|
|
Change Your Life! |
U.N. threatens further sanctions against Taliban |
|
News
|
April 9, 2000
UNITED NATIONS, APR 8 (AP) - The Security Council threatened further sanctions Friday against Afghanistan's Taliban militia to compel it to agree to U.N. demands to end fighting and handover Osama bin Laden for trial in the bombing of two U.S. embassies.
In a statement adopted after an open debate on Afghanistan, council members blasted the Taliban for the unabated violence and worsening humanitarian conditions in the country.
They urged the Taliban to stop new offenses and resume talks with opposition factions and called on the militia's foreign allies to halt the supply of personnel and weapons to the warring factions.
The council froze Taliban assets in November and imposed an air embargo on the Taliban-run airline to force the militia to deliver bin Laden for trial in the bombings in east Africa in August 1998.
The Taliban have refused, saying he is their guest.
In the statement, the council said it "reaffirms its readiness to consider the imposition of further targeted measures ... with the aim of achieving the full implementation of all its relevant resolutions."
Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy said the council should "consider measures to cut off the supply of weapons to belligerents." Axworthy, who was in New York to chair the meeting, did not elaborate.
Movements of Taliban fighters and equipment in and around Kabul have increased in recent days as they prepare for new spring offenses, John Renninger, head of the Asia-Pacific division of the organization's Department of Political Affairs, told the council.
The militia also has been recruiting non-Afghan fighters through religious schools in Pakistan, he said.
"There is every indication that preparations for an organized, large-scale offensive are now well under way on both sides," Renninger said.
The Taliban rule almost 90 percent of Afghanistan, including Kabul, and have been fighting the opposition on several fronts since they drove the government out two years ago.
Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the war has exacerbated an already dire humanitarian situation.
Taliban leaders have made it difficult for the United Nations and other aid agencies to operate in Afghanistan, complicating relations with the international body.
Women and girls are denied basic health care and education and cannot travel without a male relative.
Afghanistan's U.N. ambassador, Ravan Farhadi, who represents the ousted government which still holds a U.N. seat, attacked the Pakistani military regime for allegedly helping the Taliban.
"Pakistan still calls for a military solution in Afghanistan. This is why they're sending arms and ammunitions for the Taliban," he said.
|