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Red Cross Visits Detained Christian Missionaries in Afghanistan
KABUL, Aug 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Sunday visited Christian missionaries detained for converting Muslim Afghans to Christianity in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, Western news agencies reported.
The visit was the first contact that the two Americans, two Australians and four Germans have had with the outside world since they were detained three weeks ago.
ICRC chief in Afghanistan, Robert Monin, said five medical staff visited the prisoners at a detention center for juveniles in Kabul, Agence-France Presse (AFP) reported.
He said the two men were being held in one room and the six women in another, but he refused to discuss their state of health.
"They were happy to see us," he said after the private meeting that lasted several hours and was not supervised by Taliban guards.
"We had the facilities to carry out our work, which was positive," Monin added.
He said the condition of the prisoners was confidential under an agreement between the Taliban and the ICRC, which normally treats people who are wounded in the civil war in Kabul.
Taliban officials have repeatedly offered assurances that the foreigners are in good health.
The men, Australian Peter Bunch and German George Taubmann, were initially held following their arrest between August 3 and 5 in a police jail in another part of the Afghan capital.
"They were absolutely elated to see us because this was their first contact with the outside world," said ICRC spokeswoman, Antonella Notari, in Geneva.
"We passed on messages from their families," she said, adding that they would be able to reply through return "Red Cross messages".
Sixteen Afghanis, colleagues of the expatriates at German-based relief group Shelter Now, are also in custody.
Afghanis found guilty of converting Muslims to another religion face the death penalty under Taliban law, but the punishment for foreigners is likely to be expulsion, Western news agencies say.
Permission for Sunday's visit was formally granted Saturday when Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Mutawakel contacted an ICRC team in the southern city of Kandahar, the militia's headquarters.
Embassy sources in neighboring Pakistan said relatives and diplomats were expected to visit the prisoners Monday or Tuesday after the Taliban promised to give them visas.
Taliban's official Bakhtar news agency reported Saturday that relatives and diplomats would be given access as the first phase of investigations had been completed.
"We are hopeful. We believe that this is a good sign that they have agreed to issue visas. But based on past experience, we just have to wait and see," a foreign ministry spokesman in Australia said Sunday.
The Australian, German and U.S. diplomats who left Kabul empty-handed last Tuesday after spending a week in fruitless talks with the Taliban have urged the Afghani group to allow Red Cross visits.
But, they have also insisted that the ICRC is no substitute for consular access and have criticized the Taliban for ignoring international conventions regarding diplomatic contact with detained foreigners.
The mother of one of the detained American women and the father of another visited the Taliban embassy in Pakistan Wednesday and sought clearance to travel to Afghanistan.
Shelter Now's offices along with its food and housing projects have been closed, while other non-governmental organizations and the United Nations have been warned they are under close scrutiny.
The Taliban has said police are trying to determine whether the Shelter Now staff was acting alone or whether they were part of a larger conspiracy to undermine Islam.
The U.N. has imposed tough sanctions on the Taliban for its alleged support of so-called "terrorism" and its refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden, who is wanted in Washington for allegedly masterminding the bombings of two American embassies in 1998.
The Taliban seized Kabul in 1996, and currently control about 95% of the country.
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