Taliban shuts aid group over Christian activity

August 7, 2001

KABUL (Reuters) - The ruling Taliban on Sunday shut down an international aid agency operating in Afghanistan and arrested 24 of its international and local staff, accusing the group of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

A senior Taliban official, quoted by the official Voice of Shariat radio, said the eight foreign staffers of Shelter Now International had "confessed to the crime" and asked for pardon.

Earlier, the official news agency Bakhtar said authorities had found Bibles in a house of the agency's Afghan staff.

Among eight foreigners arrested, six were women and two men while the rest 16 were Afghans, it said. The nationalities of the foreigners were not given.

A U.N. source in Islamabad, capital of neighbouring Pakistan, said Shelter Now was an international non-governmental organisation supported by various Western countries and engaged in humanitarian work.

Taliban radio said the agency's foreign staffers were arrested while trying to convert members of an Afghan Muslim family by showing them material about Christianity through a computer.

It quoted the deputy of the Taliban religious police, Salim Haqqani, as saying the staff had "confessed their crime without any compulsion, regretted their act and asked for pardon...".

Earlier, Bakhtar said Taliban security officials found two Shelter Now computers and two computer discs containing material on Christianity.

The Taliban, a purist Islamic movement, issued an edict last year prescribing the death penalty for any Muslim converting to any other religion or those involved in such conversions.

August 12, 2001

Sunday August 12 3:40 AM ET

Taliban Say Christian Foreigners Face Five Years' Jail

By Andy Soloman

Posted Image This undated handout picture shows George Taubmann, second right, with his family, names not available. Taubmann is among the eight jailed aidworkers who have been jailed by Afghanistan's Taliban on Aug. 5, 2001 for allegedly preaching Christianity in this Muslim nation. The Taliban's supreme ruler Sunday Aug. 12, 2001 sentenced the foreign aid worker to three to 10 days in jail, the Taliban's Radio Shariat reported. They will be expelled from Afghanistan within 48 hours of serving their sentence. (APPhoto/HO/Shelter Germany)</a>

KARACHI (Reuters) - Eight foreign aid agency workers detained in Afghanistan on charges they tried to convert Muslims to Christianity face being jailed for up to five years, the Taliban's foreign minister was quoted as saying on Sunday.

Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil told the Saudi-owned Dubai newspaper Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that the punishment was in accordance with the hardline Islamist group's strict interpretation of the Koran and Sharia law.

Some 16 Afghanis arrested at the same time could face the death sentence, he said.

``Setting a date for their trial will take some time,'' he said, referring to the foreigners. ``We will decide the punishment when the investigation is over.

Authorities last weekend arrested the 24 Shelter Now International (SNI) workers -- including four Germans, two Americans and two Australians -- for promoting Christianity.

Diplomats pressing the Taliban for permission to visit the country to see those detained began another frustrating day on Sunday with still no word as to when they might be given visas.

``There are no signs from the Taliban to issue visas and we'll see on Monday how we press forward with our wish to see the detainees,'' a German diplomat told Reuters from Islamabad.

``The problem is the script is written by the Taliban and we don't know what's in the script,'' the diplomat said.

In the latest twist to the saga, the Taliban on Saturday freed dozens of children it said the foreigners had tried to convert -- and imprisoned their fathers instead as a punishment for not being good parents.

The Taliban's Bakhtar Information Agency said the 65 youngsters had been preached to by staff of the German-based SNI.

German, Australian and U.S. diplomats had hoped to fly to Kabul on Sunday from the Pakistani capital Islamabad to visit the eight, but that now seems unlikely despite assurances from the Taliban that the visas would be granted.

The Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, could offer no hope for an early resolution.

``We have not received any approval yet,'' he said on Sunday. ''We are waiting. There is nothing from Kabul.''

NO SENSE OF URGENCY

An American Embassy spokesman added: ``Obviously, they don't seem to see the same sense of urgency as us.''

In Kabul, Francesc Vendrell, the United Nations' special representative for Afghanistan, told reporters he wanted talks with the Taliban over the fate of the detainees.

He said if the foreigners had been spreading Christianity as claimed by the Taliban, he hoped they would simply be expelled and not face more severe punishment. He also voiced concern about the fate of the Afghans being held.

