KABUL (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Western diplomats hope to meet Taliban officials on Tuesday to arrange a second visit to eight foreign aid workers held in Afghanistan on charges of promoting Christianity.(Read photo caption below)The three diplomats were allowed to spend about two hours on Monday with the six women and two men arrested by the ruling Taliban's religious police. Their assessment was the first public report on the condition of the detainees.
``They looked well and they said they were well treated,'' U.S. diplomat David Donahue told reporters after the meeting.
The diplomats -- who had been refused access during a frustrating week spent in Kabul earlier -- and two parents of American detainees met the four Germans, two Americans and two Australians in the detention center where they are being held.
German diplomat Helmut Landes expressed pleasure that the Taliban had finally allowed access. The diplomats said they hoped to see the Taliban officials on Tuesday and arrange another visit.
The two parents -- the father of one American and the mother of another -- did not talk to reporters, but a diplomat said they had had ``a warm and close meeting.''
Australian diplomat Alistair Adams said the detainees -- eight foreign members of the Christian aid group Shelter Now International -- ``have confirmed that they have been well treated and they have been able to get dietary supplements.''
The diplomats and the relatives had come from Pakistan on a special U.N. flight after the Taliban issued visas and gave assurances they would have access to the aid workers.
On Sunday, after announcing that their investigation into proselytism was almost complete, Afghan authorities had let the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) meet the detainees.
Until then, they had only seen Taliban officials since being arrested on August 5.
The diplomats had returned to Pakistan from Kabul last Tuesday after a futile week-long effort to see the workers
The Taliban say their supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, will decide on a punishment for the foreigners and to 16 local staff who were also arrested. Under the Taliban's interpretation of Islam, it could include death sentences.The ICRC has so far been unable to see the 16 Afghan staff.
The Taliban say they recovered Bibles, tapes and CDs about Christianity in the local Dari and Pashto languages that were being used to convert Muslims.
They also say they have widened the investigation to include links with other groups including the U.N. World Food Program.
The arrests followed months of worsening ties between the Taliban and the numerous foreign aid groups helping impoverished Afghans cope with more than two decades of war, and now a devastating drought.
PHOTO CAPTION:
American diplomat David Donahue(L) listens to an official of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban government after arriving in Kabul, August 27, 2001. Donahue, along with his German and Australian counterparts and the parents of two detained Americans, hope to see their eight nationals held by the Taliban on charges of preaching Christianity to Afghan Muslims. (Sayed Salahuddin/Reuters)