Taliban Contacts Marin Nonprofit: Report

SAN RAFAEL, CA — A Marin nonprofit working frantically to evacuate staffers based in Afghanistan has been contacted by the Taliban, ABC 7 reports.

San Rafael-based Roots of Peace has some 360 employees trapped in the war-torn country.

Heidi Kuhn, the group’s founder and CEO, runs Roots of Peace with her husband Gary, who told the television station that the group has received a request from the Taliban seeking personal information about the Afghanistan-based staffers it is trying to evacuate.

"We had some of the Taliban security asking for the names of all our staff, their home addresses and their phone numbers," he said.

It is not clear whether any Taliban promises to bring the employees to safety would be regarded as credible, or whether Roots of Peace intends to comply with the request.

The Pakistani Taliban have been designated by the state department as a terrorist organization but the same designation has not been applied to the Taliban in Afghanistan, the fundamentalist group that seized control of the country after the U.S.-backed government’s sudden collapse culminating a 20-year war that began in the aftermath of 9/11.

“Sadly, I have not been able to get ONE Afghan staff member or their families out of Afghanistan in over a week—360 loyal Afghans to whom the US. has a ‘sacred obligation’ to get them safely through the airport gate,” Heidi Kuhn wrote on her Facebook page Sunday.

“As CEO, Roots of Peace, I will do all I can to save my respected Afghan staff. Please pray for them.”

Roots of Peace, a group that supports vulnerable farmers worldwide, has been on the ground in Afghanistan since 2003.

The group's "Mines to Vines" program has worked to replace fields of land mines with orchards.

The program was funded by Diane Disney Miller, the daughter of Walt Disney and Silverado Vineyards owner who died in 2013 at 89.

Kuhn has received emails from employees in Afghanistan describing atrocities on the ground who say they fear for their lives amid threats of beheadings.

"Working for a woman CEO funding by the United States government is a double-risk," Kuhn told ABC 7 in a previous broadcast.

She described reports of girls as young as 14 being raped.

"According to the woman doctor I spoke to yesterday in Kabul, not only are women being raped, but they're being branded with hot iron after being raped," Kuhn told the television station.

"These are young girls -- 14, 15, 16 -- branded."

In her letter to President Biden, Kuhn offered to fly to Kabul herself should a military plane be available "to save the lives of my 360 employees and get the safely out of Afghanistan with your kind assistance."

The letter describes her group surviving a 2014 terror attack at the hands of the Taliban.

"If, for lack of taking decisive action, Afghan citizens who have given so much and taken significant risks in carrying out our U.S. government development programs are abandoned by our country, this would leave an indelible stain on our national honor," Kuhn wrote.

Kuhn is asking for donations that will be used to purchase tents, blankets and food that her staff will try to distribute according to the report.

To contribute to Roots of Peace visit here