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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SirRealist who wrote (15181)	12/31/2001 4:05:05 AM
From: SirRealist	Respond to of 281500

Sunday December 30 1:35 PM ET Troop Deal Finalized, Bin Laden Said in Afghanistan By Sayed Salahuddin KABUL, Afghanistan (news - web sites) (Reuters) - Afghanistan finalized a deal on deploying international forces to maintain security Sunday while interim Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah conceded that Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) was probably still in the country. Abdullah did not say whether the troops deal had been signed, but said some troops were already in the country. ``An agreement has been reached on the deployment of multinational forces. We are not going to discuss details but the agreement has been finalized,'' he told a news briefing. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which the United Nations (news - web sites) Security Council authorized to fill the security vacuum after last month's defeat of the ruling Taliban, would pave the way to deploy about 3,000 troops. While the agreement represents a further step to peace in Afghanistan, Abdullah added that bin Laden, wanted for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington and the primary target of the near three-month U.S. bombing campaign, was probably still in the country. ``I have no precise information about bin Laden's location, but probably he is in Afghanistan,'' Abdullah said. His comments highlighted the global confusion about bin Laden's whereabouts. Defense minister General Mohammad Fahim said Friday there was a strong probability he was in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, but Washington says it has no idea of whether he is alive or dead, let alone where he is. U.S. CAMPAIGN TO CONTINUE Abdullah said the U.S. bombing campaign would continue, despite calls from the defense ministry that it should end soon. The United States is seeking to destroy bin Laden's al Qaeda network, having already driven out the country's radical Islamic Taliban government. Asked how long the bombing would go on, Abdullah said: ``The campaign will continue for as long as it takes to finish off the terrorists.'' Of the total of 3,000 ISAF troops to be deployed, 1,000 are to be used for security and the rest for logistical and humanitarian purposes. About 50 British soldiers, the first ISAF contingent, arrived at Bagram airbase Sunday evening, British officials said. They said the 50 ``enablers,'' to be followed by 15 staff officers Monday, would prepare the headquarters for the ISAF international security force, commanded by British Major General John McColl. ``They will be setting up the headquarters in Kabul from where General McColl will work,'' British forces spokesman Major Guy Richardson said. Countries contributing troops to the international force were expected to conduct reconnaissance operations in the next few days, he said. Afghan and British troops staged their first joint patrol through Kabul Saturday in a dress rehearsal for the ISAF. Witnesses in the western Pakistani town of Chaman said on Saturday Pakistan was thinning out troops along its border with Afghanistan as tension rose on its eastern frontier with India. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar denied this later that day, but said the India crisis could require more troops. ``We need help so that force is not used against Pakistan along the eastern border,'' he said in an interview on CNN. DELAYS IN MOVING REFUGEES As the country becomes more secure, the United Nations has scaled back a planned operation to move 4,000 ethnic Tajik families back to their homes in Bagram, in the central Shomali plain, from the Panjsher Valley. It had planned to start moving them over the weekend, but many who registered for the project have decided to wait for the spring and the arrival of next year's planting season, a U.N official said. ``Generally people do not want to move in the winter,'' Daniel Endres of the U.N. High Commission for Refugees said. ''The situation has improved in Panjsher so we are re-registering those who want to move now.'' Over 200,000 people fled fighting on the Shomali plain, of whom some 100,000 are in Kabul and most of the rest in Panjsher. In a further sign that Afghanistan is looking to the future, its interim leader Hamid Karzai planned to go to Japan next month to attend a conference on Afghan reconstruction. ``He said he expected to attend,'' Yukio Hatoyama, leader of Japan's opposition Democratic Party, told Reuters. ``He hopes to be there.''