Notes on Church-State Affairs

Abstract

Taliban authorities arrested Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry, American aid workers with the German-based group Shelter Now, on 2 August for show ing a video about Jesus in an Afghan home. Two days later, the Taliban ar rested six other Westerners who worked for the group as well as sixteen Afghan staff members. There were four Germans (Georg Taubmann, Katrin Jelinek, Margrit Stebner, and Silke Durrkopf) and two Australians (Diana Thomas and Peter Bunch). The Westerners were indicted on 30 September and allowed to have a lawyer, Atif Ali Khan of Pakistan. On 31 August, the Taliban closed down two other Christian relief agencies: the International As sistance Mission (IAM), which operated eye hospitals and clinics, and Serving Emergency Relief and Vocational Enterprises (SERVE), which worked on shelter and solar energy. The IAM and SERVE workers were expelled from the country. The 11 September attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the succeeding military campaign by the United States in Afghanistan delayed a trial for the imprisoned aid workers. The military campaign then led to the occupation of Afganistan's capital city Kabul by the U.S.-backed Northern Al liance. Retreating Taliban forces took the prisoners with them in a cold metal container truck as far as Ghazni. Taliban authorities agreed to release the prisoners to the International Committee for the Red Cross, but this plan col lapsed as troops from the Northern Alliance subsequently took the jail in Ghazni. These troops took charge of the Westerners, and later U.S. helicop ters airlifted them to Pakistan. Taliban forces meanwhile continued to col