Rescued Americans celebrate their freedom, pray for Afghanistan

By GREG MYRE
Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The final hours of three months in Taliban captivity were the most harrowing, freed American aid worker Heather Mercer said Friday.

First came a rushed, middle-of-the night departure from their Kabul prison and wild ride south on the back of a rocket launcher. Then, a cold, sleepless night locked in a shipping container.

Minutes after she and seven colleagues were moved into a new jail, their fifth in more than three months, rockets came crashing down on the contested town. Men banged on the prison doors.

"We thought that was the Taliban coming back and this was the end of the road," Mercer said. "All of a sudden, an opposition soldier comes in with reams of ammunition around his neck, and he just started screaming, `You're free! You're free!"'

Mercer, 24, and fellow American Dayna Curry, 30, recounted their ordeal Friday at a news conference in Islamabad, a day after U.S. special forces helicopters whisked the eight aid workers out of Afghanistan.

Mercer called it "a Hollywood rescue," recalling how the women burned their head coverings to provide a beacon for the helicopters searching for them in the pre-dawn darkness Thursday.

Rested and upbeat after a day with relatives in Islamabad, Mercer and Curry said they were sustained by their Christian faith, their families' support and efforts by the U.S. government. They even had kind words for their Taliban captors.

"Considering the circumstances, the Taliban always treated us well," Mercer said. "There were Taliban who treated us as sisters."

The two Americans were arrested Aug. 5 on charges of attempting to convert Muslim Afghans to Christianity.

They described endless hours inside Taliban prisons and weeks without any contact with the outside world. To pass the tedium, they prayed, sang, exercised, hand-washed their clothes, played cards and even killed flies.

The boredom was broken by the thunder of the U.S. bombing raids in and around Kabul that began Oct. 7.

"There were times when we didn't know if we'd make it out alive," Curry said.

The Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States and the ensuing war in Afghanistan complicated their case and may have delayed their release, the two said.

Taliban Supreme Court judges had indefinitely postponed their trial, saying they feared their anger over U.S. airstrike could hamper their ability to make a fair ruling.

Before their arrest, Curry said they traveled freely in Kabul and regularly held talks with Afghans, who would discuss Islam and ask about Christianity.

Of the Taliban accusations, "Eighty percent of the charges against us were false," Curry said.

She acknowledged that at the request of one Afghan family she had come to know, Curry made photocopies from a book about Jesus, and also showed the family a "Jesus film," actions that apparently caught the notice of the Taliban religious police.

Four German and two Australian colleagues also were released. Sixteen Afghans arrested along with them fled Tuesday when the Taliban pulled out of Kabul.

"We are all innocent of the charges and we are very sensitive to the culture and we don't go around preaching," freed Australian Diana Thomas said at an Islamabad news conference. "Really, it was a setup."

The Americans said they were never mistreated. Afghan prisoners, however, were routinely abused, they said.

"We saw some pretty atrocious things," Mercer said. "Women were being beaten until they bled. Women were being arrested because they ran away from their husbands who beat them."

She and Curry said they planned to leave Pakistan on Sunday and return to the United States after spending some time in Europe. Both women said they remain deeply attached to Afghanistan.

"We pray that the world continues to keep its eye on Afghanistan," Mercer said.

AP-WS-11-16-01 1437EST