"The U.S. State Department has placed visa restrictions on Muslim men from Malaysia and 24 other Muslim countries under the latest move to tighten immigration policies in the wake of the September 11th attacks on America. When the new rules come into effect next week, male Muslim Malayisans aged between 16 and 45 planning to go to the U.S. would have to complete a detailed questionaire asking if they had any past military service, whether they had any weapons training, besides their previous travel itineries. After filling out the questionaire they would have to wait 20 days for their visas while the information is studied in Washington by a terrorist task force," reported Malaysia's Star newspaper.
Malaysian Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said, "Malaysia regrets the decision by the U.S. government to include the country in the visa curb list. Malaysia is known as a peaceful country with law abiding citizens and it had always attracted visitors by foreign tourists. We are sad over this decision. I don't see the basis for the United States to drag Malaysia into the issue of fighting terrorism".
Terror suspect Osama bin Laden claims he has nuclear and chemical weapons and will unleash them if the United States uses similar weapons against him, saying in an interview with Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, "I wish to declare that if America used chemical and nuclear weapons against us, then we may retort with chemical and nuclear weapons. We have nuclear weapons as a deterrent. We would never use them first". In the interview with the Dawn newspapers's reporter, Hamid Mir, Osama denied any repsponsibility for the September 11th attack on America, but he said the attacks were justified because Washington had been arming Israel, and was conducting atrocities against Muslims in Iraq, in the disputed region of Kashmir and elsewhere.
"A dangerous situation has arisen in the World Trade Organisation. The Doha Ministerial Conference being set up by the WTO Secretariat and the major countries, particularly the U.S. and European Union is pressuring developing countries into accepting trade agreements that further disadvantage their economic and trade interests. The council has refused to even allow the developing countries opposing views to be relfected in the text of the agreement. The developing countries have a lot at stake in Doha, they don't want the conference to launch new WTO treaties that would enable large foreign countries to take business from local firms in developing countries and the ability of their governments to devise and implement their own development policies," reported Malaysia's Star newspaper.
"Three female Malaysiam delegates to the World Trade Organisation meeting in Doha, Qatar, were frightened yesterday after a Qatari soldier fired a shot to stop them from walking near the Sheraton conference Centre. The three girls were terrified," said Malaysia's Trade Minister, Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz who is going to lodge a complaint with the Qatari Trade Minister, Youssef Hussain Kamal.
"Pakistani Islamic leader Samiul Haq, the former teacher of Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, was put under house arrest here yesterday to prevent him rousing unrest against the military government. Several senior Taliban leaders developed their interpretation of Islam while studying at seminaries run by Samiul in Pakistan," reported the AFP news service.
"A journalist and a photographer working for the British newspaper, The Sunday Telegraph, have been thrown out of Pakistan for trying to book a flight in the name of O.B. Laden," said a police spokesman in Quetta Pakistan yesterday.
The Northern Alliance, bolstered by its success in winning the key town of Mazar-i-Sharif, yesterday moved troops and tanks into position for an attack on Taliban forces defending Kabul despite a warning from Washington that it should not attempt to take the city. U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said, "To be frank, there would be a lot of tension within the city if the Northern Alliance were to come in force with a population in Kabul that at the moment may not be friendly to them".
A Pakistani reporter, Hamid Mir, who claims to have interviewed Osama bin Laden recently describes him as a man at ease even though he feels the Americans will eventually kill him. He is in high spirits, speaking confidently, and laughing readily; reporting bin Laden as saying, "I am ready to die. My cause will continue after my death. They think they will solve the problem by killing me. It is not that easy to solve this problem. This war has been spread all over the world. I cannot gain anything personally from adopting this way of life. I am fighting because they are killing us. We are the victims and they are the agressors so we have no other option but to fight back".
"I am very disturbed by reports of massive participation of children within various forces, especially the Taliban and Northern Alliance, and reports of recruitment of children for military purposes," said United Nations special envoy on children and armed conflict, Olara A. Otunna. Otunna also said that, "Over 1.7 million children in Afghanistan were at risk of dying this winter from freezing or starvation".
