Afghanistan Deports Christian Koreans*

By CHRIS HAWKE
The Associated Press
Thursday, August 3, 2006; 4:31 PM

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan ordered hundreds of South Korean
Christians to leave the country, accusing them Thursday of seeking to
undermine its Islamic culture.

The group's leader, Choi Han-woo, denied the 1,200 South Koreans, who
had gathered in Afghanistan for relief work and a cultural festival,
took part in any religious activities.

Interior Ministry spokesman Yousef Stanezai said the Koreans entered the
country with tourist visas, but their activities showed they had a
different agenda.

"The program was against the Islamic culture and customs of Afghans," he
said, adding that the South Koreans had been told to leave the country
as soon as possible.

The accusations come amid increasing intolerance and violence against
foreign troops in Afghanistan, a crackdown in the capital on drinking
and prostitution linked to foreign influences, and the recent
announcement of a plan to reinstate the Vice and Virtues Ministry, which
enforced its harsh version of Islamic morality under the ousted Taliban
government.

Representatives of the group and the ministry were negotiating Thursday
over the schedule for their deportation, said a spokesman for the group,
Sung Han Kang.

Kang said the group, a non-governmental organization called the
Institute of Asian Culture & Development, had a Christian background but
was not trying to win converts.

Rather, its members began entering the country a month ago to provide
computer and business training, medical and dental care and arrange
sports activities in five cities, he said.

A now-canceled Peace Festival at the main stadium in Kabul, intended to
mark the group's fifth year of volunteer work in Afghanistan, was to
culminate the visit on Aug. 5-7, he said.

In western Herat province, authorities put about 200 Koreans on a bus
and deported them to Uzbekistan on Wednesday, a top provincial official
said.

The Koreans had gone from house to house in groups of two or three, and
"it was rumored among the people they have plans to convert the people
to Christianity," said Faiaz Mhrain, the governor's chief of staff.

Kang confirmed the Koreans were deported from Herat but said they were
sent to Iran.