Dutch minister:Taliban misunderstood in the West'

KABUL (AFP) - The Dutch Minister for Co-operation Development said here Friday the West was misinterpreting the Taliban's stand on human rights and called for more contact to establish a better understanding.

Jan Pronk, in Kabul on a fact-finding mission, said the West should begin a "serious dialogue" with the Islamic militia, which has come under fire from numerous Western human rights campaigners.

"I think there is a misconception that the present regime is really violating human rights. There are some human rights being implemented in a different way on the basis of a different philosophy," Pronk said.

Pronk, who held two days of talks with Taliban officials here, said that in many other Islamic countries women did not enjoy the freedoms they did in the West. He emphasised, however, it was "very important that women get more and more chance to live in a way they want to". Pronk met Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, acting President of the Taliban Ruling Council in the capital, and said afterwards the Taliban seemed more "flexible" than he had earlier been led to believe.

"I came back from the discussion with some hope that the situation is not as blocked as has been portrayed internationally," Pronk said.

The puritanical militia, which captured Kabul after bloody fighting in September 1996, has imposed a strict interpretation of the Islamic Sharia law and has banned women from education and work.

This has denied the Taliban badly-needed international recognition and Afghanistan's seat at the United Nations, though they control two-thirds of the country.

They have been under pressure from Western human rights campaigners to comply with globally-recognised principles concerning women.

European Union Commissioner for Human Rights, Emma Bonino, was arrested for three hours by the Taliban during her September visit to Kabul because reporters in her entourage were filming at a women's hospital.

"I have the impression that things went wrong here during her visit. I got the impression that it was not the intention of the authorities to be aggressive toward her," Pronk said.

"At the same time, there is a misconception that the international community is after the government and is trying to impose its own views on Afghanistan," the Dutch Minister said.

Pronk was to fly Friday to Kandahar, the Islamic militia's headquarters in southwest Afghanistan, to meet the Taliban's supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar.

Pronk said he planned to raise the issue of women's education with Taliban officials in Kandahar.