KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - For foreigners working for aid groups in Afghanistan, life is something like house arrest. They go to the office and then head home, with no stops in between.
There's no entertainment to speak of. Television and movies are banned. Fancy restaurants don't exist. There is a nighttime curfew.
Nor are there opportunities for socializing with the Afghan people.
It is strictly forbidden by the ruling Taliban for foreigners to visit Afghans' homes. And since last month's crackdown on an aid group for allegedly preaching Christianity, most Afghans don't even want to be seen in public with a foreigner for fear of being branded a convert - a crime that carries the death penalty.
Veteran aid workers say the current trial of eight foreign employees of a Christian aid group, Shelter Now International, is part of a broader effort by the Taliban to control the operations of international organizations.
Sixteen Afghan employees of Shelter Now have also been arrested, and two self-declared Christian aid groups expelled. On Sunday, aid workers said the Taliban jailed 35 Afghan employees of one of the expelled groups last week.
Shattered by more than two decades of bloody conflict - a 10-year uprising against occupying Soviet troops followed by civil war - Afghanistan must rely on international emergency assistance just to survive.
According to the United Nations, $800,000 is spent every day in Afghanistan by international groups. There are approximately 250 foreign aid workers operating throughout the country, overseeing aid operations that employ more than 20,000 Afghans.
Despite the need for help, many in the Taliban see the foreign aid groups as a danger, purveying Western ideas they consider decadent and against their strict interpretation of Islam.
The Taliban issued an extensive set of rules earlier this year regulating the groups' operations. Among them are requirements for the groups to clear their employees through the foreign ministry, adhere to the Taliban's education program and respect the segregation of the sexes.
Accusing the international aid community of ignoring many of the rules, the Taliban last week established a commission to more closely enforce the regulations.
That includes a requirement for all international organizations, including the United Nations, to put their money into the Afghan State Bank. This could lead to another confrontation between the Taliban and the United Nations, a relationship that has been strained almost since the outset of the Taliban religious army's rise to power in 1996.
Peter Goossens, chief of U.N. World Food Program operations in Kabul, told The Associated Press that the United Nations had told the foreign ministry it won't abide by their orders, particularly the banking requirement. The WFP spends an average of $250,000 every month here, much of it for transporting thousands of tons of wheat throughout the country.
Most expatriates say they are uncertain what the future holds.
But they also seem to agree it was inevitable that international groups would come under scrutiny by the Taliban, which after five years in control of most of Afghanistan is trying to put a working government in place.
What some expatriates fear is that the allegations of proselytizing that surfaced with the arrest of the Shelter Now International workers has strengthened the resolve of the Taliban who are most anti-Western.
``The Shelter Now International provided the weapon for those Taliban who do not want Western NGOs (nongovernment organizations) here,'' said Karla Schefter of the German-based Committee for the Promotion of Medical and Humanitarian Aid in Afghanistan.
``We are not as free as five years ago. Now the Taliban have settled down and even in the countryside you see their control,'' said Schefter, who has worked in Afghanistan for 12 years.
The Taliban also are developing alternatives to Western aid groups. In just four months, there has been a proliferation of Islamic aid groups working in Kabul. Many of them espouse the same strict social mores as imposed by the Taliban.
AP-NY-09-10-01 0215EDT
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.