TALEBAN THREATEN TO SUPPORT ANTI-IRAN GROUPS

The News

KABUL: The Taleban on Sunday demanded Iran hand over an opposition general accused of massacring thousands of Taleban troops or become ''a target'' of relatives seeking revenge. "We can not prevent the people who lost their relatives in the north'' from taking revenge on Iran, Taleban's Information Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi warned at a news conference in the Afghan capital of Kabul.

"Iran would become a target, not by the Taleban, but by the relatives of these martyrs,'' he said. Muttaqi was demanding the return of Malik Pahlawan, an Uzbek leader, accused of ordering the slaughter of an estimated 2,000 Taleban soldiers last June in northern Afghanistan. Pahlawan fled to Iran from the opposition-held northern Afghanistan last November after losing a power struggle with Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum. Pahlawan was Dostum's deputy until last May when he overthrew the Uzbek warlord and formed an alliance with the Taleban.

That alliance quickly soured, and hundreds of Taleban soldiers were killed in bloody battles that erupted across the north. Thousands more were taken prisoner. Dostum claimed his former deputy massacred 2,000 Taleban prisoners and dumped their bodies into wells and shallow graves. The United Nations has investigated the claim and found evidence of mass killings of Taleban troops in northern Afghanistan. "General Malik Pahlawan is the murderer of thousands of Taleban fighters,'' said Muttaqi. "The Afghan people want to see his immediate return from Iran. . . if they give us a negative answer, then there will be a stern reaction in the near future.''

The Taleban routinely accuse Iran of arming and financing its opponents, led by ousted president Burhanuddin Rabbani. The anti-Taleban alliance is made up of small parties mostly representing Afghanistan's minority, including Shia Muslims. "We have a long border with Iran and since Iran supports our opposition, we will support their opposition and give them facilities,'' warned Muttaqi.

Muttaqi said the Taleban, which controls about 85 percent of Afghanistan, treated his country's ethnic and religious minorities fairly. Meanwhile, the Taleban militia has rejected a United Nations call to stop bombing the air strip in the opposition stronghold of Bamiyan in central Afghanistan, a Taleban spokesman said on Sunday.

A UN delegation met with Taleban authorities in the militia's southwestern headquarters of Kandahar on Saturday to convey the UN request, Taleban spokesman Wakil Ahmed told the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP). But Taleban authorities made it clear that the air strikes would continue because "the anti-Taleban forces are using the Bamiyan airport for military purposes," Wakil told the Pakistan-based private news service. The airport is being used to supply arms and ammunition to pro-Iranian Hezb-i-Wahdat forces to fuel the war in Afghanistan, he said.

The UN investigation into the alleged massacre of up to 2,000 Taleban captives in northern Afghanistan last year have yet to establish the exact death toll and causes of death for the victims. Despite being treated to a UN forensic examination in December, a final account of the deaths of Taleban fighters in areas controlled by the anti-Taleban and now-exiled warlord Abdul Malik remains to be concluded.

According to an initial report issued by the United Nation's special rapporteur on human rights for Afghanistan, some prisoners were executed while others may have been killed in action during heavy fighting last May. The UN team, which visited the sites in December, claimed some prisoners held by Malik were taken from detention said they were going to be exchanged and trucked off to desert wells and tossed into them, either alive or after being executed. About nine wells were used and a UN forensic expert said each one could contain up to 100 bodies. However, it remains unclear what the exact death toll is and whether the executions were limited to the small samples seen.

Taleban reject opposition's ceasefire proposal

KABUL: The Taleban government in Afghanistan has rejected the proposal of opposition forces for a ceasefire during Ramazan. President Burhanuddin Rabbani had proposed the ceasefire during the holy month. Meanwhile, the Afghan Islamic press reported that Taleban and the fighters of opposition commander Ahmad Shah Massoud exchanged heavy artillery fire along the frontline in north of Kabul.