TALIBAN REFUSES TO PROMISE NOT TO BOMB CENTRAL BAMYAN

By Zaheeruddin Abdullah, Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban religious army denied permission to the World Food Program on Monday to airlift emergency food to enemy territory in central Afghanistan.

The WFP was forced to suspend its airlift of food to central Bamyan province last week after Taliban jets bombed the area, including the runway where a U.N. cargo plane was parked.

On Saturday, the United Nations sent a representative to southern Kandahar to meet Taliban leaders and negotiate an end to the bombing, but the two sides were unable to reach an agreement.

Reached by satellite phone in Kandahar, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, a Taliban spokesman, said the religious army was firm in its refusal to allow humanitarian groups into the battle zone.

"We told the U.N. that they cannot fly into Bamyan. ... We can give no guarantees for U.N. flights to Bamyan because our opposition is keeping prisoners there.''

Prior to the Taliban bombing last week, the WFP had airlifted 181 tons of food to the area. The U.N. agency was planning to deliver more than 5,000 tons of food over the next six weeks to feed an estimated 600,000 people who will face serious shortages by the end of the bitter winter.

"We are terribly disappointed that we cannot do anything,'' said Bronek Szynalksi, a WFP spokesman in Pakistan.

U.N. officials in neighboring Pakistan were meeting to consider others ways of delivering the food aid, including a northern land route. That route, which is in opposition hands, is dangerous because of marauding warlords who routinely hijack convoys, steal and murder.

The Taliban army is waging fierce battles on several fronts, including in Bamyan province, against a northern-based alliance of Shiite Muslims. The Taliban controls about 85 percent of the country, and has already imposed a strict version of Islamic law in those areas. The anti-Taliban alliance is clinging to the remaining 15 percent of the country.

Both sides in the conflict have taken hundreds of prisoners.