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CNN Live At Daybreak

Aid Workers Doing Well And Still Want to Help Afghans

Aired November 16, 2001 - 05:01   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: Eight international aid workers freed from Taliban captivity a day ago are now giving more details of their three month ordeal in Afghanistan. The two Americans, two Australians and four Germans were picked up by U.S. special forces helicopters and then flown to Pakistan.

And CNN's Tom Mintier is live in Islamabad with an update on that -- hello, Tom.

TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Catherine. Good morning.

It was described by one of the American aid workers as the most terror time filled of her three and a half months there and at the same time the most gratifying, both of them saying that they would, indeed, like to continue to help Afghan people. They would like, one said, more than the other to return to Afghanistan. Heather Mercer saying that she would like to help from the outside if possible. Maybe it's a bit too early for thoughts about going back inside Afghanistan.

Their rescue was a rather dramatic series of events. As Kabul was falling and the Northern Alliance forces came in, they opened the prison doors where they were being held. They were able to walk outside and arrangements were made for their pickup. That was done by U.S. special forces. Special operations helicopters went into Afghanistan, picked them up, brought them to Pakistan, where they've been for about a day and a half now.

So this was their second day and taste of freedom. They gathered at the American Center. The American Embassy put together a press conference today where we could hear from the girls and hear their firsthand, their experiences of their last minutes of captivity by the Taliban and being freed by the Northern Alliance and then brought by U.S. helicopter to Pakistan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANYA CURRY, AMERICAN AID WORKER: There was tanks coming out with us. All these people were fleeing. The Taliban were fleeing out of the city. And we asked where are you taking us? What are you doing with us? And they said that they were taking us and we needed to write a letter to our families and ask for money and that's the only way we were going to get out is if we paid for it. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MINTIER: And Heather Mercer was talking about -- I talked to Heather Mercer's father during that time and he was fully thinking that his daughter was on the way to Kandahar, being taken there by the Taliban. But as we heard from Heather Mercer at the press conference, the last few hours where they basically changed hands, they could look out the window and see the Taliban fleeing the city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERCER: We heard all kinds of commotion outside in the city, guns firing, rocket launchers going off, bombing in the city. And all of a sudden we looked out the window and we saw all the Taliban just running madly through the city, fleeing. At the time we didn't know they were fleeing, but we had assumed that the opposition forces had come in and they were now battling in the city. But it happened after about 15 minutes of seeing men running from the city, it became really peaceful and it was completely quiet for maybe 30 minutes and then all of a sudden we heard down at the front prison door just men and soldiers, or men coming back, banging down the prison door.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MINTIER: Danya Curry and Heather Mercer spent the first night at the American ambassador's house here in Islamabad. They talked about getting their hair cut and finding makeup, talking to friends and family, and a 10-minute phone call with U.S. President George W. Bush from the German embassy.

Now joining me is Georg Taubmann. He is one of the German detainees. You were the director of Shelter Now International in Kabul.

GEORG TAUBMANN, GERMAN AID WORKER: Yes.

MINTIER: You've been out for two days now. It's a bit of decompression after being held by the Taliban.

TAUBMANN: Yes.

MINTIER: The door swinging open.

TAUBMANN: Yes.

MINTIER: How do you reflect back on something like that that's happened, you know, you were sitting for so long and then all of a sudden it's like a fast forward movie?

TAUBMANN: Well, since we have come back here to Pakistan and freedom, there's so many things have happened that I haven't even really had time much to reflect on all the things that happened here. We're just very excited to be out here. We still almost can't believe it. It's almost like a dream for us.

A couple nights ago we still spent a night in a steel container where they had put us in on the way to that...

MINTIER: Did you think the Taliban was going to kill you?

TAUBMANN: Well, now at one point when we were taken to that city that is between Kabul and Kandahar, we were put into another prison. This was, by the way, our fifth prison they put us in. It was a terrible place. And then that was actually the day when this city was taken over by the opposition forces.

MINTIER: They're the ones who came and opened the doors of the prison?

TAUBMANN: Yes. And but when we heard the fighting also and we saw a crowd of people rushing towards the prison, we were thinking now there are probably some mob coming, they must have found out that there are foreigners here, and we knew that a lot of Taliban at that time had retreated from Kabul. They were very angry and upset and we thought well, they are probably coming now to kill us. Each one of us were really convinced about that.

MINTIER: Georg, something I've wondered for a long time, you knew that the American bombing campaign was going to start. You're sitting in one of the target zones.

