Church reaction: On Saturday afternoon, the Department of Justice rejected the Church of Ireland's role as negotiators with the Afghan hunger strikers in Saint Patrick's Cathedral and it became a matter solely for the gardaí.
In a joint statement by the Archbishop of Dublin, the Archbishop of Armagh and the Dean of Saint Patrick's, the Church of Ireland announced that it had withdrawn from all negotiations with the Afghans.
"Following a night of intense discussions where our church personnel attempted to broker a resolution between the asylum seekers and the authorities, we regret to say that these talks reached an impasse again. We had arrived at a set of proposals which were acceptable to the asylum seekers and which we felt offered a fair and equitable way forward for all parties.
"Unfortunately, this view was not shared by the Department of Justice," said the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr John Neill, reading from the statement. The archbishop declined to comment on what was included in the rejected set of proposals.
"In an attempt to find a way forward, the church has offered a church official to act as an independent observer of a further interview. Regrettably, this too has been rejected by the Department of Justice . . . We have been instructed by the Department of Justice to withdraw from all negotiations as it has placed the matter solely in the hands of the gardaí," the statement continued.
Osman Hotak, an Afghan hunger striker taken from the cathedral to be hospitalised on Friday, also released a statement. He said the men were now in extreme danger if they returned home, as people in Afghanistan knew they had protested in a Christian church and would torture them as a result.