United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, warned that, "The war on terrorisn must not be allowed to dominate the global agenda because poverty, conflict, and human rights abuses that existed on September 10th hadn't suddenly gone away".
"With little information to go on, The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) is portraying the person who mailed three anthrax-filled letters as a U.S. based loner with a scientific background, , more akin to Unabomber, Ted Kaczynsky than alleged terrorist Osama bin Laden. Agents at the FBI believe the attacks are unrelated to the September 11th attacks on America," reports the AFP news service.
Malaysian Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamed expressed dismay yesterday over the U.S. State Department imposing visa restrictions on Muslim men from Malaysia and 24 other Muslim nations in a move to tighten its immigration policies. The Prime Minister said, "It seems to appear as if the United States is slowly shifting its focus more and more on Muslims and Muslim countries. This is disheartening as we know that presently there are also terrorists among non-Muslims".
"Two months after terror attacks killed some 5,000 people in the United States, and five weeks after the launch of military operations to punish the perpetrators, the opposition Northern Alliance appeared to have gained the upper hand in the campaign to topple the Taliban. Ten huge explosions, all of them believed to be inside city limits rocked Kabul as U.S. warplanes resumed their attacks on targets in and around the war weary capitol of Afghanistan," reported the AFP news service.
Speaking in New York, U.S. President George Bush said, "We will encourage our friends(the Northern Alliance) to head south across the Shomali plains, but not into the city of Kabul itself".
Non-Government Organisations(NGOs) have called on the World Trade organisation(WTO) ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar, to reject a draft of the meeting's Declaration because of the non-transparent and discriminatory process in its formulation and the grave threat of its content for the future of developing countries. They urged WTO ministers to resist the intimidation by developed countries and take a firm stand to defend the public and national interests of their countries," reported Malaysia's Star newspaper.
According to a statement released to the press by NGOs concerning the WTO ministerial conference, "This incident is another outstanding example of the non-transparent, discriminatory, biased and manipulative process of decision making at the WTO that favours a few major developed countries at the expense of the many developing countries. We consider the draft Declaration as illegitimate and a threat to the future development and economic and social stability of the developing nations".
"Anti-Taliban warlords installed themselves in their newly captured northern Afghan stronghold of Mazar-i-Sharif yesterday to co-orginate military strategy and thrash out power sharing arrangements. The meeting followed a four day push that saw the Northern Alliance secure control over five northern provinces and capture Mazar-i-Sharif," reported the AFP news service.
Residents in Kabul are fearful that the Afghan capital will be turned back into a battlefield as they nervously watch opposition forces bear down from the north. Haji Esmattullah, a 30 year old bookseller in Kabul says, "Look at us, no humans should be living here, but due to our economic circumstances we have to stay. We cannot bear more war or fighting. We want peace and security. People here want life, peace and work. They hate war and fighting. I never want kabul to be a battleground again".
The Washington Post newspaper reports that,"The American Red Cross has begun to destroy hundreds of thousands of pints of blood donated after the September 11th terrorist attacks because the blood has outlasted its shelf life. The revelation is the latest black eye for the beleaguered charitable organisation that had already been critised following recent revelations that only half of the US$500 million donated to a special fund for victims of the September 11th attacks had been distributed".
With no new cases of infection in recent days , U.S. health officials hope the anthrax scare that killed four people is over. "I am hopeful, like the rest of America that the anthrax attacks have stopped permanently. We certainly haven't seen or detected any sources of new anthrax," said U.S. Homeland Security Director, Tom Budge.
"Arab academics and Islamic officials are warning that U.S. insensitivity will fuel more resentment if Washington pursues the Afghan war through Ramadan, but say an inititive on the Palestinian issue could save the day," reports the AFP news service.
