http://www.boston.com/dailynews/317/world/Christian_aid_workers_taken_so:.shtml

Christian aid workers taken south by departing Taliban

By Kathy Gannon, Associated Press, 11/13/2001 07:32

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) The squalid prison compound that housed eight foreign aid workers, including two American women, was dingy and dank with muddy gray walls. The bathroom was a hole in the ground hidden by tattered pieces of burlap.

They had been detained in the Afghan capital since Aug. 3, charged with preaching Christianity, but after the Sept. 11 attack in the United States they were taken from a home for wayward children to the prison.

Sometime after 6:30 p.m. Monday, their Taliban captors hustled them into a dark blue pickup truck and headed south. They didn't have time to pack for a departure that appeared rushed and probably surprised the aid workers who may have expected to be freed.

''They were very happy, because they thought they would be released,'' said Abdul Raouf, one of the guards at the detention center. Another guard had earlier said they left at midnight.

Columns of Taliban troops headed south from Kabul throughout the night after the opposition northern alliance broke through their defenses and rushed to the edge of the city.

''This is a real mess,'' said John Mercer, the father of the youngest detained aid worker, Heather Mercer, 24. Contacted by satellite telephone in neighboring Pakistan, Mercer said he was trying to get information from the Taliban Embassy about his daughter.

At the detention center, it was apparent the aid workers had left quickly.

Suitcases were sitting on steel bunk beds in a concrete block room that housed the six women the Americans, Mercer and Dayna Curry; three Germans, Margrit Stebnar, Kati Jelinek and Silke Duerrkopf; and Australian Diana Thomas.

Two socks had been left to dry on a hanger dangling from a top bunk.

There were only four beds in the room. Cushions were placed on the floor against the wall. The blankets were worn and tattered. One pink quilt had patches sewn on it.

A water pump stood in the center of a sandy courtyard and a black sweater was hanging on a clothesline, still damp. There were several plastic pots where the women might have washed their clothes.

The two men German George Taubmann and Australian Peter Bunch had a separate room.

In a steel cabinet in the bedroom where the women slept there was shampoo, some apples, face cream, a small bag of medicine, hand soap and a hair brush. Nearby were language texts entitled, ''Learning to speak Afghan Pashtu.''

Their guards said they were sad to see the aid workers taken away.

''We liked them. They were good people. I think they will be OK because the Taliban had treated them very good,'' said Rauf.

Baba Hafeez, an old man who looked to be about 70 years old, came to the detention center on his bicycle and quickly identified himself as the cook.

''They got very good food and they were very healthy and very happy,'' he said. ''They always treated me very nicely and would give me money.''

On the windowsill was a piece of paper, with Heather Mercer's name on it.

''What a friend I've found. We serve a God of miracles. I cry out. God is good all the time. My hope is in you Lord faithful one, so unchanging,'' it read.

Heather's father, her mother, Deborah Oddy, and Curry's mother, Nancy Cassell, have been waiting in neighboring Pakistan for word of their daughters.

Cassell said she hoped her daughter had left behind personal items in the Kabul detention center such as letters, and copies of songs that the aid workers wrote together.

Cassell said that before they left Kabul, she had been preparing to send a box of winter clothing, including coats, shoes and gloves.

''I guess it's going to be a little warmer'' if the aid workers are taken to Kandahar, said Cassell, of Thompson's Station, Tenn. ''Maybe they won't need those things.''

Mercer, Oddy and Cassell were in Kabul before the Sept. 11 assault in the United States and were evacuated within two days because the U.S. government feared for their safety. They said they were brokenhearted to have left.

They have not heard from their children since late October when their Pakistani lawyer, Atif Ali Khan, was last in the capital of Kabul.

A package was delivered to the aid workers from their family less than two weeks ago. But the Taliban had refused to allow anyone to see them.

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2001