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[The very moving 'heartfelt recantations' toward the end of this report should be taken in the spirit in which they were uttered. It's certain that the Company has other uses for the recently released, perhaps in Kazakstan or, as always, the Balkans.] Thursday January 3 9:52 AM ET Afghan Authorities Release 269 Taliban Prisoners By Jeremy Page KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's new government released 269 Taliban prisoners on Thursday, most of them captured as long as five years ago by Northern Alliance forces. The men were freed from a prison in central Kabul and given 500,000 afghanis ($20) each by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to get back to their homes, mostly in southern Afghanistan. The gesture underscored the confidence of the interim government that formally took power on December 22, about five weeks after the Taliban collapsed, worn out and bloodied by several weeks of blistering U.S. bombing. ``All of them are Taliban prisoners captured at the front,创 said Brigadier Farooq of the Ministry of State Security, commander of a jail in northern Afghanistan where the men were held until two days ago. ``In order to restore peace and an atmosphere of freedom in the country, the government decided to release captives taken while fighting the Northern Alliance,创 he told Reuters. ``They say they want to go back to their villages,创 he said. 创I don磘 know how they feel in their hearts, but I don磘 think they can do anything now.创 Looking pale but reasonably healthy, and very relieved, the men queued up to collect their wads of crisp, new afghanis before gathering their few belongings and heading out of the prison compound. PRISONERS BACK GOVERNMENT They said they had heard about the September 11 attacks on the United States, the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan, and the defeat of the Taliban from guards at the prison and the occasional radio report. Many, such as 20-year-old Doar Mohammad, said they now backed the new interim government of Hamid Karzai. ``I believe in God, but not in the ideology of the Taliban any more,创 said Mohammad who was captured two years ago in the northern province of Baghlan. ``It didn磘 do any good, torturing people, forcing men to have long beards and women to wear burqas. ``I joined the Taliban because they captured my area,创 he said. ``If you had been me, you would have done the same. Now I just want to go home and listen to the radio and watch television.创 But a few said they still believed in the Taliban's extreme interpretation of Islamic law, under which television was banned. ``I was upset when I heard about the Taliban磗 defeat because I thought Islamic government had ended,创 said Qutbuddin Hanifi, 28, who was captured four years ago. ``At the beginning of the Taliban movement, everything was all right and people were treated well,创 he said. ``If I ask people in the street what happened for the last four years, maybe I will change my mind.创 BELIEFS UNCHANGED Abdul Hadi, who joined the Taliban after studying in a madrassa -- or Islamic college -- in their former stronghold of Kandahar, said his beliefs had not changed after five years in prison. ``It is written in the Koran that the prophet said women should wear burqas and men should have long beards,创 he said. 创It is a personal thing -- if you are a Muslim, you must understand the rules of Islam.创 ICRC spokesman Michael Kleiner said the government had asked his organization to arrange for the prisoners to be sent home. This was the second major prisoner release since the fall of the Taliban, he said. The first took place in Kandahar last month, when anti-Taliban forces released some 1,600 prisoners and sent them home. ``The new authorities are processing cases,创 said Kleiner. 创The important thing is that people can go home, and we are providing them with some cash to do so.创 Farooq said senior Taliban leaders were released earlier as part of prisoner exchanges and there were no more Taliban in his prison in the northern district of Dubab. But there were 22 foreign prisoners from Pakistan, Burma, China, Saudi Arabia and Yemen still in captivity, he said. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send your FREE holiday greetings online! http://greetings.yahoo.com ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
