Taliban... terror tactics

After the Bamiyan Buddhas, it is the turn of eight international workers to face the Taliban's ire. B. Muralidhar Reddy reports.

AFTER THE Bamiyan Buddhas, it is now the turn of eight international aid workers to face the Taliban's ire. Its religious police, which monitors any ``anti-Islamic'' activity in the country, under the Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue, recently nabbed eight foreign aid workers and 16 Afghans working for a charity, Shelter Now International (SNI), on charges of spreading Christianity in Afghanistan.

The Taliban accuses the SNI workers, including four Germans, two Australians and two Americans, of trying to convert the street children they were working with from Islam to Christianity. Under the Sharia that the Taliban follows in its strictest form, the penalty is death for both the convert and the instigator. However, a latest decree that includes a ban on trying to convert Afghans also reportedly says foreigners will not face death for missionary activity.

Earlier, the Taliban had also arrested 65 children with whom the charity worked, but later released them and arrested their fathers instead for allowing the young ones to be influenced by the foreigners.

The Taliban says it has recovered thousands of Christian video and audio tapes, besides Bibles translated into local languages, from the 24 aid workers and that investigations were still on. Mr. Joachin Jaeger, spokesman for the German-based aid organisation, says SNI is not a Christian organisation and that it is not its goal to proselytise. SNI describes itself as a non- governmental organisation involved in food distribution, water supply and in helping street children learn crafts such as making paper flowers.

On the other hand, Mr. Mohammad Salim Haqqani, Taliban's Deputy Minister for Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue, says ``the probing is becoming interesting and all these new findings are indicative of the fact once again that they were deviating Afghans. Why would SNI need to print Bibles and have all these videos and audiotapes in local languages? They (foreign staff) cannot say they were kept for their own use as they can only speak English and other foreign languages''.

The BBC's Ms. Kate Clark, who was expelled by the Taliban for `biased reporting' and now functions from Peshawar in Pakistan, says no one has yet seen the evidence. The Taliban displayed the so-called seized items last Tuesday and these could be used to re-inforce its case against the group.

While the arrested Afghans face execution if proven guilty, the eight foreigners may be deported after a short while, upto a month, in jail. German, Australian and U.S. diplomats have since flown to Kabul in the hope of meeting the detenus. However, their visas expire on August 21 and they have been asked to return to Pakistan and wait there.

The Taliban's chief, Mullah Mohammad Omar, had decreed in January that anyone convicted of trying to persuade an Afghan Muslim to convert would face death. Though there are reports of leniency towards foreigners, the Taliban's known style of cocking a snook at international pressure and its ever-hardening attitude towards minorities in Afghanistan offer little hope.

The international community is simply not prepared to take any chances particularly after the Bamiyan episode - the militia ignored passionate pleas from all over the world, including from its closest ally, Pakistan, and destroyed the Buddha statues. This was followed by a decree that Hindus should wear yellow badges! Later it was explained away as a step for their safety.

The arrest of the foreign aid workers on charges of spreading Christianity is not an isolated incident. The United Nations and other international aid agencies operating in Afghanistan have been engaged in a tug of war with the Taliban's moral police for months. Exasperated by repeated arrests and humiliation of local and international aid workers by foreign Islamic militants allied to the Taliban, the U.N. a few weeks ago threatened to pull out of Afghanistan if the Taliban was not prepared to discipline its ranks.

What could be the motives behind the Taliban's latest move? Is it a case of religious bigotry or is there a larger design? The arrest of the foreign workers came soon after two significant developments - the latest resolution of the U.N. Security Council setting up a mechanism to monitor the implementation of the January sanctions against the Taliban, and the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Ms. Christina Rocca's meeting in Islamabad with the Taliban Ambassador in Pakistan, Mullah Zaeef. She had pressed him to pay heed to the international concerns on Osama Bin Laden and the export of jehad.

The reaction is typical of the Taliban. It matters little to the militia that in the process it is cutting off sources of aid for the millions in Afghanistan on the verge of starvation. But the international community should also ponder whether the policy of isolation has actually helped in dealing with the situation created by the militia.

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