February 16, 2000

FMF Emergency Alert, concerning the fate of the Afghan airline hostages Take action, click here for letter/petitions.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) Urgent Action on Afghanistan (Feb. 11, 2000) . Click here for English text.

7-member OIC delegation begins Afghan peace mission
2-16-2000
ISLAMABAD (NNI): A seven member OIC delegation led by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister, Dr. Muhammad Jawad Zarif arrived in Islamabad Tuesday to discuss with Pakistani leaders how best to facilitate restoration of peace in Afghanistan.

UK says more Afghan ex-hostages seeking asylum
LONDON, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Britain expects the number of freed Afghan hijack hostages trying to stay in the country to rise by three to 78, the Home Office (interior ministry) said on Wednesday.

Hostages: Hijackers Were Big Family
By AMIR SHAH
.c The Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - While most passengers on the hijacked Afghan plane cowered in fear, dozens of others - many of them women and children - laughed, tossed aside their veils and received the choicest food and drink from their captors.

Sanctions 'may have aided hijack'
BBC
By Kate Clark in Kabul
A senior official with Iata, the International Air Transport Association, who is working in Afghanistan, has said the recent hijack would probably have been prevented if UN sanctions hadn't hampered their work.

Issuance of licences, display of arms banned
T. A. MALIK - Business Recorder (Pakistan)
ISLAMABAD (February 16) : The government has banned issuance of arms licences immediately and display of all types of weapons from March 1, 2000, throughout the country under first phase of its seven stage de-weaponisation policy. This was

US to provide visa to 6000 Afghan widows
2-16-2000
ISLAMABAD (NNI): The United States has decided to grant visa and asylum to 6,000 Afghan widows, reports Radio Tehran.

Afghanistan engagement
HOOMAN PEIMANI
South China Morning Post (Commentary) 2-16-2000
The recent hijacking of an Afghan airliner has reminded the world of the largely forgotten Afghan civil war and the uncertain relations of the Taleban with other states around it. As a neighbouring country, China has every reason to pay attention to what

Hijacking with a difference
The Washington Times (Editorial)
2-16-2000
What kind of disturbed hijackers would force an Afghan jetliner to detour a routine Afghani domestic flight to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia before heading to England, jeopardizing the lives of 164 people on board? Perhaps quite clever ones.

W E B - O N L Y I N T E R V I E W - From CNN site
'We Are Against Terrorism'
Online-only interview with Taliban supreme leader Mullah Muhammed Omar
On the eve of the dramatic resolution in London of the Ariana Airlines hijacking, TIME reporter Rahimullah Yusufzai spoke with the Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Muhammed Omar, by telephone. Several of the plane's crew escaped late