U.N. Official Taken to Front Line

By Amir Shah
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, Dec. 1, 1999; 6:48 a.m. EST

KABUL, Afghanistan –– The Taliban took a senior U.N. official to the front line in Afghanistan today to disprove charges that children are fighting in the religious militia's protracted war to gain full control of the country.

Erick de Mul, the U.N. coordinator for Afghanistan, was taken in a Taliban truck to the battlefield north of Kabul, a U.N. worker in Kabul said on condition of anonymity.

At the front line, 25 miles north of the capital, Taliban troops have faced off against a northern-based opposition, led by ousted Defense Minister Ahmed Shah Massood.

De Mul reportedly went to the front line voluntarily, the U.N. worker said.

His visit to the battlefield comes a day after the Taliban's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, criticized U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and his annual report on Afghanistan, which said the Taliban were recruiting soldiers as young as 14.

Annan said the children were being recruited from religious schools in neighboring Pakistan.

The accusations are "baseless," Taliban spokesman Tayyab Aga told The Associated Press from the southern town of Kandahar.

A U.N. official in Pakistan told The Associated Press today that the U.N. headquarters in New York was opposed to a visit to the front line by its staff. "We could be made targets if we go," he said on condition of anonymity.

It was not known why de Mul, who was not immediately available for comment, chose to visit the front line.

Omar issued an edict forbidding the use of children on the front line. He warned commanders that they would be punished if they were found recruiting children, Aga said.

The Taliban religious army rule roughly 90 percent of Afghanistan and the opposition the remaining 10 percent.

The Taliban adhere to a strict version of Islam that bars women from work and education, forces men to wear beards and outlaws all light entertainment, including music and television.

Relations between the Taliban and the United Nations have been shaky since the Taliban's 1996 takeover of Kabul and the hanging of Afghan president Najibullah, who had been living in a U.N. compound.

The United Nations withdrew its international staff from Kabul for several months after one of its workers was killed and another wounded a day after a U.S. rocket attack in August 1998 on eastern Afghanistan.

Relations further deteriorated on Nov. 14 when the United Nations imposed limited sanctions to demand the Taliban hand over suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden to stand trial either in the United States or in a third country. The United States accuses bin Laden of masterminding the twin bombings of its embassies in East Africa last year.