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Guard says eight foreigners are strong and in good health
11/05/2001
KABUL, Afghanistan – Dayna Curry celebrated her 30th birthday Sunday – and
marked her 93rd day in an Afghan jail along with another American and six
other foreigners accused of preaching Christianity in this devoutly Muslim
country.
Her mother, Nancy Cassell, said she had sent a package with a cake and
candles for Ms. Curry that should arrive soon at the two-story prison
where her daughter is held in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
Abdurahman Hottak, the Taliban's consulate department chief, said
packages from the loved ones of all eight prisoners would be delivered.
"That's good news," said Ms. Cassell, contacted by telephone in
Islamabad, Pakistan, where she's been waiting. "There are just a whole
bunch of small things for them to have fun with."
Ms. Curry and Heather Mercer are both employees of the German-based
Shelter Now International organization, and both are Baylor University
graduates. They were arrested on Aug. 3. The others – four Germans and
two Australians – were taken into custody two days later.
The eight foreigners, along with 16 Afghan employees of Shelter Now
International, have been charged with propagating Christianity. An
attorney who represents Ms. Curry and Ms. Mercer has said that the
foreigners' trial has been indefinitely postponed because of the war.
At the prison, surrounded by a high, dirty-white cement wall and barbed
wire, the windows have rusted steel bars. The gate to the compound is
gray steel, with a small opening that requires anyone entering to hunch
over.
But the guards, sitting on broken chairs at the entrance to the
detention center, are friendly. One of the guards, Amir Jan, smiles and
says the prisoners are in good health.
"They are very good, strong. Sometimes they are singing," says Mr. Jan,
wrapping himself in the traditional woolen shawl worn by most Afghan men
during the cold winter months.
"They get only good food from the restaurant, and they don't even drink
the water here. They get mineral water from the market," he said.
Ms. Cassell said she hoped someone would be able to get letters out from
her daughter. She hasn't heard from Ms. Curry since Oct. 22, when the
workers' Pakistani attorney, Atif Ali Khan, returned from Afghanistan
with letters.
John Mercer, of Vienna, Va., the father of 24-year-old Heather Mercer,
said it's worrisome to be out of touch with his daughter.
Mr. Mercer, who spent two weeks in the Afghan capital, and Ms. Cassell
were evacuated from Kabul on Sept. 13 – two days after the terrorist
attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon because the U.S.
government feared for their safety. They saw their children on Sept 11.
Ms. Mercer's mother, Deborah Oddy, had arrived that day and saw her
daughter only once before being evacuated. She, too, is in Pakistan
keeping a vigil for her daughter.
Mr. Mercer said he pleaded with the Taliban to free his daughter and
take him instead. They didn't respond. Contacted by telephone on Sunday,
Mr. Mercer said he has received no news of his daughter in two weeks.
Meanwhile, family members of the imprisoned aid workers maintain their
vigil from neighboring Pakistan – worried for the mental as well as
physical well being of their loved ones in jail.
"We are holding up OK, but everything is such an unknown. We haven't
talked to anyone there. ... It's been a long time," Mr. Mercer said. "It
is unnerving not having any regular communication."
Last month, a doctor was taken to see Ms. Mercer. Her fears had gotten
the better of her, Mr. Mercer explained. Ms. Oddy said her daughter
worries not just for herself but for her parents, who lost Ms. Mercer's
younger sister to disease one year ago.
"We have buried two children, John and I," Ms. Oddy said. An infant
child also had died.