april20b1998

Taliban Army Says Cease-Fire Broken

By Zaheeruddin Abdullah
Associated Press Writer
Sunday, April 19, 1998; 10:37 p.m. EDT

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The Taliban religious army accused its enemies Sunday of launching attacks that violated a cease-fire recently brokered by a U.S. envoy.

``The opposition is not honest,'' Taliban spokesman Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil told reporters in the capital, Kabul. ``Both sides are ready for fighting and we have a right to defend ourselves.''

The northern-based opposition alliance attacked Taliban troops in northern Kunduz province and near Ghorband, north of Kabul, Muttawakil said. The Taliban claimed to have captured nine opposition fighters.

The report could not be independently confirmed.

The fighting came two days after the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, crisscrossed Afghanistan meeting both the Taliban and the opposition alliance.

Richardson said the warring groups agreed to stop fighting until their representatives met in neighboring Pakistan before April 27, calling the deal a ``breakthrough.''

But it appeared to unravel almost immediately, with reports of fresh fighting Saturday and Sunday.

Many analysts expect full-scale war to break out once the weather clears and the snow-clogged mountain passes to let weapons and soldiers cross.

Richardson's visit also reportedly resulted in a guarantee from the Taliban to meet a U.N. delegation trying to resolve differences between the United Nations and the Taliban army.

But Muttawakil said Sunday that the Taliban won't meet with the team while it is led by Alfredo Witschi-Cestari, head of the U.N. office for humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.

Muttawakil refused to say why Witschi-Cestari was an unacceptable negotiator.

Witschi-Cestari, based in neighboring Pakistan, ordered a temporary suspension of U.N. aid to southern Afghanistan earlier this month to protest attacks on U.N. staff by the Taliban governor of the area.

The United Nations also has protested several Taliban edicts, particularly those directed at women. In the 85 percent of Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban, girls are not allowed to go to school and women have been banished from the work force.