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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (44833)	10/21/2003 3:38:07 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

The Hamid Karzai-led Afghan transitional government on Monday confirmed that former foreign minister Mulla Wakil Ahmad Mutawwakil was at the centre of the conciliatory talks now underway with Taliban who had not committed crimes. Omar Daudzay, head of President Karzai’s office, told the "Good Evening Afghanistan" programme that a number of Afghan governors and government officials had entered into talks with the Taliban. "The talks were initiated at the request of the Taliban and are still continuing," he added. This is the first time that the Afghan government has conceded Mutawwakil’s participation in the talks. Until now, Karzai and some of his spokesmen were denying Mutawwakil’s release from US custody. But Daudzay’s admission that the former Taliban foreign minister was at the centre of the talks made it obvious that he was now a free man. According to his aides, Mutawwakil was recently freed by the US military authorities from the Bagram airbase north of Kabul and flown in a UN plane to Kandahar. Despite his release, Mutawwakil has stayed on at the Kandahar airbase due to security reasons. He has held meetings with a number of his former Taliban colleagues and family members there to discuss the options before him. His aides claimed the US authorities had offered Mutawwakil to either become Karzai’s spokesman and adviser or apply for political asylum in some Western country. Mutawwakil had reportedly declined the two offers while still in US custody at Bagram. However, one of his Pakistan-based aides said Mutawwakil was seriously considering seeking political asylum in an Arab country, possibly Qatar.