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CNN Live At Daybreak
International Aid Workers
Aired November 15, 2001 - 05:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Now we're going to take you to Islamabad, Pakistan and speak with Tom Mintier about the story of the eight Western aid workers who were recently rescued by U.S. special forces and get the latest details on that -- Tom.
TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Catherine, these eight international aid workers had been held since the first week of August by the Taliban. They were held in five different prisons, according to the detainees who were released. Now this release has been in the works since Tuesday afternoon, about the time that Alliance -- Northern Alliance forces moved into Kabul and the Taliban moved out.
One of the German detainees told us that the Taliban simply -- his guard -- simply went away and they were basically kept in a prison cell and were freed by Northern Alliance troops when they came in.
Now, apparently one of the military commanders then found them and made contact with the International Committee for the Red Cross. The International Committee for the Red Cross did not negotiate their release, simply acted as a conduit and informed the U.S., Australian and German governments that they were ready to be picked up.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These were turned over by the local military commander in that area essentially to the three governments. They were not turned over to us at any point. We were essentially facilitating communications between the two parties, carrying messages back and forth, if you will.
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MINTIER: After these messages were ferried back and forth, the U.S. government put the military on alert and U.S. special forces brought helicopters into Afghanistan to provide the transportation for the eight international aid workers to come to Pakistan.
They were flown directly here to Islamabad, where they were met by embassy officials and Pakistani government officials at the airport and are now in the embassies -- the U.S. Embassy, the two detainees are at the U.S. Embassy. The two Australians are at the high commissioner's location and the four Germans are in the German Embassy. We will be hearing in the next 24 hours from the two U.S. detainees. The U.S. Embassy has told us there will be a press conference where they will talk.
But what we're also hearing is people in the United States -- friends, relatives, family members basically celebrating that these people have finally been released and are in a free place.
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DEBORAH ODDY, MOTHER OF FREED AID WORKER: It's almost the worst three months of our life, absolutely. Heather's sister passed away a year ago, so that was probably the ultimate low. But this does have a happy ending.
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DANIEL CURRY, BROTHER OF DAYNA CURRY: I'm so happy she's coming home. I've just been waiting and waiting and I really thought it's a possibility she might not be coming home and then this morning we began hearing rumors that she was coming home and I got really happy. And then we heard she wasn't and then I just got really down. And then she's coming home and I don't know, it's amazing.
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MINTIER: Those emotions are pretty easy to understand. It has been a definite roller coaster of emotions for all of those involved in this over the past couple of months, hearing that they might have been released the day before the U.S. began their bombing campaign, the Taliban offering to release them in exchange for a lowering of the tone of the rhetoric, something the U.S. said was not negotiable. They said that they must release the eight international aid workers in addition to turning over Osama bin Laden and the members of his al Qaeda network.
But as it stands right now, all eight have been freed. They have been making telephone calls at the embassies back to their friends and relatives back home and probably in the next few days will make another journey, this one a little easier -- Catherine.
CALLAWAY: What an emotional journey these aid workers and their families have been through.
Tom, earlier we heard from one of the German aid workers who said when they were released from the jail that people were coming out of their homes in the streets and cheering for them.
MINTIER: They said they simply walked out of the cells after the Northern Alliance troops opened the doors, walked out into the streets and said most of the people living in that area had no idea there was even a Taliban prison there, the place that they were being held. They said they applauded and cheered them on the street. This was before one of the local military commanders rounded them up and then made the communications to the Red Cross so that they could be brought out.
But the last few hours, the last maybe 12 or 18 hours must have been very terrifying for these eight, not knowing what the Taliban was going to do. Heather Mercer's father was told by a Taliban representative here in Islamabad that they were put in the back of a pickup truck and were being driven to Kandahar, being taken with the Taliban as they were retreating. That proved not to be the case. What we hear from the Germans, that they simply, the guards left them in their cells and ran away.
CALLAWAY: What stories they have to tell. We hope to hear them all.
Tom Mintier in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Thanks, Tom.
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