TAUBMANN: Yes.

MINTIER: What thoughts went through your mind on the first night when you heard the first air strikes and the first bombs fall?

TAUBMANN: Well, one thing I can tell you, we trusted, actually, we knew that the Americans knew where we were and they were very accurate in their hits. And it was amazing, even though we saw a lot of bombings just around us and we heard a lot of noise and we had to get adjusted to that, because we were sitting in our little two by three meters tiny cell, and up in the first floor we were locked in. The steel gates were closed.

But we never even, one window was broken and even though we heard it, there's a lot of things going on. Sometimes the building was shaking. But we really trusted that they would not come near enough.

MINTIER: Were the people guarding you kind to you? I understand that it was like, you know, the first couple of days you were interrogated for 22, 23 hours. But would you call your captives kind to you? Were they brutal to you?

TAUBMANN: Well, there were different types of people and initially we were with one group which was particularly, that's the group that arrested us called the Wives of Virtue (ph). It was those people that arrested people because their beards were not long enough, and so on. And they were not particularly kind to us.

But we had during this time while we were in other prisons we had people that were kind to us that felt very sorry for us, especially for our ladies. They even called them their sisters. MINTIER: I asked them, the girls, how do you feel, how have your changings -- how have your feelings changed about the Taliban? You were in there working for an NGO. You were taken captive by them, arrested, put on trial, put in prison.

TAUBMANN: Yes.

MINTIER: Now you have been freed by the Northern Alliance. What are your feelings towards the Taliban personally?

TAUBMANN: Well, it's probably with every movement you -- we had people in the Taliban movement that were friends of ours who were very nice and kind to us. And then, of course, we had these experiences as like, as I, as we have gone through, which was very, very difficult for us. I even found out today, I just found out today that even on the first day when they arrested us, they took away all our equipment from all our projects all over Afghanistan. I just found out today. I'm still quite shocked about this. We hadn't even been tried and they took everything away.

MINTIER: There were 16 Afghans also arrested at the same time as you.

TAUBMANN: Yes.

MINTIER: You have found out that they have been freed by the Northern Alliance.

TAUBMANN: Yes, I have. Yes, I found out that the prison has been opened and these people have been released. We are very, very thankful for that. We felt very sad. One person was just for two days, since two days he worked with our organization. But anyone they could just capture, they would just -- if they could get a hold of they captured and put into prison.

MINTIER: The two American girls talked about a desire to continue to help the Afghan people.

TAUBMANN: Yes.

MINTIER: The need hasn't changed any.

TAUBMANN: Yes.

MINTIER: The military control of the city of Kabul has changed.

TAUBMANN: Yes.

MINTIER: The humanitarian assistance still can't get in because of the fighting in the southern part of the country.

TAUBMANN: Yes.

MINTIER: The need is still there. Do you still feel the desire to go back? TAUBMANN: Yes. I, it sounds strange, but I have even a greater desire to go back again. Of course, now the situation has changed. There is a different government. We hope that things stabilize and we can go back again. I said in the 17 years since I worked with Afghans, I have seen their lives, I have seen the suffering and what I have seen in those five different prisons where we were, I have seen one part of the life of Afghan people that I have never seen before.

And believe me, there's hardly one Afghan family that has not one member that has been imprisoned during all this last 20 years that have gone through the same suffering, even worse, that we have gone through.

When I saw this and I saw the people, what they had to endure, not only in this regime, but in the others, also, I find...

MINTIER: That's the problem, suffering has a long history in Afghanistan.

TAUBMANN: Yes. Yes.

MINTIER: Whether it's the Taliban in charge or the Northern Alliance in charge. What's the future hold?

TAUBMANN: I really, we hope, we pray for Afghanistan, that the situation was really calm, that they would be able to get a government that would represent all the different ethnic groups and that would really represent the Afghan people and that really finally peace would return to Afghanistan. So that the Afghans can return again to their country and that finally this troubled nation will see peace in their country and that we can rebuild this country that is so badly destroyed.

MINTIER: All right, Georg Taubmann, thank you very much.

TAUBMANN: Thank you.

MINTIER: Again, the detainees are planning to stay in Islamabad until week's end and then will go somewhere for a retreat for a couple of weeks and then back for a time with their families -- Catherine, back to you.

CALLAWAY: Amazing stories they have to tell.

Thank you, Tom Mintier, in Islamabad.

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