The head of Jordon's Islamic Action Front, Abdul Latif Arabiyat, says, "America's first crime is to launch a war on the poor and miserable people of Afghanistan, this is a crime against humanity. The second crime is to pursue this war during Ramadan. This is a provocation because Ramadan is a special month for all Muslims. If America was really sincere in saying that it respects the feelings of Muslims and that this is not a war against Islam but on terrorism, then it should stop the strikes during Ramadan. But, America is not sincere and this is a crusade against one quarter of the world's population".
Sociologist and university lecturer, Serri Nasser says, Negative feelings towards the United States will be intensified in general and perhaps more religious fanatics will tend to fight against the United States. A daily barrage of media reports of bombs falling on Afghanistan and of children being killed or maimed would arouse passions".
Professor emeritus of history, Kamal Salibi, at the American University of Beirut says, "The Americans are trying very hard, to bend over backwards even, to say that they are not fighting Islam - that is clumsy and insensitive. Their political idiom is not politically understood, like when they say, 'You are either with us or you are against us'. It is irrational to the rest of the world where people say, 'We are not with you but we are not against you".
In the United States, Secretary of State Colin Powell making it clear the U.S. military campaign will not be halted during Ramadan, said, "We are going to do whatever is necessaary to go after him(Osama bin Laden), and we are not going to hold back".
Prime Minister Tony Blair's government will seek emergency powers next week to detain terrorist suspects without trial as part of its response to the September 11th attacks on America. "Internment without trial has been used by britain before against Northern Ireland terrorist suspects, and German citizens during World War Two," said a british Home Office spokesman.
Pakistan's President, Pervez Musharraf said he, "could not imagine Osama bin laden had nuclear weapons despite the claims".
The Pentagon also expressed doubts that osama bin Laden had nuclear weapons, while President Bush said he was not sure whether to believe Osama's claim but the statement was, "all the more reason to hunt him down".
Iranian President Mohammad khatami, warned "The U.S. bombardment of Afghanistan would fail to root out terrorism".
The Pakistan government has stepped up restrictions on Afghanistan's Ambassador, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, who had already been told not to hold any more press conferences. The envoy has now been told to seek permission from the Pakistani Foreign Ministry before meeting anyone who is not an Afghan. The Nation newspaper reported that the Pakistani government had applied these restrictions "under severe pressure from the American government".
An American Airlines Airbus A-300 slammed into a residential area of New York City yesterday and exploded killing all 255 people on board, moments after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport. But Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, William Schumann said, "There is no indication of a terrorist act, but all options are open at this time. We are treating it as a flight accident, but that is subject to change as we learn more".
The Taliban's Ambassador to Pakistan, Mulllah Abdul Salam Zaeef, acknowledged that the Islamic militia has withdrawn from seven northern provinces saying, "The Islamic army of the Taliban withdrew from these provinces in an organised way to avoid civilian casualities".
"Four journalists, two French, one German and one American, were killed in an ambush by the Taliban militia in northeastern Afghanistan according to a Northern Alliance spokesman yesterday," reports the AFP news service.
"Agents for the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network contacted at least ten Pakistani nuclear scientists for help in starting a nuclear weapons program inside Afghanistan," senior U.S. officials told the USA Today newspaper.
U.S. Defence Secreatry, Donald Rumsfeld, told CBS news yesterday, "I think it's unlikely he(Osama bin Laden) has a nuclear weapon, but he certainly wants them, there is no question".
U.S. National Security advisor, Condoleeza Rice said, "The U.S. administration was taking Osama's claim seriously".
"White supremacist groups in the U.S. Midwest are using the September 11th attacks on the WTC to recruit new members according to a study by an anti-racism group. They are using images of the burning World Trade Centre towers to advocate closing America's borders," reports the Associated Press news agency.
"The United States expects to spend more than one billion US dollars per month on the early phases of the war on Afghanistan, a cost likely to rise as the Pentagon builds its forces in the region. The ever expanding cost for military deployment comes as the United States also faces a growing bill for its efforts to quickly improve domestic security in the face of recent anthrax attacks," reported the New York Times newspaper.
