PHOTO – REUTERS

BERLIN, ISLAMABAD – Eight Western aid workers taken by the Taliban to their stronghold of Kandahar may have been released, according to a report. Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper said the German government had received reports from foreign intelligence agencies that the members of the German-based Christian charity Shelter Now International were returning to Kabul. The two Americans, two Australians and four Germans have been awaiting trial after being detained by the hardline Islamic Taliban for allegedly spreading Christianity. The newspaper said that the German government had so far been unable to verify the reports and was trying to contact the aid workers. Forces of the opposition Northern Alliance took control of Kabul last Tuesday after the Taliban withdrew.

Diplomats scramble to establish Afghan government

After years of a futile search for peace in Afghanistan, diplomats scrambled last Wednesday to find a way to quickly establish a new government and catch up with the rapid military developments. James Dobbins, the U.S. envoy to the Northern Alliance which drove the Taliban from Kabul this week, was in Islamabad on Wednesday evening after talks in Rome with the exiled king, Zahir Shah, who the United Nations has seen as a potential figurehead leader to oversee a transitional government. Iranian Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari also was meeting Pakistani officials about the future of Afghanistan – a subject they had previously disagreed on because they backed opposite sides in the war.

Pakistan had supported the Taliban until the September 11 attacks on the United States caused a reversal of policy, while Iran had backed the Northern Alliance that fought the Taliban since they began their rise to power in 1994. The diplomatic activity in Islamabad follows acknowledgement by the United Nations on Tuesday that the Taliban regime was collapsing much faster than anticipated and urgent action was needed to form an interim administration. Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. special envoy for Afghanistan who resigned two years ago, said in New York that Afghan factions should be brought together in a single meeting with U.N. officials as soon as possible.

Brahimi called for a provisional council around which all ethnic, religious and regional groups could rally. The council would set out terms for a transitional administration and a transitional period lasting no more than two years.

A traditional grand assembly of tribal elders, known as a Loya Jirga, would be convened at the same time to approve the transitional administration and its programme and authorise it to draft a constitution.

Reuters