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Taliban Approves Red Cross Visit to Detained Foreigners
KABUL, Aug 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban said Thursday the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) would be allowed to visit eight foreigners detained for allegedly preaching Christianity, news agencies reported.
"Whenever they contact us, we will be ready to allow them to visit these people," Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Mutawakel told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"The time is not fixed. Whenever they contact us they can visit them," he reiterated.
Red Cross officials here said a formal offer to visit the detainees on humanitarian grounds had already been made, but there had so far been no response to their specific request.
In Geneva Thursday, a Red Cross spokesman confirmed there had been no further contact with the Taliban on the issue.
"We are ready to visit these detainees as long as we have been officially informed by the Taliban that it's possible," said spokesman Juan Martinez. Another spokesman, Mario Musa, said the Red Cross would be ready to make the visit Friday.
Since their arrest between August 3rd and 5th, only Taliban officials have been allowed to visit the foreigners.
Diplomats from the three countries have been refused consular visits while investigations continue, but the Taliban has said the detainees are in good health and being well cared for.
The arrested are expected to face trial under the Taliban's interpretation of Islamic law, which demands that anyone found guilty of trying to convert Afghans away from Islam be punished - for foreigners, imprisonment is usually confined to a few days and then followed by expulsion; for Afghans, proselytizing is usually punishable by death.
The Taliban considers the propagation of faiths other than Islam a serious violation of the religious integrity of Afghanistan.
Parents of the two detained Americans have traveled to Pakistan, appealing to the Taliban to be granted visas to visit their children.
The Americans, identified as Dana Curry and Heather Mercer, were among 24 aid workers and staff members of the German-based Shelter Now group arrested early this month.
The other detainees include 16 Afghans, four Germans and two Australians. All Shelter Now offices in Afghanistan have since been closed.
In Kabul, Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef said the Americans' parents would receive visas but there would be unspecified "limitations".
"I talked in this regard with my authorities this morning. God willing, there will be no problem in this regard and visas will be issued, but there will be some limitations," Zaeef said, without elaborating.
Zaeef said Pakistan-based diplomats representing the foreigners would be allowed to return to Kabul, but reiterated that consular visits were forbidden while investigations were underway.
"If they want to come for negotiation, then we will contact the authorities and I think there would be no problem, but if they want to see the detainees then they should wait," he said.
A BBC online report said that it is not yet known whether Red Cross workers will also be allowed to visit the Afghan detainees.
Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a new report that warring factions in strife-torn Afghanistan should be offered incentives to join peace negotiations, rather than slapping the country with sanctions, which many in the U.N. Security Council feel have failed to alleviate the hardships of the civilian population, BBC said.
In an effort to find more constructive ways of ending Afghanistan's conflict, Annan included a suggestion that large-scale aid should be provided for post-war reconstruction, BBC reported.
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