Taliban Says It Asked Bin Laden to Leave
Afghan Officials Accept Mediation Offers
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, September 28, 2001; Page A23
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 27 -- Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia has located Osama bin Laden, the leading suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, and delivered a message from a council of Islamic clerics asking him to leave the country, according to the Taliban's top diplomat here.
Other Taliban officials said today they have accepted separate offers by civil rights leader Jesse L. Jackson and Pakistani Muslim leaders to act as mediators with the United States concerning bin Laden. The officials were quoted by the Afghan Islamic Press based in Kabul, the Afghan capital.
It was not immediately clear how and when Jackson might become involved in the mediation effort, but Pakistani state radio reported tonight that the Muslim leaders, who support the Taliban, planned to leave for Afghanistan on Friday to hold talks with its leaders.
The Bush administration has demanded that the Taliban, which has harbored bin Laden for five years, surrender the wealthy Islamic extremist. But Taliban leaders have so far refused, insisting bin Laden is their guest and could not have orchestrated any international terrorist act.
Last week, a council of Afghan clerics decided to ask bin Laden to leave Afghanistan, but only of his free will and at a time of his choosing. Soon after, Taliban officials said he had vanished and that they did not know where he was.
Today, however, Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan, said, "Osama has now received the . . . recommendations," according to the Taliban-run Bakhtar news agency. "We have not lost Osama, but he is out of sight of the people."
The Taliban's conciliatory moves appeared to be eleventh-hour efforts to forestall any foreign military attack. A spokesman for a major Pakistani Islamic group said the delegation being dispatched to Afghanistan would try to persuade the Taliban to hold talks with the United States in an effort to resolve "all disputes," especially bin Laden.
But officials in Washington have said repeatedly that it was too late for any negotiation concerning bin Laden and that the Taliban would face a U.S. assault if it did not turn him over. Taliban officials have demanded that the United States provide them with solid evidence of bin Laden's involvement in terrorism. Last week, U.S. officials said they would not provide evidence about bin Laden's alleged involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks, saying that could provide "meaningful assistance" to other suspects being sought.
The U.S. position was reluctantly echoed here today by U.N. officials. Francesc Vendrell, the U.N. political envoy for Afghanistan, said, "I'm afraid when it comes to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, the time for negotiations on these issues is past." Al Qaeda is the terrorist network affiliated with bin Laden.
Despite the new gestures by the Taliban, its supreme religious leader, the usually reclusive Mohammad Omar, publicly threatened today that any Afghan who collaborated with a U.S. intervention in Afghanistan would be "treated like those who were brought in by the communists."
On this day in 1996, Taliban fighters swept into Kabul and rounded up officials who had backed the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan beginning in 1979. They dragged the Soviet-installed former president, Najibullah, behind a truck and hung his mutilated corpse from a traffic post.
"Those Afghans who want to take over power in Afghanistan with the help of American troops are the same as those Afghans who came into Afghanistan with the help of the Russian troops," Omar was quoted as saying. "In case of intervention in Afghanistan, no difference will be made between America and Russia."
The government of Pakistan, which has expressed concern over the possibility of a violent spillover from the mounting crisis in Afghanistan, is supporting the planned visit by Pakistani Islamic leaders to talk with Taliban officials.
At the same time, Pakistani police were reported to be hunting down and arresting supporters of bin Laden, especially in the port city of Karachi. Police there said they had picked up an undisclosed number of suspected bin Laden associates "for intensive investigation and interrogation."
Pakistan is under strong U.S. pressure to assist in tracking down bin Laden, and its president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has agreed to cooperate with U.S. authorities in intelligence-sharing and logistical support. Pakistan has not agreed, however, to allow its troops or territory to be used in any military operation against Afghanistan.
Pakistan also is maintaining diplomatic ties with the Taliban despite the Afghan rulers' near-total international isolation. Just three governments in the world had formally recognized the Taliban; Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cut diplomatic ties in the past week.
"Pakistan can never join in any hostile action against Afghanistan or the Afghan people," said Riaz Mohammed Khan, a spokesman for Pakistan's Foreign Ministry. "We are deeply conscious that the destinies of the two people are intertwined." Pakistan and Afghanistan share a 1,500-mile border, and Pakistan is home to more than 2 million Afghan refugees.
A U.S. military team left Pakistan today after conferring with Pakistani military officials over the past several days. Pakistan's military spokesman said there had been a "complete unanimity of views on both sides" but that no details of any U.S. military plans were discussed.
Across Pakistan, thousands of citizens took part today in official "Solidarity Day" activities, designed to show support for Musharraf's decision to support the U.S. anti-terrorism campaign.
Addressing one rally, Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdus Sattar said Pakistan is trying to persuade the Taliban to "listen to the Islamic world and the United Nations." The U.N. Security Council has joined the United States in demanding that bin Laden be turned over for trial abroad.
U.N. humanitarian officials, meanwhile, said several cargo planes filled with relief supplies were heading for Pakistan from Europe to prepare for an anticipated flood of up to 1.5 million refugees expected to flee Afghanistan if a foreign military attack is launched.
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
Best Regards, J.T. |
