KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The ruling Taliban militia said Sunday that it would not allow diplomats to visit eight foreign aid workers arrested and charged with trying to convert Muslims to Christianity and that other aid agencies may be investigated.
The foreign minister for the hardline Islamic Taliban said officials were trying to determine if other agencies were also involved in proselytizing - a crime in this Muslim nation - and that more aid workers could come under investigation.
The detained aid workers - two Americans, four Germans and two Australians - would not be released until the investigation is completed, Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil told reporters in Kabul, without specifying how long that would take.
The aid workers, arrested a week ago, operated Shelter Now International, which is part of a German-based Christian humanitarian group called Vision for Asia. Also imprisoned were 16 Afghan staff.
Muttawakil said investigators also will question the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP) to find out why it gave food to Shelter Now International when the group had a reputation as a Christian missionary organization.
``They must have known what this organization was doing and that it was trying to convert Muslims,'' said Muttawakil.
He also said diplomats from the United States, Australia and Germany - who have been trying to get Afghan visas to travel to Kabul - will not be allowed to see their nationals.
``We will give visas to the diplomats if they want to meet Taliban officials, but if it is to see those in jail we will not give the visas,'' Muttawakil said.
The Taliban have closed the offices of Shelter Now International and confiscated Bibles and Christian films about the coming of Jesus Christ, all translated in the local language, Dari.
At the time of the arrests, the Taliban also detained 64 young men who officials said were being indoctrinated into Christianity by the aid workers. Since then the youths have been released, but an unknown number of their elder male relatives have been detained - to punish them for allowing their children to undergo Christian religious education, according to the state-run Bakhtar News Agency.
The Taliban, who espouse a strict brand of Islamic law, have forbidden proselytizing. All international aid organizations were warned against preaching religion and according to other aid workers they all agreed to abide by the Taliban rules.
It was still not clear how the Taliban will rule on the 16 Afghan staff of Shelter Now International, who have been held in a separate, undisclosed location. The penalty for Afghans found guilty of proselytizing is death.
On Sunday, a state-run newspaper, Shariat, published an edict issued last month by the Taliban's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, ordering a 3-to-10 day jail term then expulsion from the country for any foreigner found guilty of proselytizing.
According to the newspaper, Deputy Justice Minister Jalaluddin Shinwari assured U.N. special envoy Francesc Vendrell, who arrived Saturday, that the edict would be applied to foreigners charged with preaching Christianity.
However, he did not make specific reference to the eight jailed workers, and Mutawakkil's comments Sunday suggested the eight would be held longer.
Shelter Now International operates several projects throughout Afghanistan providing humanitarian assistance and participating in reconstruction projects like rebuilding irrigation canals. All the projects have been shut down.
AP-NY-08-12-01 0956EDT
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.