Opposition forces have been making further rapid advances against the Taliban, a day after the Northern Alliance marched into Kabul. "The Taliban have lost control of Kandahar and the city is in total chaos. It's absolute confusion, no Taliban officials are to be found. Now the Taliban have less than 20% of the territory of Afghanistan," says Northern Alliance Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah on Iran's state television.
"Is this a rout or a tactical retreat? Osama bin Laden may be running out of hiding places, but he and his Taliban supporters could take to the hills and fight a lengthy hit-and-run guerilla war," says defence analyst, Christopher Langton, at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Britain.
British Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon said, "It might not be easy to prise Osama bin Laden from his hiding place in Afghanistan, but I believe someone within the Taliban will hand him over".
Clifford Hill, editor of Jane's Defence Weekly warned thet, "Osama bin Laden could have already flown his Afghan hideout and taked refuge in Pakistan among sympathisers. He has shown the ability to move very easily among countries and exploit local bases for support".
The Northern Alliance, according to Younis Qanooni a senior alliance official, seems intent on distancing itself from the Americans who launched fierce air strikes on October 7th and contributed special forces advisers in the drive to topple the Islamic militia. Far from bowing to the Americans as engineers of its return to kabul, the Northern Alliance has played down the U.S. role in the defeat of the Taliban, saying, "The U.S. bombing was appreciated, but the main job was done by our people. Compared to the people's uprising the American bombardment was not very effective".
Yesterday, President George Bush signed an order that would allow the U.S. military to set up special courts to try foreigners accused in the September 11th attacks and similar assaults in the future. "The military order gives Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, the authority to establish the tribunals. The order does not name anybody who would be subject to the order and does not apply to Americans. The President would make a seperate independent finding that someone was a member of a terrorist organisation like al_Qaeda and that it was in the interests of the United States that the person be prosecuted. That person would then be delivered to the Secretary of Defence who would take control of the individual," according to White House council Al Gonzales, a former Texas Supreme Court Judge.
"The U.S. Government has compiled a list of more than 5,000 foreign men living in the United States it wants to question about the September 11th attacks. It is a list that has been developed of people who might have information. They are not suspects they are simply people we want to talk to," said Justice Department spokesperson, Mindy Tucker.
David Cole, an attorney with the civil rights group, Centre for Constitutional Rights, said in reference to the governments list of 5,000 foreign men, "This looks like someone said make me a list of young Arab and Muslim men but make it look like its not based on ethnicity".
"United Nations aid rolled into Afghanistan on Wednesday after the fall of Kabul to provide vital relief to millions in danger of starving as winter closes in. But in a sign of the problems ahead, the UN children’s fund suspended convoys after victorious anti-Taliban Northern Alliance fighters seized some trucks and employees," reported Reuters news agency.
"Around 20,000 besieged Taliban fighters in the northern city of Kunduz engaged in fierce fighting yesterday with troops from Afghanistan’s opposition Northern Alliance. There are 20,000 Taliban in Kunduz, many of them Arabs, and they are trying to break out. They are desperate, they’ve seen what happens to Arabs when the Northern Alliance gets hold of them. Many foreigners including Pakistanis, Chechens and Arabs fighting for the Taliban under the umbrella of the al-Qaeda network of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden have been killed or beaten up in the Northern Alliance advance. They are widely hated in Afghanistan. The Taliban forces should surrender or face certain death," said the alliance’s Ambassador to Tajikistan, Sayed Ibrohim Hikmat.
The opposition Northern Alliance that has captured Kabul said yesterday it had no desire to cling to power but would govern the capital until a broad-based post-Taliban government was formed. Asked whether the Northern Alliance would form an interim government, senior spokesman for the Northern Alliance, Mohammad Habeel, said, We have no intention as such, but with the approach of winter all delegates will not be able to make it to Kabul and until they do so Kabul’s affairs will be run by the high military council". The United Nations is trying to convene talks, in the United Arab Emirates, within days on a post-Taliban government for Afghanistan according to Reuters news agency.
