May 23, 2001

Taleban justify tagging Hindus
BBC News
Now Hindu and Sikh women will have to wear veils too
A controversial order that Hindus in Afghanistan should carry identity tags is designed to protect them from police harrassment, a Taleban official has said.

US Says Taliban Plan to Identify Non-Muslims Is `Outrageous'
Paul Tighe
Washington, May 22 (Bloomberg) -- A move by Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to make non-Muslims wear identifying badges is ``outrageous,'' the U.S. State Department said.

Taliban defend yellow badges for non-Muslim Afghans
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL, May 23 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taliban on Wednesday defended a decree requiring non-Muslims to wear yellow badges, a move that has triggered international outrage and evoked memories

Afghan Hindus divided over Taliban yellow badge
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL, May 23 Reuters) - Many Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan expressed anger on Wednesday at a decree from the ruling Taliban ordering non-Muslims to wear a yellow badge so they can be identified.

Hindu leaders unfazed by Taliban edict on yellow badges
Wednesday May 23, 6:27 PM
KABUL, May 23 (AFP) - Afghan Hindu leaders said Wednesday they were unconcerned about a new Taliban edict forcing them to wear yellow stickers reminiscent of the detested badge for Jews in Nazi Germany.

Bay Area Afghans denounce Taliban decree on dress
Pia Sarkar, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 23, 2001
San Francisco Chronicle
Afghans in the Bay Area blasted the Taliban's order yesterday that requires Hindus in Afghanistan to wear identifying marks on their clothes, calling the Islamic group's policy the latest act of intolerance to divide their homeland.

ADL Calls On World Leaders To Condemn Afghanistan's Policy Of Religious Labeling
NEW YORK, May 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said the Taliban order requiring Hindus in Afghanistan to wear an identity label is "a policy of religious intolerance

Italian envoy in Kabul hospital talks
BBC News
Reports from Afghanistan say the Italian ambassador to Pakistan, Gabriele de Ceglia, has had discussions in Kabul with Taleban officials on the re-opening of an Italian-funded hospital in Kabul.

Terrorism threat real: US General
M. Afzal Khan - The Nation
Washington May 22: The terrorist threat originating from the Taliban to the Central Asian Republics is real and not exaggerated, the head of the U.S. Central Command, General Tommy R. Franks, has said.

Bush's Faustian Deal With the Taliban
Los Angeles Times - By ROBERT SCHEER 5/22/01
Enslave your girls and women, harbor anti-U.S. terrorists, destroy every vestige of civilization in your homeland, and the Bush administration will embrace you. All that matters is that you line

Afghan Taliban stage lashing of unwed couple accused of having sex
Tuesday, 22-May-2001 7:40PM
K ABUL, May 22 (AFP) - Afghanistan's fundamentalist Taliban regime Tuesday staged public lashing of an unmarried couple accused of having sex, witnesses said.

Iran says three would-be hostage-takers from Afghanistan killed
TEHRAN, May 22 (AFP) - Iranian security forces have killed three armed Afghans who had crossed the border to take hostages, the official IRNA news agency said on Tuesday.

Badge of shame
UK Times Editorial 5/23/2001
Afghanistan is going down the Nazi path of intolerance
The edict by Muhammad Wali, the Taleban religious police minister, forcing Hindus in Afghanistan to wear labels on their clothing to distinguish them from Muslims is repulsive and also revealing.