|
U.S. Under Fire As Sanctions Hit Afghan Militia
KABUL (News Agencies) - Afghan leaders blasted Americans as "followers of Satan" Friday as a U.N. deadline for the ruling Taliban militia to hand over Osama bin Laden expired and new sanctions took effect.
United Nations officials in neighboring Pakistan said the deadline expired at 0501 GMT, or just after midnight in New York, but the Islamic militia has refused to comply with demands regarding handing over bin Laden.
"They [the United States and the U.N.] are followers of Satan, trying to undermine Islam. These sanctions cannot divert us from our determination," Taliban Chief Justice Noor Mohammad Saqeb told some 2,000 worshippers, mostly soldiers and officials, at a mosque here.
"The outside world may think how panicked and sad we might be. But you see that Afghans are not afraid. They have the same happy faces and live their normal life."
Militia leaders have offered guarantees that U.N. staff and foreign aid workers would be spared the violent protests that greeted the first sanctions in 1999.
Nevertheless, the U.N. has halved its foreign staff here and closed its offices Thursday as a "precautionary" measure.
U.N. officials said the offices would reopen Sunday depending on the security situation.
Police in neighboring Pakistan, the Taliban's closest ally and alleged backer, stepped up security around U.S. facilities as Islamists threatened reprisals.
"If the sanctions are not withdrawn no American installation here, including the U.S. consulate in Karachi, will be safe," Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan central vice-president Abdul Ghafoor Nadim told demonstrators in Karachi.
A U.S. embassy spokesman in Islamabad said: "We believe that we have taken the necessary steps to ensure the safety of our personnel."
The U.S. embassy in Islamabad was rocketed after the first round of sanctions.
"We have augmented the existing security arrangements to protect the American missions and American personnel in Islamabad," the capital's police chief, Mian Zaheer Ahmad, said.
A U.S. court has indicted bin Laden to stand trial for allegedly masterminding twin U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa in 1998. The Taliban insist the Saudi millionaire is a "guest" in Afghanistan and there is no evidence against him.
The trial of four of his alleged associates, who have pleaded not guilty, has already begun in New York. Of 18 others who have been charged, one has pleaded guilty, three are in Britain awaiting extradition and 14 are at large.
Taliban Shariat Radio on Friday reported: "Our traditions do not allow us to expel the one who has fought a holy war against Russians and communists."
The U.N. Security Council resolution adopted last month calls for an arms embargo on the Taliban, the closure of its overseas offices, a ban on foreign trips by Taliban chiefs and the freezing of bin Laden's assets.
It also blocks exports to Afghanistan of the chemical used to convert opium into heroin.
U.N. figures released Thursday showed Afghanistan remained the world's largest producer of opium last year, although production had fallen some 29% to 3,276 tons due mainly to severe drought.
Taliban officials have tried to capitalize on criticism from foreign aid workers and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan that the Security Council's decision would not "facilitate humanitarian work."
They have warned food and medical supplies would be blocked at a time of widespread drought and continuing civil war, which have driven some 500,000 people from their homes.
Washington and Moscow, who co-sponsored the sanctions resolution, have dismissed the claims as propaganda.
"The sanctions are political and not economic sanctions - they do not prohibit private-sector trade and commerce, including the importation of food and medicines into Afghanistan," the U.S. State Department said Thursday.
|