"Amnesty International castigated the international community yesterday for supplying Afghanistan’s main opposition Northern Alliance with weapons because it said its leaders had blood on their hands. Nations which had already sold arms to the Alliance must share responsibility for the killing of Afghan civilians by the opposition faction. You see the pictures of those killed by the Northern Alliance. There are some countries who have provided those arms and those countries are responsible for what is happening," the human rights group’s general secretary, Irene Khan, told a news conference.
"Eight foreign aid workers, held captive for three months, were freed from a squalid Afghan prison during an anti-Taliban uprising and airlifted to safety in neighbouring Pakistan yesterday by US military helicopters. The aid workers two Americans, two Australians and four Germans landed at Chaklali air base on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, and all appeared to be in good health. The aid workers for Shelter Now International, a German-based group, had been accused by the Taliban of preaching Christianity, a serious offence under the Taliban’s harsh Islamic rule. The Taliban had agreed to turn over the aid workers through the Red Cross, two senior administration officials said. But before the exchange could be accomplished, the Northern Alliance overran the town of Ghazni," reported the Associated Press news agency.
"Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network held detailed plans for nuclear devices and other lethal bombs in a Kabul headquarters, The Times newspaper, a British daily reported yesterday. Both President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair have said they believe Osama had access to nuclear material.
"A special US envoy to Afghanistan held talks here with senior Pakistani officials yesterday as efforts to set up a broad-based post-Taliban government in Afghanistan gathered pace. James Dobbins, Washington’s envoy to the country’s opposition Northern Alliance, met Foreign Secretary Inamul Haq to discuss a peaceful transition of power after the collapse of Taliban rule. The UN Security Council yesterday backed plans for an urgent meeting of the various Afghan tribal groups to help fill the power vacuum," reports the AFT news service.
The embattled Taliban vowed yesterday to fight to the death against the United States and said Osama bin Laden and supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar were alive and had not been captured by opposition forces. Mullah Mohammad Omar, the reclusive Taliban leader who lost an eye fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s was defiant despite 40 days of withering air strikes and pledged to destroy the United States, saying in an interview with the BBC by radio via a spokesman, "The situation in Afghanistan is part of a big plan including the destruction of the United States. The plan is going ahead and, God willing, it is being implemented, but it is a huge task beyond the will and comprehension of human beings. If God’s help is with us this will happen within a short period of time. Keep in mind this prediction". When asked whether the Taliban would participate in a future broad-based government, Mullah Mohammad Omar replied, "We would prefer death to the government of fascists".
With almost all of Afghanistan in opposition hands, Mullah Mohammad Omar held out in his stronghold of Kandahar bracing for a last stand against opposition and US forces. The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press(AIP) quoted Taliban spokesman Mullah Abdullah as saying that, "Osama is safe. America can never arrest Osama bin Laden alive. Osama has already decided that death will be preferable to being arrested by America. The command is still in the hands of Mullah Mohammad Omar. The Taliban is completely obeying him".
"The circumstances on the ground have changed dramatically just in a matter of days, and areas that were probably safe for him(Osama bin Laden) 48 or 72 hours ago are no longer safe for him," US Vice-President Dick Cheney said yesterday. US officials said a building in Afghanistan where al-Qaeda members were gathered had been bombed, killing a number of people, but it was not known whether Osama was inside.
"Clearing the rubble of the World Trade Centre will cost between US$15 billion and US$25 billion. It’s the amount of money that it cost to actually do the clean-up," New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said on Wednesday.
