Christian aid group wants to stay in Afghanistan despite brutal killings

The ten-member medical team killed in Afghanistan last month included a German, a Briton and six Americans who brought their varied skills in health care and in regional languages to remote parts of the poverty-stricken country. Several of the volunteers had spent years in such perilous missions.

All were shot to death August 5 while making their way back to Kabul. The Tal­iban claimed responsibility, accusing the workers of spying for the government and proselytizing for their sponsor, the Inter­national Assistance Mission, a Chris­tian aid agency. Because some local officials suspect that common criminals may have carried out the attack, the U.S. embassy said the FBI was investigating the deaths in cooperation with Afghan authorities.

In a Kabul news conference on August 9, Dirk R. Frans, executive director of the IAM, denied that espionage or religious conversions were motives for the government-approved, two-week medical mission to Nuristan province. "Our faith motivates and inspires us, but we do not proselytize," Frans told reporters. "We abide by the laws of Afghanistan" that make proselytizing illegal.