Western captives feared they'd be 'human shields'

15 Nov, 2001 11:58 AM4 mins to read

By SCOTT MACLEOD and AGENCIES

"Don't worry about me, Mum."

The familiar Australian voice on the telephone was that of Diana Thomas, freed after three months as a captive of the Taleban.

"I can't believe it," said her mother, Marie, after getting the phone call.

Her daughter was one of eight aid workers imprisoned on charges of spreading Christianity - a capital offence under the Teleban - more than a month before the terrorist attacks on the United States.

But in Afghanistan's early-morning darkness yesterday, freedom came with the thunder of three United States special forces helicopters that plucked them to safety in Pakistan.

The retreating Taleban had turned them over to a group, understood to be the Red Cross, which alerted the US military.

Australians Peter Bunch and Diana Thomas, Germans Georg Taubmann, Katrin Jelinek, Margrit Stebner and Silke Duerrkopf, and Americans Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer, had spent three months in Taleban prison cells.

When the war started there were fears they could be used as human shields.

President Bush, announcing their release yesterday, said he had been worried that the captives would be deliberately put in a building targeted by American bombs.

On a radio programme following their release, Diana Thomas' brother Joseph thanked the Taleban for treating the aid workers humanely.

"Since they've been captive they've been looked after and they've been given everything they have wanted," he said. "They've fed them, there's many times they could have shot them, and I believe they've done the right thing."

"It was like a miracle," said one of the aid workers, Mr Taubmann.

He said that after the Taleban took them from Kabul they were jailed 80km southwest, at Ghazni. The area was heavily bombed, he told reporters outside the German embassy in Islamabad.

Different accounts of their rescue were given last night.

One report said Northern Alliance fighters had burst into their prison and were shocked to find western captives.

One US defence official said the workers were freed after talks between Taleban and international agencies. Other reports said the prisoners were swapped for Taleban fighters besieged in Kunduz, the militia's northern redoubt.

Both Mr Bush and Australian officials suggested the Red Cross was involved in the rescue. The President said: "Today we've got incredibly good news. I'm really proud of our armed forces."

The rescued workers are members of Shelter Now International, a German agency that helps the poor with food and homes.

At a church at Waco, Texas, to which the two Americans belong, there was delight yesterday.

"We're very excited. There's been lots of hooting and hollering around here since we heard the news," said Antioch Community Church employee Sara Selke.

John Finkelde, senior minister at Mr Bunch and Diana Thomas' church in Perth, Western Australia, said the rescue was fantastic.

"We are just thrilled and their families will be having parties by now," he told Reuters.Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer confirmed the rescue at 1.30pm yesterday from a doorstep in Canberra. He said the workers were in good health, had been well looked after, and their families had been informed. The Australians might go to Europe before coming home.

The rescue came as Northern Alliance troops strengthened their hold on Kabul and formed a de facto government.

Most residents were relieved to see the end of the Taleban's strict rule. But some were wary of the newcomers, who had also ruled with an iron fist until being deposed in 1996.

Alliance leaders yesterday moved back into ministries they abandoned five years ago when the Taleban took over. Media reported a feeling of calm in the city.

One resident showed television crews a home he had let to a man he believed was Osama bin Laden.

Footage showed squalid rooms that looked as though they were abandoned in a hurry. The landlord said he found German licence plates, and that the residents had changed plates on their car before fleeing.

Last month the rescued aid workers were tried before Chief Justice Noor Mohammad Saqib, who said the threat of American attacks would not influence the court.

"There will be no discrimination or injustice against you."

The trial was delayed by problems with the workers' lawyers getting from Pakistan to the courtroom.

But delight at yesterday's rescue was tempered by one grim fact - there was no news of 16 Afghan Muslims who worked for the agency and who were arrested at the same time as the westerners.

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