offices of U.S.-based International Assistance Mission and Serve on orders issued by the Foreign Ministry.

“No one is left here, and we are not allowed to let any foreigners in. All foreigners left this morning after we closed their offices,” a Taliban guard said.

Twenty-four staff of the German-based Christian aid group Shelter Now International, including four Germans, two Australians, two Americans and 16 Afghans, were jailed in early August on charges of proselytizing.

The arrests followed months of worsening ties between the Taliban and foreign aid groups helping millions of impoverished Afghans cope with more than two decades of war and a devastating drought.

Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Mutawakel said there had been complaints about IAM and Serve.

“There were frequent reports and complaints about the work of these two institutions, and the authorities of the emirate [of Afghanistan] deemed it necessary to close them and tell their staff to leave Afghanistan,” Mutawakel said.

Taliban officials said privately that they had not made any arrests but that aid offices of the two organizations in Kabul, Jalalabad, Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif had also been sealed. They said the foreign staffs were given an ultimatum to leave the country within 72 hours.

The United Nations issued a statement from its New York headquarters saying that Secretary-General Kofi Annan had expressed concern about the Taliban actions against the two groups and had said they jeopardized much-needed assistance.

“This aid is desperately needed to address extreme suffering caused by war, poverty, massive displacement and severe drought,” said Annan spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva.

The U.N. leader appealed to the Taliban “to assure the security and freedom to operate of all international aid workers in accordance with international law.”