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Taliban offers U.S. aid workers deal
10/06/2001
By AMIR SHAH KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia offered Saturday to
free eight international aid workers charged with preaching Christianity if the
United States stops threatening military attacks. At the same time, a private news agency with connections to the Taliban said
the militia's leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has ordered the release of British
journalist Yvonne Ridley, who was arrested last month in Afghanistan. Afghan Islamic Press said Saturday that Ridley, 43, would be released this
weekend. British diplomats in Islamabad could not immediately confirm the
report. In the statement about the aid workers, the Taliban Foreign Ministry said the
United States ``should issue a statement that the (Afghan) people will be safe
and will not be the target of attack and that they can go back to their homes.''
``If they stop issuing threats, we will take steps for the release of the
eight foreigners,'' it said. The eight aid workers — four Germans, two Americans and two Australians — are
charged with trying to convert Muslims to Christianity, a serious crime in this
devout Islamic nation, especially under the strict rule of the Taliban militia.
All are employees of the German-based Christian organization Shelter Now
International. Sixteen Afghan staff of the same aid organization also were
arrested. In Islamabad, Pakistan, John Mercer, father of American aid worker Heather
Mercer, said he was encouraged by the statement. ``The issue of the detainees is now out there, and as I heard the news, they
asked that the U.S. cease any propaganda directed at bombing the Afghan people,
that they could still continue their words against the Taliban,'' Mercer said.
``I don't think the U.S. has ever indicated they were going to harm the Afghan
people. So this is very encouraging.'' The Taliban statement was the latest in a series of offers by the Islamic
militia to negotiate with the United States over U.S. demands that they hand
over Osama bin Laden, chief suspect in last month's terrorist attacks against
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. President Bush has refused those offers, saying the demand for bin Laden is
nonnegotiable. The ministry said that if the fate of the aid workers was important on
humanitarian grounds, ``so are the people of Afghanistan who have been hit by
drought, cruel sanctions and are facing winter.'' ``Because of American threats, people are being forced to flee their homes,
along with their children and women and old people,'' the statement added. ``Are
their lives not important?'' The Taliban's chief justice, Noor Mohammed Saqib, said this week that the
case against the aid workers was unrelated to the crisis with the United States.
He has refused to discuss possible punishment should they be convicted. For
Afghans, the mandatory punishment for preaching Christianity is death.
The aid workers' trial began in Kabul almost a month ago but was delayed for
nearly three weeks following the attacks in the United States. It resumed a week ago after a lawyer for the workers saw his clients for the
first time. The Taliban's Supreme Court gave him up to two weeks to prepare his
defense. Mercer, 24, and the other American — Dayna Curry, 29 — were arrested Aug. 3
in Kabul. Two days later, the Taliban's religious police came to the offices of
Shelter Now International and arrested the other six foreign employees and 16
Afghan staff members.
Associated Press Writer