UN curbs on Taliban come into force

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 14 (Agencies) — UN-imposed aviation and financial sanctions entered into force today against Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers for failing to surrender Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden for trial on charges of plotting the bombing of U.S. Embassies in Africa last year.

At least 225 persons were killed and more than 4,000 wounded when the Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were rocked by almost simultaneous blasts on August 7, 1998. Most of the casualties were in Nairobi.

The sanctions were imposed by the Security Council on October 15, with a 30-day deadline for compliance.

Council President Danilo Turk of Slovenia told reporters on Friday: “The sanctions will go into effect automatically.”

He said he had heard various reports of Taliban proposals aimed at forestalling the sanctions, but “nothing of the character which would require the matter to be brought before the council for consideration.”

Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, in an interview with Reuters in Kabul on Saturday, issued a last-minute appeal to the UN to delay or scrap the sanctions and renewed an offer to talk with Washington.

But Muttawakil reiterated that his government would not hand over Bin Laden to the USA against his will.

The supreme leader of the strict Islamist movement that controls about 90 per cent of civil war-ravaged Afghanistan, Mullah Mohammad Omar, has warned that if the USA did not cease its “hostility,” it would “face earthquakes and storms from God’s side and then you will be surprised.”

The sanctions were approved unanimously by the U.N. Council under the mandatory provisions of the U.N. Charter, requiring all states to ban arrivals or departures by aircraft owned, leased or operated by or on behalf of the Taliban.

The only exceptions are humanitarian flights, including those carrying religious pilgrims, authorised in advance by a watchdog sanctions committee to be set up by the council.

All countries must also freeze funds and other financial resources owned or controlled by the Taliban, except for any that the sanctions committee exempt on humanitarian grounds.

The USA imposed its own sanctions earlier this year, including freezing the assets of Afghanistan’s national Ariana Airline and banning U.S. investment and trade with the areas under Taliban control.

Bin Laden and another alleged conspirator, Muhammad Atef, were indicted by a U.S. Grand Jury in New York in November, 1998, for plotting the embassy bombings.

The U.S. State Department has offered rewards of $ 5 million each for information leading to their arrest or conviction.

Shortly after the embassy attacks, the USA launched missile strikes against bases in Afghanistan alleged to have been used by Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda group, described in the U.S. indictment as “a worldwide terrorist organisation.”

When the sanctions resolution was adopted last month, a Deputy U.S. Representative, Nancy Soderberg, told the Security Council that Bin Laden’s organisation, “working with other terrorist groups, continues actively to plan attacks on Americans and others.”

“We also have reliable evidence that Bin Laden’s network seeks to acquire weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons,” she said.

On Friday, U.S. and UN offices in Islamabad, Pakistan, were the targets of a number of rockets launched from parked vehicles.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, which wounded a Pakistani guard near the city’s American centre, but U.S. officials speculated they were related to the imminent sanctions.

Although the Taliban captured Kabul, the capital, more than three years ago and have squeezed an Opposition alliance into a small segment of the country, the Opposition still retains Afghanistan’s U.N. seat.

KABUL: Meanwhile, in the beleaguered Afghan capital, residents complained bitterly about the UN and the USA.

“The Afghan people are dying... It is an unfair decision for the Afghan people,” said a high school teacher Mohammed Ibrahim, who lives in a sunbaked mud home.

His family home was destroyed several years ago by relentless fighting between rival Islamic factions who took control of Kabul from the former Communists.

“For breakfast this morning I had only one piece of bread that I shared with my two small sons... This is our life in Afghanistan,” he said this morning outside his home.

A mechanic, Mohammed Jawaz huddled for warmth over a steaming cup of green tea at a rundown restaurant in the heart of Kabul said he was bewildered by the sanctions. “To impose sanctions on poor Afghanistan when our people are dying it is a shame for America and for the UN.”

Food prices have already begun to climb in Kabul and the Afghan currency has nose-dived. Yesterday the Afghani had plummeted to 51,000 to the dollar, from a previous 43,000.

Meanwhile, more than 400 Afghan protestors marched past the US Embassy here on Sunday in protest against the UN sanctions imposed on the ruling Taliban regime.

“Death to America, Death to womaniser Clinton,” the crowds chanted as they marched.

The protestors, who appeared well-organised, said groups from across the city had arranged to gather for more demonstrations. There were no signs of violence.

Meanwhile, the UN staff kept a low profile in Afghanistan.

Only essential staff reported for work and the UN’s characteristic white vehicles would stay off the roads, UN sources said.

Additional Taliban guards have been assigned to maintain the security of UN staff.

“It is calm and no reports of any mishaps have been received,” said one UN worker.

In the morning, a UN plane flew into Kabul airport from Islamabad on a routine flight and dropped off medicine and one expatriate worker. Six passengers were flown back.

Other aid agencies, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has a major presence in the country, were seen driving through the streets of Kabul.

But most foreigners kept a low profile, even though the Taliban’s foreign minister said yesterday he guaranteed the safety of foreign workers in Afghanistan.

Afghan group owns up blasts

DHAKA, Nov 14 (AFP) — A caller claiming to be from an Afghan-based Islamic militant group named Al-Jihad today said his organisation fired six rockets at the US and UN buildings in Islamabad.

In an apparent threat, the man in a telephone call to AFP, also said the group did not wish to follow up the attacks with more in other locations.

"We don’t want to repeat (Friday’s) Islamabad incident in Bangladesh or anywhere in the world... Almighty god is with us," the caller told an AFP correspondent here.

In a brief call in English, the man, who had an Arabic accent, identified himself as only "Ahmed" and claimed his group was based in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.

But before his identity could be established he immediately hung up, refusing to say where he was calling from or to answer questions.

The call came as security was stepped up in Bangladesh and Pakistan after six blasts aimed at US and UN buildings rocked Islamabad ahead of today’s imposition of sanctions by the world body on Afghanistan.

ISLAMABAD: An FBI team from USA is reaching here to probe Friday’s multiple rocket attacks on US and UN establishments here.

The FBI team, the strength of which was not known, is expected to interact with the Pakistani Army and police experts as well as professionals from the bomb disposal squad to find a clue to the attacks in which one security guard at the American Centre was injured and a number of vehicles destroyed apart from minor damages to the property, The Nation said, quoting sources.

Meanwhile, the local police has constituted a joint investigation team to examine the attacks but, was yet to come out with any definite evidence about the attack.

The police, however, has rounded up five Afghan refugees from different parts of Islamabad and is interrogating them in a bid to reach some conclusion, the largest circulated urdu daily Jung said, quoting police sources.

A number of Pakistani intelligence agencies are also helping the local police find leads about the attacks.

The police, however, has managed to identify at least two of the vehicles used for the rocket attacks but both vehicles have turned out to be stolen some time ago and had false number plates on them.

The rockets had been fired from the local made rocket launchers fitted into the vehicles which caught fire as soon as the rockets fired apparently by some remote controlled device.

The police is also taking the help of a team of defence production division which is examining the rocket launchers and a couple of unexploded rockets to determine its origin.

Jung said that the rocket launchers were of the same type which had started firing rockets when a major arms depot at Ojhri on the outskirts of Islamabad had caught fire about 11 years ago.

On the other hand, the Pakistan Observer quoting local sources claimed that the investigations suffered a setback when the American Embassy here refused access to the police to the video recording of the cameras installed around their embassy building and the American Centre.

Meanwhile, the security in the capital continued to be very tight as the authorities have also banned pillion riding on motorcycles as well as the use of tinted glass in cars.