KABUL - The Taliban allowed a visit on Thursday to the two Australians held on charges of spreading Christianity in Afghanistan but gave no indication when diplomats would get access to the four Germans and two Americans.
"I took along a qualified medical doctor to check on their health and condition," Australian diplomat Alistair Adams told reporters after seeing Peter Bunch and Diana Thomas. "They are both in good, healthy condition."
However, Adams said he did not see the other six aid workers detained by the Taliban since early August and did not know when the American and German diplomats would have another chance to see their citizens. Guards were present during the meeting.
The diplomats had gone together to see all eight detainees on Monday and had held meetings as a group with the Taliban on Tuesday, when they all pushed for a second visit that had been promised by officials of the hardline Islamic movement.
Adams, who took flowers to Thomas as it was her birthday, told reporters at the U.N. guest house in Kabul where the diplomats are staying that they were still awaiting word on whether they would get long-sought information on the legal process.
"If we can get information about the judicial process that applies here then that is what we seek to do, but we have to rely on our friends in the ministry of foreign affairs," Adams said, repeatedly thanking the Taliban for their help.
A meeting between the diplomats and Taliban officials that was expected on Wednesday did not take place. The diplomats have been seeking details of the investigation, trial and possible punishment ever since the arrests.
Although the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islamic law sets the death penalty for converting from Islam or promoting conversion, the Taliban have said evidence against the aid workers would be presented to an Islamic court and their fate decided by the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
RULED OUT PARDON
Taliban officials have ruled out a pardon, saying the eight foreigners -- arrested along with 16 Afghan staff of the German-based Christian aid charity Shelter Now International -- knew they were violating a strict ban on proselytising.
"If there is a legal process, we normally like to be present when charges are laid during the course of the hearing and certainly when any sentencing or punishment is handed down," Adams said.
"But we are unfamiliar with the legal process here in Afghanistan so we have to first find out what the process will allow," he said.
The diplomats, along with the mother of one American prisoner and father of the other, arrived on Monday for the first visit to the detainees hours after the Taliban embassy in neighbouring Pakistan issued them visas.
The relatives of the American aid workers said on Wednesday they were hopeful of more visits with their children, who had not seen any outsiders until they were allowed a visit by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Sunday.
"We are now working very closely with the (Taliban) ministry of foreign affairs to get back in to see our daughters on a more frequent basis and everything is going on very well," the father of one detainee told reporters.
He was accompanied by the mother of the other American detainee, who is also a woman. Both declined to give their names but the two American detainees have been identified by German authorities as Heather Mercer and Diana Curry.
"WARMLY TREATED"
"We arrived here on Monday and we were very warmly treated by the Taliban authorities. They immediately allowed us to see our daughters. They were in good health and good spirits," the man said as the mother nodded agreement.
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.
Abdul Rehman Hotak of the Taliban foreign ministry said on Wednesday he had complained about U.N. sanctions on the Taliban, which include an arms embargo, financial restrictions and limits on movements abroad.
"We discussed it with the U.S. diplomat yesterday (Tuesday) that they should once again think about sanctions against the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," Hotak told Reuters.
The sanctions were imposed in an effort to force the Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden, a Saudi militant wanted by the United States on charges of blowing up two U.S. embassies.
The Taliban say they have finished a preliminary investigation but a wider probe was seeking links to other aid and funding agencies. The Taliban say the aid workers had Bibles, tapes and CDs about Christianity in local languages.
Helmut Landes, an Islamabad-based German diplomat, has said the three diplomats were willing to remain in Kabul for as long as necessary.
06:25 08-30-01
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