``The Afghans too are in very serious danger,'' he said. ``We don't know whether these people were simply listening to views presented to them -- if that is what happened -- and I hope there will be clemency and justice.''

An Australian diplomat on Sunday welcomed Vendrell's comments, but warned the Taliban might not react well to pressure.

``If we can get more influence and pressure from other sources, it's better, but you're just not sure how (the Taliban) are going to respond to pressure,'' he said.

The Taliban have been internationally condemned for a poor human rights record -- particularly against women -- and for destroying Afghanistan's pre-Islamic heritage, including giant ancient Buddhas hewn out of cliffs in central Bamiyan province.

Previously, the Taliban have ignored international condemnation of its brand of hardline Islam, and has drawn international sanctions for its failure to hand over Saudi terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden.

Shelter Now denies its staff were proselytizing, but the Taliban religious police say they have seized around 10,000 Christian cassettes, books, computer discs and bibles -- most in the local Dari and Pashto languages of Afghanistan.

Maitreya · August 12, 2001

Taliban are such demons.The foriengers should be sure to leave the dust from their shoes as they exit.

August 13, 2001

<h3>Taliban Sees Larger Conversion Conspiracy Beyond Detained Aid Workers</h3>

KABUL, Afghanistan — A week after jailing eight foreigners on charges of propagating Christianity, the ruling Taliban militia on Sunday said they suspect a larger conspiracy by Western aid organizations to convert Afghan Muslims.

Taliban investigators have uncovered considerable evidence of large-scale conversion attempts and want to question other foreign aid groups, including the U.N. World Food Program, Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil told reporters in the Afghan capital.

"Unfortunately some organizations under the guise of helping poor Afghans are preaching Christianity," Muttawakil said.

"The investigators are looking at a larger conspiracy by countries and organizations to try to convert good Afghan Muslims to Christianity," he said.

The Taliban, who espouse a harsh brand of Islam that considers trying to convert Muslims a crime, arrested eight foreign workers and 16 Afghan staff with Shelter Now International on Aug. 5 for allegedly preaching Christianity. The group is part of a German-based Christian group called Vision for Asia.

Among those arrested were two American women, four Germans and two Australians.

Muttawakil on Sunday said that the detained foreigners would not be released until the investigation is completed and that diplomats will not be allowed to visit them.

"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," he said.

During the raid on the Shelter Now International office, Taliban officials say they seized compact discs, cassettes and literature containing stories about Christianity and the coming of Jesus Christ — all translated into local languages.

"Our evidence is strong and we will be asking other organizations what they know about activities to spread Christianity in Afghanistan," Muttawakil said.

He made particular reference to the U.N.'s World Food Program, or WFP, suggesting the food aid group knowingly gave food to Shelter Now International to distribute as a means of enticing Afghan Muslims to Christianity.

"The WFP should be ready to answer questions when our investigation is completed because they must have known what this organization was doing and that it was trying to convert Muslims," said Muttawakil. "Our investigators have questions for them."

A WFP spokesman, Francis Mwanza, said at the group's Rome headquarters that it "has no religious intentions whatsoever."

"Our concern is to deliver food to NGOs (non-governmental organizations) on the ground who can get the food to the people," he said.

The relationship between the United Nations and the Taliban, who control about 95 percent of Afghanistan, has been troubled in recent years. But it deteriorated further following the imposition of fresh U.N. sanctions against the Taliban in January.

The sanctions, which included an arms embargo against the Taliban but not against its northern-based opponents, were imposed to press the hard-line militia to close terrorist training camps and hand over Osama bin Laden, who is wanted in connection with the 1998 bombings of two U.S. Embassies in East Africa that killed 224 people.

"There are some who want to keep the war in Afghanistan going so their Christian missionaries can come to this country and preach Christianity," Muttawakil said.

At the time of the arrests, the Taliban also detained 64 young men who officials said were being taught Christianity by the aid workers. The youths were later released, but an unknown number of their elder male relatives have been detained for allowing their children to undergo Christian education, according to the state-run Bakhtar News Agency.

The Taliban have forbidden proselytizing, and all international aid organizations are warned against preaching religion. 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 terms 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 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 Muttawakil'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.