22 - 28 November 2001
Issue No.561
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 22 - 28 November 2001 Issue No.561 |
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Forcing the issues
Additional US troops, expected soon in Afghanistan, will attempt to end Taliban rule and arrest Osama Bin Laden, reports Absar Alam from Islamabad
The commander in charge of US operations in Afghanistan, Gen. Tom Franks, said yesterday the United States could soon deploy additional ground forces to support the special troops already stationed in Afghanistan. As many as 1,500 Marines are waiting on ships in the Arabian Sea near Pakistan and could be sent to Afghanistan within days. The US Air Force also plans to send three AC-130 gunships to Uzbekistan.
"All forms of military forces stay on the table and possibly one or other type of forces will be deployed in Afghanistan," he said. "Concerning what I call conventional forces... we have not taken that off the table," he told reporters at a US base in Uzbekistan where some 2,000 US soldiers are stationed.
Franks also said that he was confident the ongoing battle over the northern Afghan city of Kunduz would soon end in defeat for Taliban forces, reportedly backed by thousands of Arab and Pakistani fighters. The city of Kunduz is the only remaining Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan. Leaders of the Northern Alliance (NA), which has kept a tight siege around Kunduz, said that they were conducting negotiations with Taliban commanders in order to arrange for their surrender. The main stumbling block has been the Alliance's refusal to grant amnesty to the Arab and Pakistani fighters backing the Taliban. Yesterday, a spokesman for the Alliance said they were expecting two Taliban commanders from Kunduz to arrive in Mazar-i- Sharif for further talks.
"I don't know how long that battle will continue but, at the end of the day, we will prevail in the city of Kunduz," said Franks, who met with anti-Taliban leaders in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday night -- the first such trip inside Afghanistan by a senior US military official.
Lakhdar Brahimi, UN special envoy for Afghanistan, told reporters in New York on Tuesday that the Taliban had approached the United Nations to negotiate a surrender of Kunduz but the UN, he said, does not have the means to accommodate that request. Brahimi urged the opposition Northern Alliance to show restraint amid serious fears that thousands of people could be killed in the city.
Franks also spoke of tightening the noose around the Taliban's home base of Kandahar, in the south of Afghanistan. "We need to complete the work in Kandahar... and most importantly we need to complete the destruction of the Al- Qa'eda terrorist network," Franks said.
MOVING LINES: Taliban-controlled cities fall, one after the other, to the US's proxy forces in Afghanistan; yet the war rages on, insatiably claiming civilians. Nor has the threat of famine been averted, as the snows creep down in silent flakes, cold as death. Afghan refugees stay a step ahead of the front line, buffeted by bombs on both sides: here families leave a village in Kunduz province, the tide of war lapping at their heels
(photo: AFP)
On the political front, the US prevailed on the Northern Alliance to give up its demand to hold talks on a future broad- based government in the capital, Kabul. The Alliance's Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah announced on Tuesday that former Afghan President Burhaneddin Rabbani has accepted an invitation from the United Nations to attend talks in Germany on the future government of Afghanistan.
In an indication of the Alliance's ambition to be the main power broker after playing a key role in the US-led military campaign, Rabbani said the Berlin conference would be symbolic only.
The open-ended gathering in Berlin, reportedly due to start on Monday, will appoint a provisional council, likely to be headed by exiled King Zaher Shah, which would later meet in Afghanistan to decide on a two-year interim administration. Other than supervising day-to-day work, the provisional council will draft a constitution and prepare to hold general elections.
Meanwhile, Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher visited Isalmabad on Monday and held talks with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Maher said he handed Musharraf a letter from President Mubarak, offering to work together for the return of durable peace and stability in Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, Pakistan summoned Taliban Ambassador Mullah Abdul-Salam Za'if to the Foreign Office to inform him that Pakistan had closed down the Taliban consulates in Peshawar and Quetta. A decision, on US advice, has already been taken to completely sever diplomatic relations with the Taliban regime, informed Pakistani sources said.
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