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U.N. Expatriate Workers Return To Afghanistan
by Mohammad Bashir
KABUL (AFP) - A first group of United Nations workers returned to Afghanistan Sunday a few days after pulling out with the imposition of fresh U.N. sanctions on the war-torn country.
Ten staff returned from neighboring Pakistan to their duty stations inside Afghanistan, U.N. officials said, after feared reprisals failed to materialize.
"Close and continued monitoring of the situation in Afghanistan indicated that order has prevailed, and there have been no security incidents to warrant prolonging the withdrawal," said a statement issued by the U.N. office in Islamabad.
Staffs have returned to Kabul, Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif, it said, adding: "A gradual return will be effected in accordance with the current staffing levels."
Earlier, three foreign staff flying into Kabul on board a routine U.N. flight from Pakistan said they were convinced there were no security threats facing them.
"I feel happy to be back and I am here to continue my normal job," said David Pakas, a U.N. security official who accompanied two colleagues.
The U.N., fearing violent reprisals, withdrew around 60 foreign staff ahead of Tuesday's announcement of additional sanctions on Taliban rulers for their alleged support to international “terrorism”.
In a resolution proposed by the United States and Russia, the Security Council voted to broaden sanctions, one year after imposing financial and aviation restrictions.
The new measures include an arms embargo on the Taliban but not the opposition headed by commander Ahmad Shah Masood, as well as closure of their offices abroad and a ban on Taliban foreign trips.
The Taliban authorities had urged the U.N. Security Council not to go ahead with its strengthened sanctions.
Relief workers and non-governmental organizations also complained the sanctions could have dire humanitarian consequences if their operations were interrupted.
And U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan criticized the new resolution, saying it would "not facilitate peace efforts, or humanitarian work."
Angry mobs ransacked U.N. offices after international sanctions were first imposed in November 1999.
However, Taliban supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar last week urged Afghans to "refrain from holding demonstrations" and promised to guarantee the safety of U.N. staff.
The U.N. and other foreign aid workers supply crucial aid to hundreds of thousands of Afghans in a country devastated by 20 years of civil war and suffering its worst drought in 30 years.
The sanctions will come into force next month if the Taliban do not hand over Osama bin Laden.
Russia accuses the Taliban of training fighters to fight in Chechnya while Washington wants the militia to hand over the millionaire Saudi dissident, indicted in the United States for his alleged role in U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa in 1998.
Taliban authorities have rejected the demands as "unacceptable and irrational".
Radio Shariat said Sunday tribal chiefs in eastern Nangarhar and northern Kunduz provinces had described the sanctions as "oppressive."
They backed the Taliban's policy of safeguarding bin Laden as a "welcomed guest and holy warrior," it added.
The official Shariat Weekly in an editorial accused the U.S., Russia, India and other countries of "hatching numerous plans to weaken" the regime.
"Rancorous enemies endeavor round the clock to divert our mujahid [holy warriors] and valorous nation from the path of their sacred religion, independence and national traditions," the paper said.
The Taliban pushed Masood from Kabul in 1996 and secured some significant gains last summer against their opponents in the northeast. They control the vast majority of Afghani territory.
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