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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kumar who wrote (2903)	10/6/2001 9:31:29 AM
From: JustTradeEm	Respond to of 281500

Hiding behind women and Christians .... who couldn't have seen this coming ???? reuters.com Taliban Say Could Free Christians if U.S. Backs Off Last Updated: October 06, 2001 03:42 AM ET KABUL (Reuters) - The ruling Taliban could free eight aid workers held on charges of spreading Christianity if the United States halts its threats against Afghanistan, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on Saturday. "If the United States mitigates the sufferings of the common people of Afghanistan and gives up its dire threats, then the Afghan government will also take steps to release the eight detained foreigners," said the statement, which was faxed to Reuters. The aid workers, all with the German-based Shelter Now International (SNI) relief agency, were arrested in early August on charges of spreading Christianity, accusations that they have denied. "A few days ago, U.S. officials demanded from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban) that it ban the al Qaeda organization and hand over Osama bin Laden," the statement said. "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has not received any evidence against Sheikh Osama bin Laden so that it can ponder on this," it said, adding that a retraction of the U.S. threats could prompt the Taliban to release the detained Christians. A Foreign Ministry official, reached by telephone in the southern Taliban headquarters of Kandahar, told Reuters that such a solution was possible. The aid workers -- two Americans, two Australians and four Germans -- have been in Taliban custody since early August, accused of trying to spread Christianity in Afghanistan. Their 16 Afghan colleagues of the German-based SNI are also in detention as Washington readies to attack the Taliban for refusing to hand over bin Laden, chief suspect in the September 11 attack on the United States. Their fate is not known. The charge of trying to convert Muslims could carry a death sentence under the hard-line Islamic regime. The Taliban have said their fate, following a trial, would ultimately rest with the movement's supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. The Pakistani lawyer for the eight told Reuters on Saturday he would submit his defense on Tuesday. "The Taliban have been very cooperative with me," lawyer Atif Ali Khan said by telephone from his home in the northwestern Pakistani border city of Peshawar, where he has returned for the weekend. He said he would return to Kabul on Tuesday when he planned to submit his reply to the charges. "The chief justice of the Taliban court is very clear that this is a judicial matter and will be decided according to the law," Khan said. "He will not accept any pressure." Khan said he had met the detainees, and they were in low spirits and eager to be released as soon as possible. "They want to get this over with as early as possible," he said. "They want the reply to be submitted as quickly as possible. "Naturally, they are depressed because they have been detained for over two months." The father of an American aid worker said on Friday his daughter, Heather Mercer, was living in fear of being trapped in a U.S. attack. "After 63 days (of detention) she is wearing down," her father John Mercer told reporters. "She is very upset. She is very frightened. She is afraid that bombs will start falling on Kabul." Mercer said he has been regularly sending and receiving faxed messages from his daughter through the Taliban foreign ministry in Kabul. Diplomats from Germany, the United States and Australia, as well as some relatives of the U.S. prisoners, have visited the detainees in the capital, Kabul, but left Afghanistan last month in the wake of the September 11 attacks. They foreign detainees have been identified as Australians Peter Bunch and Diana Thomas, Americans Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer, and Germans Georg Taubmann, Katrin Jelinek, Margrit Stebner and Silke Durrkopf.