Author: Agency France Presse
Publication: Newstime
Date: December 17, 2000
The United States has warned that
Afghanistan's Taliban is a threat to the "international community" as it
pressed the case for new anti-terrorism sanctions against the country's
rulers.
A joint Russian-US effort
to pass further United Nations sanctions against the Taliban is intended
to obtain the extradition of suspected master terrorist Osama bin Laden,
who is believed to be sheltering in Afghanistan. The US assistant
secretary of state for South Asian affairs Karl Inderfurth said the UN
was poised to act, possibly as soon as next week, because the Taliban had
not complied with previous sanctions intended to secure bin Laden's extradition.
"Let me be blunt about this: because
of their support for terrorist organizations and the fact that they allow
terrorist training camps in Afghan territory, the Taliban are a threat
to the international community," he said on Friday. But Inderfurth
added that the proposed sanctions were specifically targeted at the Taliban
leadership, not the Afghan people may of whom live in appalling poverty
after years of civil war. "I want to make absolutely clear that these
proposed UN sanctions are targeted only at the Taliban leadership.
They are designed specifically to avoid harming the Afghan people."
If adopted, the UN resolution would
impose a legally-binding embargo on all arms sales to the Taliban.
The UAE is one of the few countries
besides Pakistan that has diplomatic relations with the Taliban.
Referring to friction with American
intelligence agencies over restrictions imposed by him during the early
stages of the inquiry, the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said, "We
cannot bargain our sovereignty with anyone, but when there are things we
can do, we will do them."
Arms Sale
The Human Rights Watch has meanwhile
criticised a proposal by the US and Russia to ban arms sale to Taliban
alone and demanded that the embargo be slammed on all warring factions
in Afghanistan as each is guilty of grave abuses.
Imposition of embargo only against
Taliban would not solve the problem, the New York-based group said in a
letter to the Security Council members on Friday. It also demanded
lifting of existing ban on international flights by Taliban-controlled
Ariana airline, saying it interferes with delivery of medicines and other
aid.
On-going abuses against civilians
must take centre-state in any international intervention and the UN should
not ignore key humanitarian and human rights questions when it deals with
the Afghan issue, its executive director Kenneth Roth said.
The Security Council is considering
a draft resolution moved by the US and Russia on an arms embargo on Taliban
to force them to close terrorist training camps and expel Saudi terrorist
Osama bin Laden Russia joined the resolution as it is fighting Afghanistan
trained militants in Chechnya. The Council had earlier imposed limited
embargo.
