Besieged troops plead to UN

21 Nov, 2001 10:37 AM5 mins to read

KABUL - The Taleban have pleaded with the United Nations to arrange the unconditional surrender of their forces besieged in the northern city of Kunduz, but the UN says it can't help.

The world body's top envoy for Afghanistan said the UN had no presence in the area, "and simply cannot, unfortunately, accede to this request".

Lakhdar Brahimi said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had been in touch with the Northern Alliance, whose forces are outside the city, and members of the international coalition, asking that they "respect their obligations under international humanitarian law and treat this question with as much humanity as possible".

The United States has pulled the rug out from under the negotiators' feet, saying it would vehemently oppose any solution that would allow Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda fighters to escape the city.

Thousands of Taleban troops are trapped in and around Kunduz. Among those in the city, say alliance commanders, are 1000 members of al Qaeda, including a senior commander, Omar al-Khatab, and more than 10,000 foreign Taleban volunteers who appear determined to fight to the death.

Anxious to avoid a bloodbath, the alliance is holding back from attacking the city while it tries to help negotiate the Taleban's surrender.

But grim tales come out of the city of the foreigners massacring Afghan Taleban who try to defect.

"We have no desire for [the foreigners] to surrender to us," said General Mohammed Daoud, commander of the alliance.

"We want to fight with them. Those who die, die. Those who don't we will capture."

Daoud did not rule out accepting the surrender of foreign Taleban soldiers, if they laid down their weapons. Those who did surrender would be judged in an Islamic court for their crimes.

"We are not optimistic that any of the foreign Taleban will be ready to surrender," he said yesterday.

Daoud said negotiations for the surrender of the remaining Afghans would continue with Afghan Taleban leaders Mullah Daoudullah and Mullah Fazel for several more days.

At least 30 per cent of an estimated 20,000 Afghan Taleban troops have already defected to the northern alliance in recent days, he said.

More than 470 other Afghan Taleban who tried to defect on Sunday were killed by the foreigners, who include Pakistanis, Uzbeks, Chechens, Bangladeshis and other nationalities, Daoud said.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said he would prefer the al Qaeda fighters to be killed rather than allowed to escape alive from Afghanistan.

But lawyers and human rights groups have warned that America would breach its international obligations if it allowed the Northern Alliance to refuse to accept the surrender of troops in Kunduz and Kandahar.

They said that under international law, America could be held responsible for genocide if Taleban troops were massacred despite offering to surrender. Under the Geneva Convention, it is illegal to give no quarter to the enemy.

In London, international human rights barrister Richard Gordon, QC, said: "The US does bear some responsibility for ensuring [the Taleban troops] are treated humanely because [the US] are effectively in control."

American planes continued to pound Kunduz and the surrounding area yesterday.

The alliance has the city surrounded on all sides. To the west are the forces of the Uzbek warlord General Rashid Dostum, whose victory in Mazar-i-Sharif prompted the collapse of the Taleban across Afghanistan.

To the east are an array of warlords' private armies, under the command of General Daoud.

The alliance had not attacked, Daoud said yesterday, because it wanted to avoid "widespread bloodshed and destruction".

It is not only the blood of the Taleban he is worried about. Last week, alliance troops walked into a Taleban ambush, fooled by false reports that the Taleban in Kunduz had surrendered. More than 50 soldiers were killed, according to one commander.

In other developments:

* The US military is broadcasting radio messages into Afghanistan offering rewards of up to $US25 million ($60 million) for information leading to the location or capture of Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda guerrilla leaders.

* UN and German officials say talks will begin in Berlin on Monday to discuss a framework for a new, broad-based government in Afghanistan. The talks will include representatives of major factions and ethnic groups, but will exclude the Taleban.

* A Spanish judge has detailed what he believes to be a coded telephone conversation between suspected Islamic militants which referred to the September 11 attacks on the United States.

In a court order, Judge Baltasar Garzon justified the continued detention of eight members of a Spanish radical Islamic group, citing evidence of its links to bin Laden.

* Four journalists killed in a roadside ambush in Afghanistan had been stoned as well as shot to death, a Red Cross official said yesterday. Colleagues were on hand for the arrival in Pakistan of the bodies, including that of Australian news cameraman Harry Burton.

* A 91-year-old Connecticut woman was being treated for suspected inhalation anthrax, Governor John Rowland said, in what would be the first US case of the disease since a New York hospital worker died of it on October 31.

* Citing "extraordinary times", President George W. Bush said the Christmas-bedecked White House would be off limits to the public this Thanksgiving holiday.

* A US ship loaded with food to feed about one million Afghans for one month set sail set sail yesterday from Louisiana for Pakistan and Iran. The Government food aid includes 10,000 tonnes of peas, soybean flour, vegetable oil, corn and wheat.

- INDEPENDENT, AGENCIES

Story archives: