KABUL - Three Western diplomats in the Afghan capital Kabul said on Tuesday the ruling Taliban had agreed to allow more meetings with eight jailed foreign aid workers accused of promoting Christianity.
"After seeing the detainees yesterday, today we have started discussions with the ministry of foreign affairs in order to monitor the upcoming procedure and hopefully we might have other talks," said German diplomat Helmut Landes.
"We have arranged other meetings with the detainees but I don't know whether it might be today or tomorrow," he said.
Four Germans, two Australians, two Americans and 16 Afghans, all from German-based Christian relief agency Shelter Now International (SNI), were arrested more than three weeks ago.
They face charges of trying to convert Afghan Muslims to Christianity, which could carry a death penalty under the Taliban's purist interpretation of Islam.
The Three Pakistan-based diplomats from Germany, Australia and the United States, plus the father of one detained American and the mother of another, flew into Kabul on Monday afternoon and met the foreign detainees soon after.
Landes told reporters late on Monday the diplomats were willing to stay as long as necessary.
"We are here to provide consular services to our detained citizens and as long as this assistance might be needed, we will be here to service it," he said.
INVESTIGATION CONTINUES
Chief Taliban spokesman Abdul Hai Mutmaen told Reuters on Tuesday the probe into alleged proselytising by SNI and other foreign groups was continuing and its results might not be known soon.
"The first important phase of investigation is over now, but it does not mean that the probing is completed entirely. The outcome of the investigation may not be known soon," he said.
"We have not reached that stage to say what sort of treatment will be done with the detainees. Their activities were extensive," Mutmaen said.
Proselytising links were still being sought between SNI and other foreign aid groups, he added.
The Taliban previously said they were probing the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), which channels some of its aid to Afghanistan through SNI, one of its 150 partner agencies in the war-torn and drought-ravaged country.
WFP Executive Director Catherine Bertini said on Tuesday three million Afghans relied on food aid to survive and her organisation was not involved in proselytising.
"If they investigate there is nothing to find," Bertini said in Bangkok where she was to open a new WFP Asian headquarters.
"WFP is not in any way, shape or form a religious or ideological agency... We always look for partners who can distribute food and do it effectively."
SPIRITS LIFTED
The three diplomats were allowed to spend about two hours on Monday with the foreign detainees -- six women and two men.
"Naturally, the detainees were very pleased to see us, especially those who had their parents coming from a long way away and I think it certainly lifted their spirits," said Alistair Adams, consul from the Australian High Commission (embassy) in Islamabad.
"We each asked the detainees how they have been treated and what condition they are in and they have confirmed they have been well treated...," he added.
The Taliban have previously refused all outside access to the detainees and the diplomats' comments marked the first public report on their condition.
Officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) met the foreign detainees on Sunday but have been unable to see the 16 Afghan staff.
The Taliban say supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar will decide on the punishment for the detainees.
The hardline movement says it has recovered Bibles, tapes and CDs about Christianity in the local Dari and Pashto languages, and the investigation has been widened to include links with other groups including the U.N. World Food Programme.
The arrests followed months of worsening ties between the Taliban and the numerous foreign aid groups helping impoverished Afghans cope with more than two decades of war, and now a devastating drought.
06:51 08-28-01
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