-Caveat Lector- http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=10987
WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Walkout at Afghan talks By Ammar Al-Jindi, Arab News Staff KABUL/BONN, 1 December — US warplanes pounded the Taleban’s final bastion in Afghanistan yesterday as ethnic tensions surfaced at talks on a future Afghan government, which are due to end today. Anti-Taleban forces inched closer to the ancient city walls of Kandahar, raising the specter of bloody street battles with thousands of Taleban troops ordered by their leader Mullah Muhammad Omar to fight to their last breath. US forces paved their way, launching what one tribal commander said were some of the heaviest raids of the conflict. UN-sponsored talks in Bonn to create a post-Taleban government hit a snag just as delegates were starting to divide up the power. But UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said they still aimed for a deal today. "We are working toward concluding an agreement by tomorrow," Fawzi told a daily briefing. Haji Abdul Qadir, the top-ranking Pashtun at the talks, earlier walked out in what delegates said seemed to be a protest that his ethnic group, Afghanistan’s largest, was not adequately represented in the discussions in a secluded hilltop hotel. Delegates from the Hazara and Uzbek minorities complained they were also under-represented at the closed-door meeting. Delegates said the Northern Alliance had demanded a 10-day adjournment of the talks, but the UN and rival groups refused. Two representatives of former King Zahir Shah said the Northern Alliance’s delegation chief Yunus Qanuni had requested to return to Kabul for final consultations, but they insisted that the talks had not stalled. The aim of the talks is to share out jobs in an interim parliament and executive among all of Afghanistan’s many ethnic groups under an outline agreement between three exile groups and the Northern Alliance. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday dismissed any idea Mullah Omar would be allowed to escape in return for the surrender of Kandahar, telling reporters the Taleban leader would probably choose to fight on anyway. The United States is seeking "physical custody" of all Taleban and Al-Qaeda leaders after questioning, to avoid their release to other countries, he said. Vice President Dick Cheney said Osama Bin Laden was probably holed up in caves in Tora Bora, eastern Afghanistan, while an unnamed US official said US warships were patrolling the Indian Ocean off Somalia in case he tried to flee there. Fresh gunfire broke out inside a fortress in north Afghanistan where hundreds of Taleban and Al-Qaeda prisoners were killed after staging a bloody revolt against their captors, the Red Cross said. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had suspended work registering the dead at noon on Thursday after shooting broke out when three Afghan officials went inside to collect the corpses littering the fort. "Our people outside heard gunfire. Two (of the Afghans) came out wounded and we took them to hospital. The third one, we never saw again," ICRC spokesman Bernard Barrett said in Kabul. He also could not comment on whether the shooting suggested some prisoners remained alive and were still putting up resistance at the imposing Qala-e-Jangi, outside the city of Mazar-e-Sharif. The Northern Alliance has said probably all 600 prisoners, including Pakistanis, Arabs and Chechens linked to Al Qaeda and more than 40 of its own fighters died in three days of fighting inside the fortress. The Northern Alliance has said probably all 600 prisoners, including Pakistanis, Arabs and Chechens linked to Al Qaeda and more than 40 of its own fighters died in three days of fighting inside the fortress. UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson has said she would support an international inquiry into the killings. Speaking in a live webcast for BBC News Online, she said she was concerned about the revolt. "We don’t really know in detail what happened but we do know that a lot of people got killed," Mrs. Robinson said. According to the BBC, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has ruled out an inquiry. A spokesman for the US-led coalition against terrorism also rejected Amnesty International’s call for an urgent investigation into the revolt. "We have to say that we can see no need for an inquiry as proposed. There is no evidence that unarmed prisoners were summarily killed," spokesman Kenton Keith told a news conference in Islamabad. The White House said it was premature to send international peacekeepers into Afghanistan, calling conditions on the ground too "fluid and dangerous". Kabul-based Northern Alliance leader Burhanuddin Rabbani also said only around 200 peacekeepers were needed and elections should be held within two months, rather than two years as envisaged at the talks. UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi retorted that Rabbani had assured the UN he would respect any decision made at the negotiations. In a gesture to Afghan women, Rabbani said he supported their right to vote and hold office. "Women should have the right to be elected and to elect," Rabbani said, adding that elections in Afghanistan should be held under international supervision. The Pentagon said some 1,000 US Marines were at a desert airfield not far from Kandahar, but there was no sign yet they were preparing for a ground assault on the Taleban redoubt. A spokesman for Gul Agha, the former Mujahedeen governor of Kandahar, said he had about 3,000 fighters massed six km (four miles) south of Kandahar airport, but also no immediate plans to advance. Northern Alliance troops should stay away, he said. "We have enough people in Kandahar and we don’t need their help," Khalid Pashtoon said, speaking by satellite phone. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! Write to same address to be off lists! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. 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