Red Cross Kiwi gets safely across border

By ALAN PERROTT

The last New Zealander known to have been in Afghanistan is now in the Pakistan border town of Peshawar or en route to Switzerland.

Margaret Bryson, from Hawkes Bay, has been running the International Red Cross' hospital programme in Afghanistan for the past nine months.

Greg Clewley, the Red Cross international programme coordinator in Wellington, said it was likely Ms Bryson was among the last aid workers to leave the wartorn country.

"The Red Cross usually has to be kicked out at the point of a gun, so I would not expect anyone else in terms of expats to still be sticking around."

He said Ms Bryson would eventually travel to Geneva for debriefing.

She has already experienced her share of danger. On September 30, 1998, the jeep she was driving in Kosovo hit a landmine.

An Albanian doctor travelling with her died and Ms Bryson and two other passengers were injured.

In 1999 she was awarded the Red Cross Florence Nightingale Medal, the organisation's highest nursing award, which is presented every two years.

A spokeswoman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade had no knowledge of any other New Zealanders working in Afghanistan.

But she said it was possible some might have joined an aid agency while overseas and not notified the New Zealand consulate in the Iranian capital, Tehran, upon arrival.

The New Zealand office of the United Nations in Wellington is also investigating whether any of our aid workers remain in Afghanistan.

All aid agencies have been kept under a close watch by the Taleban since the fundamentalist Muslim regime arrested 24 members of German-based group Shelter Now International for promoting Christianity.

The 24, including two Australians, two Americans, four Germans, and 16 Afghans, are still in Afghanistan facing trial and possible execution.

The Taleban also arrested a further 64 Afghans said to have been receiving lessons in Christianity. They have since been sent to Islamic religious schools.

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