TALIBAN WELCOME DUTCH MINISTER'S 'MISQUOTED' COMMENTS ON RIGHTS

KABUL, Feb 21 (AFP) - Afghanistan's Taliban Saturday welcomed comments by a visiting Dutch minister on the human rights stance of the Islamic militia which sparked outrage in the Netherlands. Taliban Information Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told reporters Dutch Foreign Aid Minister Jan Pronk recognised that foreign "propaganda" over the militia's human rights record was "far from the truth." Pronk, currently in Afghanistan on a fact-finding mission, Friday said "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," he said. Pronk's quoted remarks were met with stunned disbelief by Dutch members of parliament, and The Hague later said Pronk had been misquoted. Ministry spokesman Peter Knoope said Pronk actually said: "It is a mistake to think that only the Taliban violate human rights, since their opponents do likewise." The minister had added he had found it easier than he had expected to raise human rights questions with the Taliban, especially women's rights. 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. Muttaqi said Pronk's discussions with the Taliban authorities here were "positive." "His talks were positive and he left very happy. He also accepted that the outside propaganda was to a large extent far from the truth," Muttaqi said. "Since he had heard a lot against the Taliban from the international mass media, he wanted to find the facts and to understand whether or not the propaganda was true," the Taliban official said. The Dutch minister, who had talks with acting president of the Taliban Ruling Council in Kabul, Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, said he felt the militia seemed more "flexible" than in the past. "I came back from the discussion with some hope that the situation is not as blocked as has been portrayed internationally," Pronk said.