Aug. 16 — Two weeks after they were arrested in Afghanistan on charges of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity, the international community can only speculate on the fate of the eight detained foreign aid workers. Their options look bleak.
At best, the two American, four German and two Australian staffers of the German-based Christian relief agency Shelter Now International face expulsion from Afghanistan; at worst, a public execution.
Under the Taliban, strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic laws, renunciation of Islam is seen as an action that weakens the Islamic state and is branded as revolt or insurrection. Offenders could face the death penalty.
Western diplomats in the Afghan capital of Kabul are pushing for access to the detained workers, but there have been local reports that the foreign staffers of Shelter Now International (SNI) would have to face trial in an Islamic court.
But most experts are at a loss to offer even a glimmer of optimism regarding the fates of the 16 Afghan SNI staffers arrested in Kabul last week in addition to the international workers.
"The local volunteers are definitely the most vulnerable," said Robert Laprade, deputy regional director [Asia] for CARE, a relief agency that runs programs in central and eastern Afghanistan. "That's my biggest fear: what will happen to the local staff."
If found guilty of changing their faith, experts believe the Afghan staffers could face tougher punishment than their Western colleagues. Though the death penalty is possible for the foreigners, most observers consider it unlikely.
Courting Trouble
The SNI has denied its staffers were proselytizing, but Taliban authorities point to thousands of CDs, video and audio tapes and Bibles in local languages seized from SNI offices as evidence.
On Wednesday, Taliban officials allowed U.S., Australian and German diplomats in Kabul access to the material. But the Taliban has denied the diplomats access to the detained workers.
A spokesman for SNI has said the seized material was only for the personal use of its staffers.
Comprised of former mujahideen , or Islamic fighters, the Taliban rules most of Afghanistan under an inflexible interpretation of Islam. In the recent past, it has displayed scant regard for religious tolerance.
In March, despite strong international condemnation, Taliban authorities destroyed two ancient giant Buddha statues in the central Bamiyan province. Recent Taliban moves to make minority Hindu and Sikh Afghans wear yellow tags have also alarmed the international community.
Given the Taliban's imperviousness to international condemnation of their human rights record, many experts believe the Christian aid organization should have been aware they were courting serious trouble.
"I don't know if the detained staffers were aid workers or missionaries, it's sometimes difficult to tell," said Hamid Dabashi, a professor of comparative cultures at Columbia University.
"But in my view, in all honesty, missionary organizations have no business in Afghanistan. There is already too much misery there and the United Nations can hardly deal with the sustained daily problems facing the people. If they were providing bread and shelter in the name of Jesus Christ, I think if Jesus Christ were alive, he would be appalled."
Allegations Against Aid Agencies
International aid workers also worry that their already difficult task of providing relief to millions of Afghans suffering from a combination of drought, famine, decades of civil war may become more problematic.
"One of the biggest concerns we would have is that this may somehow hinder the activities of delivering humanitarian aid to the needy at a time when Afghanistan is going through one of its worst humanitarian crisis," said Laprade. "If there is a hardening of the situation, that would be terrible."
The phenomenon of aid agencies coming under pressure by host governments is not new. Relief organizations have periodically been accused of evangelism, espionage or of having links to groups opposed to host governments.
Sometimes, according to Chip Berlet, a senior analyst at Political Research Associates, a think-tank, sometimes, the charges prove to be true. "There are all kinds of missionaries," said Berlet. "There are missionaries who simply do good deeds without pushing an agenda, there are missionaries who proselytize where they operate and there are missionaries who cooperate with intelligence agencies. Dr. Tom Dooley is the perfect example."
Tom Dooley, a U.S. Catholic physician popularly known as "the Jungle Doctor" admitted to providing intelligence to the CIA while he was operating in Vietnam in the 1950s.
A Code of Conduct
Given the history of accusations leveled at aid organizations and the growing number of non-governmental organizations, in 1994, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (ICRC) put forth a voluntary code of conduct to aid relief organizations who often conduct their work with great enthusiasm, but sometimes with insufficient resources, expertise or sensitivity.
The 10-point code of conduct was drawn up by a steering committee including representatives of Caritas International, Catholic Relief Services, the IFRC/RCS, the International Save the Children Alliance, the Lutheran World Federation, Oxfam and the World Council of Churches.
The code, according to a spokesman for the ICRC, was designed to aid humanitarian agencies who are increasingly taking the place of governments in caring for victims, amid donor fatigue and big welfare cuts.
Under the 1994 Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief, relief organizations pledge to provide aid without furthering "a particular political or religious standpoint." The code also calls upon relief agencies to "respect the culture, structures and customs of the communities and countries" they are working in.
But the code, says Lawrence Goodrich, a spokesman for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a congressionally mandated body, is purely voluntary and the ICRC relies on individual organizations to sign up.
"We do not want to point fingers," said Darcy Christen, spokesman for the ICRC. "The code can only work on a voluntary basis, there is no legal mechanism to implement it. It's a standard, like a quality control stamp."
Initial Confusion
Allegations of mismanagement also plague the international aid community. A 1996 international study of the Rwanda crisis by the ICRC found that almost third of the 170 aid agencies registered at the height of the crisis had disappeared. Some $173 million in aid funds, from a total of $1.9 billion, was also unaccounted for.
In the case of the detained aid workers in Afghanistan, initial confusion over which foreign aid agency they worked for has not helped. Initial media reports identified the aid workers as employees of the U.S.-based Shelter Now International, a Christian relief organization.
But a spokesman for SNI in Wisconsin said the German-based organization has sometimes used the name Shelter Now without SNI's permission, creating the confusion.
The confusion may well be an inadvertent bureaucratic lapse, but for the eight foreign and 16 local staffers of the SNI awaiting word of their fate, it's a mistake that has not helped their precarious state.