Former South African president Nelson Mandela has sharply criticised countries which ignore the United Nations and take unilateral action against another country. Without actually naming the United States but in an apparent reference to the country’s military offensive against Afghanistan for the Sept 11 terrorist attacks, Mandela said, "We condemn countries that avoid the United Nations and take action independent of it whatever the excuse is because that way they are introducing chaos in international affairs. Public figures must condemn such a country even if the country was helping in the development of one’s own country. We must thank them when they do good but we must also condemn them when they depart from the basic rules of the international community that problems must be settled peacefully.".
"Tribal warlords who have spent the past five years in hibernation are swiftly re-emerging to try to get control of large swaths of southern Afghanistan, moves that are plunging the country back into the chaotic and feuding pre-Taliban era of the early 1990s. As the Taliban regime’s forces retreated, tribal Pashtun leaders were reported to have asserted power in the remote southern province of Oruzgan where the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar grew up and were poised to move into the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in the southeast. The rapid fragmentation of Afghanistan into a mosaic of rival fiefdoms last night dismayed supporters of attempts to introduce a coalition government in Kabul. The resurgent warlords represent a serious obstacle to creating a broad-based administration. Afghanistan, is feared to be sliding back into the bad times it suffered after the fall of the pro-Soviet Najibullah regime in 1992, when rival mujahidin groups battled for power, destroying Kabul in the process. While the Taliban are now despised in most of Afghanistan, they were welcomed by many in 1996 because as even their most implacable opponents admitted they brought peace," reported the Guardian News Service
Members of extreme Muslim groups in Britain said the apparent collapse of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan was actually a military ruse, the Daily Telegraph, a British newspaper reported Omar Bakri Muhammad, the leader of the al-Muhajiroun group as saying that, "The apparent implosion of the Taliban was a tactic to lull Western troops into a false sense of security. The Taliban has not fallen. It is a tactical withdrawal. They want the Western forces to come. It will justify the jihad. They will now become guerillas. I have been told that Osama bin Laden has 500 people ready for suicide operations’’.
"The United States wants to be involved in anti-terrorism initiatives agreed by Southeast Asian nations this month. There is also a very important regional component here in Southeast Asia that the United States doesn’t have a role in and that’s the Asean regional initiative. the United States sees the accord adopted by Asean at its summit in Brunei as vital for fighting terrorism in the region," the commander of US forces in the Pacific, Admiral Dennis Blair, told reporters during a visit to Bangkok.
"Al-Qaeda planned to manufacture a deadly biological poison called 'ricin'. Instructions for making the poison were found littering the cellar of an abandoned house in Kabul that had been used by Osama bin Laden’s network. The instructions for making ricin were concealed among scattered documents listing formulae for manufacturing explosives, fuses and detonation circuits. Ricin is produced from a toxin protein in castor oil seed. It was famously used by Bulgarian secret police to kill Bulgarian refugee Georgi Markov in London in 1978," reported the Times of London newspaper. The paper also said that, "searches had revealed detailed plans to make nuclear bombs, but that they were no more than could have been expected to be held by any terror group".
Opposition alliance warlord, Ismail Khan, vowed yesterday to march on the Taliban’s stronghold of Kandahar and occupy it if necessary despite opposition from local tribes to an outside force taking the city. Ismail, a veteran mujahideen commander, this week retook his old powerbase, the western city of Herat that commands a major road through the Desert of Death to Kandahar. Ismail is an old enemy of the Taliban they drove him out of Herat in 1995 and jailed him in 1997, but he escaped last year. The grey-bearded Ismail said, "We all belong to Afghanistan, so we shouldn’t consider occupying Kandahar as an invasion. If the terrorists do not leave Kandahar then we’ll go there to liberate it. Now that the opposition Northern Alliance forces had taken Kabul, I am opposed to the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan.". Following the September suicide bomb killing of legendary opposition commander Ahmed Shah Masood, Ismail is now widely seen as Afghanistan’s most senior mujahid, or holy warrior. Analysts say he could be a key figure in any post-Taliban government but would not be a national leader.
