Taliban Says Willing to Talk With U.S.
Updated: Wed, Oct 31 3:57 PM EST
By KATHY GANNON, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Four weeks into the U.S.-led
air campaign, a senior Taliban official said Wednesday
the ruling militia is willing to negotiate an end to the
conflict. But he demanded proof of Osama bin Laden's
involvement in the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
"That's the message for Americans," chief Taliban
spokesman Amir Khan Muttaqi said in an interview with
the first Western reporter allowed into Kabul since the
bombing began Oct. 7.
President Bush launched the air assault after the Taliban
refused to hand over bin Laden, chief suspect in the
terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon.
"We do not want to fight," Muttaqi added. "We will negotiate. But talk to us like a sovereign country. We are not a province of the United States, to be issued orders to. We have asked for proof of Osama's involvement, but they have refused. Why?"
Before the bombing campaign began, Bush brushed aside numerous offers from the Taliban to negotiate bin Laden's status - including offers to hand him over to a third country or even try him here under Islamic law.
The United States has repeatedly said that the demand to surrender bin Laden and his lieutenants in the al-Qaida network is not negotiable, and waves of bombers have pounded the capital and other cities.
During the interview, Muttaqi, who also is education minister, exuded confidence, arguing in effect that Afghanistan's weakness was its strength. U.S. bombing, he maintained, will not crack the Taliban.
"We don't have anything for the American bombs to destroy," he said. "We are not a country with a sophisticated computer system, a big, important telecommunications system or modern aviation system to destroy."
Muttaqi spoke in his spartan office with a Kalashnikov rifle on the table before him. His two security guards also carried assault rifles.
"Each Afghan has a rifle in his home and each Afghan's home is his bunker," Muttaqi said.
Afghanistan, ravaged by more than two decades of war, is one of the world's poorest countries, annual average income in a good year is barely $200.
Even before the bombs began to fall, the United Nations called Afghanistan a humanitarian crisis -- perhaps the world's worst.
Kabul, the capital, lies largely in ruins, destroyed by an earlier civil war. The estimated 1 million people are mostly those too poor to flee.
Although Islamic governments have distanced themselves from the Taliban, many Muslims sympathize with bin Laden and the embattled Taliban, and Muttaqi hinted at a possible Muslim backlash against the United States if the conflict continues.
"America, what do you want to do?" Muttaqi said. "Don't make Muslims everywhere angry. Muslims have no problem with Americans. It is American policy they disagree with. America should not oblige thousands and thousands of Muslims the world over to feel for the victims of the bombing because they will cause more trouble for America."
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