KABUL (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban said Monday that eight foreign aid workers held on charges of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity would have to face trial.(Read photo caption below)The Taliban ruled out any pardon for the four German, two Australian and two American aid workers, and said diplomats from their countries granted visas to go to Afghanistan would have no immediate access to the detainees.
Sixteen Afghans also being held on the same charges would not be pardoned either.
``The diplomats...can collect their visas today. However, they can only meet the authorities of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, but not the detainees,'' Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Mohammad Zaeef, told a news conference in Islamabad.
A U.N. envoy said the ruling Taliban risked an international outcry over the case and the foreign diplomats, due to fly from Islamabad to Kabul Tuesday, said they would continue pushing to meet their nationals detained with the Afghans more than a week ago.
``They will not grant us access to the detainees...but we have decided to go to Kabul to press on with getting access to them,'' a German diplomat told Reuters. All 24 detainees worked for the German-based relief group Shelter Now International.
Francesc Vendrell, U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan, who met Taliban leaders in Afghanistan over the weekend, warned of an international outcry if the case was not quickly resolved.
DIPLOMATIC FLURRY
The latest moves prompted a flurry of diplomatic activity in Islamabad, where heads of mission from the three countries were briefed by Vendrell.
A meeting in Islamabad of officials from a 15-nation group of Afghanistan's main donors, including the European Union, Japan, the United States and Switzerland, said it was concerned.
It added that the safety of aid workers and the need for clear information about the situation of nationals from donor countries was a vital prerequisite for humanitarian work.
PHOTO CAPTION:
A cameraman takes footage of religious materials the ruling Afghan Taliban seized from the Shelter Now International group in Kabul, August 13, 2001. Most of the documents, including audio and video tapes and bibles, were in local languages which the Taliban say were used by SNI to try to convert Muslim Afghans to Christianity. (Sayed Salahuddin/Reuters)