European Union justice and interior ministers met yesterday to negotiate outstanding issues on ambitious anti-terrorism plans, part of the EU’s response to the Sept 11 attacks on the United States. In final preparatory talks before a Dec 6 session at which the measures should be adopted, the ministers discussed proposals to replace lengthy extradition procedures between member states with a Europe-wide search-and-arrest warrant. They also discussed an EU definition of terrorism and the length of jail terms for acts of terrorism. Officials from member states are meeting weekly here to negotiate compromise proposals," according to the Reuters news agency.
The United States, taken by surprise by the rapid collapse of Taliban power in Afghanistan, is scrambling to patch together a coalition of Afghans to run the country. But the Northern Alliance, which is dominated by minority Tajiks and Uzbeks, has broken its promise not to advance into the capital Kabul and could complicate attempts to form a government representative of the country’s demography. The leader of the Northern Alliance is Burhanuddin Rabbani, whom the United Nations recognises as Afghan president. His rule in Kabul in the early 1990s was violent and unstable. A senior State Department official, who asked not be named, said "The Northern Alliance has indicated it was willing to participate in talks on a broad-based government but I don't know if those closest to Rabbani will attend. He(Rabbani) hasn’t spoiled it yet and we’re hopeful that we are going to be able to exercise maximum pressure on him to get them all to play along in this effort. We’ll have to do some persuading. It hasn’t been easy and it isn’t going to be easy".
US envoy James Dobbins in Pakistan in search of politicians from Afghanistan’s Pashtun community, the largest single ethnic group, said, "We need Pashtun leaders or a group of Pashtun leaders to play in this and we expect them to play a central role but there isn’t one stand-out figure so far. The United States and United Nations are trying to call Afghan political leaders to a meeting, either in Geneva or Abu Dhabi or elsewhere, within a matter of days".
A UN human rights expert said yesterday that large numbers of civilians were being killed by the Taliban and other warring parties in Afghanistan and warned the murders could amount to crimes against humanity. Asma Jahangir, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, issued a statement calling for a swift investigation and the prosecution of those responsible. She said, "There is evidence gradually emerging from Afghanistan clearly indicating that large numbers of unarmed civilians have been and are still being killed extrajudicially by Taliban forces and other warring factions. There can be no impunity for these widespread and systematic killings, which may amount to crimes against humanity. There is now an urgent need to ensure that these crimes are promptly and independently investigated, with a view to bringing those responsible to justice without delay and were a pre-condition for a just and sustainable peace in Afghanistan".
In an unprecedented move for a first lady, Laura Bush will deliver the weekly presidential radio address today, using the airwaves to launch an international campaign for women’s rights in Afghanistan. A senior administration official said on Thursday that Laura Bush would highlight the Taliban and al-Qaeda oppression of women in Afghanistan and point out how it had been condemned by other Muslims. The message will be that the Taliban and al-Qaeda’s oppression of women represents their vision of society that they hope to export to the rest of the world and that we need to do everything we can to help the Afghan women who have suffered so long. The women’s rights initiative followed criticism that the Bush adminstation has not been paying enough attention to the public relations side of its war on terrorism. Cherie Blair, the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, will make a similar statement in London on Monday or Tuesday," according to Reuters news agency.
Former South African President Nelson Mandela, during a visit to the United Nations, joked on Thursday that the word 'terrorist' was a relative term and that some people like himself once referred to as terrorists had gone on to become heads of state. He said, "Those people who were referring to many of us as terrorists are now dealing with us as members of responsible governments, and therefore terrorism is a relative term. hose people who do not agree with your activities will label you a terrorist. But when you succeed, the same people are prepared to accept you and have dealings with you as a head of state". Mandela spent 27 years in a South African prison for opposing decades of white rule, and some foreign governments considered his African National Congress as a typical terrorist organisation.
