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Taliban Shuns Diplomats Over Detained Foreigners
KABUL, Aug 15 (News Agencies) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia has shunned three Western diplomats trying to gain access to eight aid workers detained for allegedly preaching Christianity, officials said Wednesday.
The U.S., Australian and German envoys might leave the Afghan capital as early as Thursday having made no progress with the Taliban government over requests to visit the prisoners, sources said.
Afghan Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Mutawakel left Kabul Wednesday without seeing the Pakistan-based diplomats, who have met only low-ranking foreign ministry officials since their arrival here Tuesday.
"We have clearly told them they wouldn't have access to the detainees until the investigation is over," Mutawakel told Agence France-Press (AFP) late Tuesday.
"We are waiting patiently for a response to our request for consular access," Australian diplomat Alastar Adams told reporters late Wednesday.
"They [the Taliban] did make it clear before we came here that we would not be given the consular access until they completed the investigation and at this stage we have made the request to them on humanitarian grounds," he said.
He said the protocol officer Tuesday promised to pass the request to the Taliban authorities. "We have to give them time to talk with responsible authorities in the Taliban organization before they give us the approval."
Adams said the diplomats were "quite prepared to talk" to officials from the Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, known as the religious police.
"We need to know and we need to be sure what the allegations are and what penalties they carry," he said.
The Taliban has ignored international conventions on consular access, saying the two Americans, two Australians and four Germans will have no contact with the outside world until investigations are over.
The foreigners, arrested here between August 3rd and 5th, are being held in two detention centers in Kabul under tight guard, along with 16 Afghan colleagues from a German-based aid group.
Taliban officials have not explained what charges will be laid against them or what punishment they might face, although the religious police have refused to rule out the death penalty.
Taliban ministers discussed the diplomats' request at a regular weekly meeting Wednesday but so far there had been no change of heart, officials said.
A foreign ministry official said the secretive militia was considering allowing a journalist from the state-run news agency to interview the detainees and play the recording to the diplomats.
Meanwhile, the diplomats were staying in a United Nations guesthouse, having refused the Taliban's offer of accommodation.
"We want access [to the detainees] now and immediately," U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said Tuesday, after the diplomats' first day in Kabul proved fruitless.
While the Taliban continue to give assurances that the detainees are in good health, "these assurances are not the equivalent of full consular access," Reeker said.
U.S. consul official David Donahue "will remain in Kabul, and we're going to continue to press the Taliban for access to the detainees, who continue to be our main concern," he said.
"We want to be able to meet with them to ensure they're not being mistreated, and indeed that they're being treated fairly," Reeker added.
The United States has warned the Taliban, which it accuses of supporting "terrorism" and drug trafficking, that it would be held responsible for the well being of the detainees.
The three countries do not maintain embassies in Afghanistan because they do not recognize the Islamic militia, which seized Kabul in 1996.
Afghans found preaching Christianity, regarded as an "abolished religion" in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, face the death penalty, although for foreigners punishment may be limited to a few days in prison followed by expulsion.
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