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CAIRO, May 3 (AFP) – Anti-U.S. activist Osama bin Laden is in good health and leading an active life in Afghanistan, although his movements are kept secret for security reasons, said a London-based Islamic group on Wednesday. The Islamic Observation Center, quoting Taliban officials whom it says met with bin Laden recently south of the Afghan capital Kabul, was refuting press reports that bin Laden was dying of kidney failure. Bin Laden "continues to practice his favorite hobby, horseback riding, and to train many Afghans and Arabs living [in Afghanistan] in this sport," the IOC said in a statement faxed from London. "He is also taking part in Afghan and Arab social events although his movements remain secret for security reasons," said the group, which seeks to defend the rights of Muslims around the world. "The guest of the Islamic emirate [Taliban government] in Afghanistan is moving about in complete freedom in the country and is in perfect health," it said. "But he is forbidden from having any communications equipment or making statements to the press," the statement said, apparently referring to the need to ensure security and prevent his location from being discovered. Al-Hayat, the Saudi-owned Arabic daily published in London, said in February that bin Laden was suffering from serious kidney problems and had reduced his activities. In March, Asia week, a newsmagazine appearing in Hong Kong, quoted a Western intelligence source as saying that bin Laden was dying of kidney disease, but was still holding meetings and was "mostly conscious." It said that his associates were trying to find a dialysis machine to improve the 45-year-old's condition. The Yugoslav news agency Tanjug meanwhile said last week that bin Laden was in the southern Serb province of Kosovo, after having supervised the training of 500 Islamic fighters in neighboring Albania. Mainly Muslim Albanians have returned en masse to Kosovo since June last year after a U.S.-led air war and international peacekeeping force reversed a Serb onslaught. Kosovo is patrolled by Western peacekeeping troops. Bin Laden, son of a big Saudi business family but later stripped of his nationality, is accused of plotting the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya that killed 224 people and remains one of the most wanted men in the United States.
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