Afghanistan calls off peace talks, refuses bin Laden handover

Amir Shah

Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2000 | 9:37 a.m.

KABUL, Afghanistan - The ruling Taliban militia responded Wednesday to harsh new U.N. sanctions, pulling out of U.N.-mediated peace talks on ending Afghanistan's civil war and refusing any handover of terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden to the United States.

The Taliban also ordered an immediate boycott of products from the United States and Russia - who sponsored the U.N. Security Council resolution to impose sanctions.

The Security Council on Tuesday gave the Taliban a month to surrender bin Laden, suspected in the bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa, and close "terrorist" training camps. It threatened sanctions such as further restrictions on international flights. The move sparked anger in Afghanistan, ravaged by 20 years of war, brutal poverty and persistent drought.

"These are cruel sanctions, unjust, irrational and unilateral," Mullah Abdul Zalam Zaeef, the Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan, told a news conference.

The Taliban called a halt to U.N.-mediated talks with the opposition fighters they are battling in the northern part of the country and promised to close the office of the U.N. negotiator and expel its eight-person staff when the sanctions take effect. Other U.N. and charity aid workers won't be affected.

The United Nations withdrew the last of its international staff from Afghanistan on Tuesday, fearing retaliation by Afghans angry at the new sanctions. U.N. programs, such as bakeries and clinics, will be run by local staff.

"It is not going to facilitate our peace efforts, nor is it going to facilitate our humanitarian work," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said of the decision to impose new sanctions.

The boycott is mostly symbolic since Afghans, among the poorest people in the world, can't afford the few U.S. products on the market here, such as cigarettes and candy. Still, some equipment runs on Russian or U.S. technology and would need spare parts. And Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil urged all Islamic countries to support a boycott "to hurt the economy of these countries."

A resident in Kabul echoed the thoughts of many on the streets of the beleaguered Afghan capital.

"Step by step the international community is killing Afghanistan," said Mohammed Zahir, 55. "Slowly, slowly they are letting us die."

The United States and Russia, former superpower rivals over Afghanistan, lobbied the 13 other U.N. Security Council members hard to adopt the resolution. They argued the country was a "haven of lawlessness" whose hard-line Islamic rulers protect terrorists at home and support terrorism abroad.

The sanctions also call for an arms embargo on the Taliban, ban international travel by Taliban officials and close Taliban offices outside the country. U.S. and Russian officials say humanitarian exemptions mitigate any impact on ordinary Afghans.

Taliban leaders have refused to hand bin Laden over. They also have denied allegations they allow the operation of camps used to train Chechen rebels, who are fighting for independence from Russia.

"Our position on Osama is unchanged," Information Minister Qadratullah Jamal told The Associated Press on Wednesday in Kabul. "There is no evidence against Osama. ... The United States and Russia are using the excuse of Osama and terrorism but really it is the Islamic system of the Taliban they want to destroy."

Some at the United Nations had worried that the sanctions move would sabotage efforts to put together talks between the Taliban, who rule 95 percent of Afghanistan, and opposition forces still battling in the north.

Russian Ambassador Sergey Lavrov doubted a new round of talks announced last month would have resulted in progress anyway.

Aid groups and Annan objected to the resolution on grounds it would increase the suffering of ordinary Afghans. Several council members, including France, the Netherlands and Canada, expressed similar concerns. China and Malaysia abstained.

But no one was willing to block the resolution outright since opposition would amount to support for the Taliban army, which has imposed a strict brand of Islam in the parts of Afghanistan it controls. The Taliban bans women from working, limits schooling for girls, imposes harsh and public punishments, and requires men to pray in the mosque and grow beards

Neighboring Pakistan objected more strenuously: It warned Wednesday that the sanctions will add to a humanitarian disaster at its doorstep.

Thousands of Afghans took up a vigil on the border pleading with Pakistan to open its gates. Poor Pakistan receives limited international aid and no U.N. assistance to feed or house the 2 million Afghan refugees already living in the country.