President George W. Bush’s plan to create special military tribunals to try non-Americans accused of involvement in the Sept 11 attacks drew criticism across the political spectrum yesterday, with a liberal senator worried about summary executions and a conservative warning of 'kangaroo courts'. Some diplomats also questioned the order, which would allow the US military to set up tribunals for the first time since World War Two to try foreigners accused in the Sept. 11 attacks as war criminals. "I am concerned over whether this will be a convincing way to exercise justice," one Western diplomat said. "Many European countries will be of course concerned about some important legal aspects, in particular about the missing right to appeal and the death penalty. Unlike regular US criminal trials that require that 12-person juries reach a unanimous verdict, the tribunals, with military officers as judge and jury, can convict by a two-thirds vote. A two-thirds vote also is required for the sentence, which may include the death penalty. Trials may be held in secret. Procedures and composition of the courts are to be determined by the US defence secretary and military commanders".
Senator Patrick Leahy, the Judiciary Committee chairman, said Bush’s order on special military tribunals has "international implications because it sends a message to the world that it is acceptable to hold secret trials and summary executions, without the possibility of judicial review, at least when the defendant is a foreign national".
The Northern Alliance has captured some senior leaders of the al-Qaeda terrorist network in Afghanistan in what could be a valuable intelligence coup. A US defence official, who asked not to be identified, said on Thursday, "We have reason to believe that the Northern Alliance has come into possession of some senior leadersbut, Osama bin Laden was not among those captured by the Northern Alliance. Those captured are senior enough to provide some meaningful information".
"Some al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders were killed in air strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday on buildings near Kabul and in Kandahar that had been targeted because of the presence of senior leadership," said Victoria Clarke, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman.
"We are tightening the noose. It is a just matter of time. said Army general Tommy Franks, the commander of the US campaign in Afghabistan.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld raised the possibility that Osama bin Laden may have slipped out of Afghanistan in a low-flying Taliban helicopter, saying, "You’ve got porous borders in a number of directions, you’ve got deep ravines, and to the extent that they may or may not have any helicopters left, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that they could fly down one of the valleys and not be detected. It’s not a bottle you can cork. It’s a large country with a lot of borders".
Mohammed Atef, the Egyptian-born militant who directed Osama bin Laden's deadly terror strikes for a decade, is believed to have been killed in an airstrike near Kabul. If confirmed, Atef's death would be a direct blow to bin Laden's inner circle and could greatly hurt the al-Qaida network's ability to plan future terrorist attacks, Atef was seen as bin Laden's likely successor. Atef is suspected of helping to plan the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon that killed thousands. He directly planned the embassy bombings in Africa in 1998 that killed 224 people, according to a U.S. indictment that charged him with murder. And he is accused of helping plan a 1993 helicopter shootdown in Somalia that killed 18 U.S. soldiers. Along with spiritual adviser and fellow Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, Atef was said to be one of bin Laden's top two lieutenants. Earlier this year, Atef's daughter married bin Laden's son, and TV footage of the wedding was broadcast on an Arab satellite station," reported The Star newspaper in Malaysia.
"Taliban supreme commander, Mullah Muhammad Omar, has agreed to leave his headquarters in Kandahar and turn the city over to two local Pashtun leaders. under the deal, the control of the city will pass to Mullah Naqibullah and Haji Bashar, two former commanders of the Afghan resistance forces in the war against the Soviet invaders," reported the Afghan Islamic Press, based in pakistan.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told the United Nations on Thursday that, "Many Israelis back a Palestinian state although this was not official policy of the hardline Sharon government". The comments, as non-controversial as they might appear to much of the world, had immediate impact back home, where right-wingers faulted Peres for going too far and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s spokesman had a terse no comment. Later, at the Council on Foreign Relations, Peres said, "The United States had asked Israel 'to lower the flames' in the region as Washington pursues its anti-terror war in Afghanistan. This a legitimate request. He also said, "my two great worries are that Palestinians could be taken over by anti-Israel radical Islamic fundamentalists and then these elements would try to oust the monarchy in Jordan which signed a peace treaty with Israel".
