Freed eight haunted by jail sounds of torture

Chritian aid workers rescued from Afghanistan said yesterday they were still haunted by the sound of political prisoners being tortured and beaten by the Taliban.

Heather Mercer, a 24-year-old American, said: "That was probably the hardest thing about our whole time in jail.

"We saw some pretty atrocious things happening to the prisoners. Women were being beaten until they bled. Women were being arrested because they ran away from their husbands."

The eight workers - two Americans, two Australians and four Germans - were left behind by the Taliban as the militia's forces deserted the Afghan city of Ghazni on Tuesday under heavy attack from the Northern Alliance and US special forces.

They said political prisoners, including some of the 16 male Afghan staff members of the German-based charity Shelter Now International, were beaten and tortured.

In contrast, the foreigners were treated with respect by their Taliban jailers throughout their three-month imprisonment awaiting trial on charges of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

Dayna Curry, 30, the other American, recalled that some of the Taliban guards offered to lay down their lives to prote[c]t the foreigners. "What touched me most is that they told us we were their sisters," she said.

At a press conference in Islamabad, one of the eight said 80 per cent of the charges against them were nonsense. However, they admitted reading a story book to an Afghan child and giving the child the book.
[...]

Miss Mercer, an American, said: "I don't blame the Taliban. They were only doing what they had to do." Under the fanatical Islamic militia's law, proselytising could be punished by death.
[...more...] [Need the full story? Read this]