Parents Beg Taliban to Free Workers

Choking back tears, the parents of two American aid workers under arrest in Afghanistan pleaded Monday for the release of the women, with the father of one begging the ruling Taliban to let him take his daughter’s place.

Dayna Curry, 24, and Heather Mercer, 29, are among eight Western aid workers arrested last month by the Taliban’s religious police and accused of seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity, a violation of Afghanistan’s Islamic law.

The thought of what might happen to his daughter brought John Mercer to the brink of tears several times, but he said he was satisfied--at least “until anything else might happen”--that the Taliban would not harm the detainees.

“At this point, I feel confident that they will protect them,” said John Mercer, of Vienna, Va. The Taliban officials “are just like any other peoples of the world. You don’t treat people cruelly, and you don’t do harm to women and children.”

John Mercer said he made the offer to switch places with his daughter during a meeting with Sohail Shaheen, the No. 2 diplomat at the Taliban Embassy here.

The Westerners work for Shelter Now International, a Christian relief agency that provides food and shelter for impoverished Afghans. Those arrested Aug. 5 also include four Germans and two Australians.

For weeks, the American women’s four parents have refused to talk to reporters for fear of making their daughters’ situation worse. But with the Taliban under pressure to turn over Afghan-based militant Osama bin Laden, who is viewed by U.S. officials as a prime suspect in last Tuesday’s attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the parents made a public plea at a news conference that mixed moments of warm laughter and frightened tears.

Mercer’s mother, Debbie Oddy, said she hopes President Bush will keep the fate of her daughter in mind as he weighs military options in the coming days.

“Do we want him to? Absolutely,” said Oddy, of Lewiston, N.Y. “Whether we expect him to in reality, that would be something else. He’ll do what’s best, I’m sure.”

John Mercer said he has applied for a visa to return to Kabul, the Afghan capital, despite the threat of a U.S. attack. He described the Taliban as “gracious hosts, considering the circumstances.”

For days, the Taliban has refused to issue visas to journalists, Pakistani lawyers for the detained aid workers or many others trying to enter the country.

Before last Tuesday, the Taliban signaled that it would probably convict the eight Westerners and expel them. But the threat of war with the U.S. has raised fears that the aid workers might be held as virtual hostages--or worse.

Sixteen of Shelter Now International’s Afghan staff members also were arrested and could face the death penalty if they are found guilty of converting to Christianity.

The American parents last saw their daughters a week ago, just before the attacks in the U.S. The parents left Kabul on Thursday as Western aid workers began to pull out of Afghanistan.

Their daughters are aware of the attacks on the U.S., the parents said.

“We were shocked and horrified, just like everybody else was about the attacks in New York,” said Curry’s mother, Nancy Cassel, a teacher from Thompsons Station, Tenn. “We’d just had a visit with our girls and we came back and it was on the news. When we thought we would see them again, we didn’t know it would be the last time before we left.”

Heather Mercer’s parents have written two letters to the Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, asking “his consideration for clemency and mercy in this case,” John Mercer said.

Although no U.S. diplomats are in Kabul, the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry has allowed delivery of e-mails and other items to make the two women more comfortable.

The parents have little information to go on from the Taliban but say they have no reason to believe that their daughters have been moved from a temporary detention center where they were last week.

“And we have also heard they are in good health,” Oddy said.

The detention center doubles as a school for young boys. The aid workers receive three meals a day, some of the food bought with money their parents left for them.

At one hourlong meeting, Curry noticed her mother’s body wasn’t fully covered as required by the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Islamic law.

“She warned me about my ankles,” Oddy said, and her laughter strained to a tense smile. “She asked me to please leave because she feared for our safety.”