RIYADH, 6 November — Saudi Arabia’s former chief of intelligence, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, has revealed that Sudan had at one time agreed to hand over Osama Bin Laden to the Kingdom before Bin Laden’s return to Afghanistan in the summer of 1996.
In an interview with Arab News and the MBC television, Prince Turki also denied that the Taleban had received any financial support from the Kingdom, saying only humanitarian assistance was given to the Afghan people through Islamic and other international aid agencies.
This is the third part of the interview. The first and second parts appeared on Sunday and Monday.
The prince said Sudanese President Gen. Omar Al-Bashir made a "conditional offer" to hand over Bin Laden before Bin Laden returned to Afghanistan for the second time in 1996 after the Sudanese government asked him to leave, on condition that no legal action should be taken against him. However, the Saudis rejected the offer.
"President Bashir asked for guarantees regarding Bin Laden’s prosecution. That he would not be tried by any legal authority in the Kingdom. Bashir was told that no one is above the law and that we could not give such guarantees."
Prince Turki spoke at length about the Taleban and how the movement had emerged as a political force since 1994. He attributed this to the wrong actions of the Mujahedeen parties following the withdrawal of the Soviets from the country in 1989. Four years later, the Mujahedeen entered Kabul and differences surfaced among the various parties leading to the civil war that continues to plague the country.
Prince Turki said the Taleban emerged on the military and political stage as a reaction to the misbehavior of some Mujahedeen field commanders in Kandahar province. It was here that the students of religious schools who returned from Pakistan assembled and started to run the same type of schools.
The prince spoke of how after one field commander in Kandahar committed a "heinous act", the students took up arms, arrested the man together with some of his lieutenants and brought them before a Shariah court. The sentence was carried out in the place where the crime was committed. The students were led by their teacher, Mulla Omar Muhammad, who later became the head of the Taleban.
"The Taleban built a support base in Kandahar. The next day, a group of people came and complained to Mulla Omar that another commander was taking protection money from the local population. The Taleban did the same thing: arrested the commander and tried him. Their popularity increased among the people who saw in them a group which wanted to rid Afghanistan of those who mistreat the people."
Prince Turki stressed that official and popular support continued to come to the Taleban as well as other Afghan parties from Pakistan. "Because of their idealistic approach, people rallied behind them. They then began approaching leaderships and commanders in other areas of the country asking them to join their movement and work together to end the fighting. Some party leaders joined them at a time when fighting was raging between government forces led by the then President Burhanuddin Rabbani and those of Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar."
Ever since they launched their movement, the Taleban relied heavily on the Pashtun tribes whose historical capital, Kandahar, has become the seat of the movement, the prince said. The Pashtun have a heavy presence in most of the southern parts of the country and most of those who ruled Afghanistan since the days of the monarchy and the communists have usually hailed from these tribes, who make up from between 25 to 40 percent of the total population. Others, including the Uzbek, Turkiem and Hazara (who are mostly Shiite), account for the rest.
Prince Turki said the Kingdom suspended all assistance to all Mujahedeen parties when differences emerged among them. "We told them we will not pay a penny for any Afghan carrying a gun to fight their fellow-Afghans no matter how important that person was. The Saudi government support was thus cut off from all Mujahedeen parties."
The Kingdom, however, continued to provide humanitarian support to the Afghan people through Islamic and other international relief organizations. This support, said the prince, covered the Taleban when it first emerged in 1994.
"It was not possible that we give to the Taleban and withhold support from others. The Taleban did not receive a single penny in cash from the Kingdom since its founding until this day."
Commenting on the allegation that the Taleban used Saudi funds to win the hearts of dozens of field commanders, Prince Turki said: "This is totally false. If we were assisting the Taleban against any other party, we would have done that during the time of jihad. We help all Mujahedeen and we don’t differentiate between them."
He said the Saudi assistance was distributed among all parties "in accordance with their role in the jihad."
Referring to the first meeting between the Kingdom and the Taleban, he said: "The first meeting took place between me and (the late) Mulla Muhammad Rabbani in Islamabad in early 1995. I was on a visit to Islamabad to present a peace proposal. It was after the well-known unity talks in Makkah in 1994. Afghan leaders gathered at the Grand Mosque and pledged to abide by the peace accord in front of the Holy Kaaba."
He said that although the Afghan leaders had concluded several peace agreements in front of the Holy Kaaba before, during and after the jihad against the Russians, they did not abide by them.
Giving details of his visit in early 1995, he said: "At that time, Taleban forces had reached the border of Kabul. Rabbani was the president of the country and Ahmad Shah Masood the commander of the armed forces. Taleban was fighting at several fronts against the Hizb-e-Islami of Hikmatyar, against the recognized government, and the Shiite Wahdat party. I contacted the Mujahedeen leaders in Pakistan to present a peace proposal. Then I met with President Rabbani and Masood in Kabul to present the same proposal. Later I returned to Pakistan to hold talks with Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and Interior Minister Gen. Nasirullah Babar, who suggested to present the peace plan to the Taleban as it had gained weight at that time."
Gen. Babar introduced the Taleban in an interesting way: "He said they are my children." Prince Turki then met with Mulla Muhammad Rabbani, who later became the Taleban’s prime minister.
"He welcomed the peace proposal like all other Afghan leaders. He told me that they are proud of having friendship with Saudi Arabia and that they considered King Fahd as their imam."
However, Prince Turki pointed out that the meeting was very short and he could not make a good assessment of the Taleban.
Prince Turki pointed out that after the Russian withdrawal, the United States’ interest in Afghanistan dwindled.
"American officials told me they wanted to see stability in Afghanistan, but they were not active in following up events. They were busy with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, German reunification, and a year later the Gulf war. There were no direct relations between the United States and the Taleban in the beginning. But Washington was monitoring developments over there, especially the activities of oil companies, which worked to establish a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to the Arabian Sea through Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"There were only three choices. The pipeline should be either through Russia - but the Caucuses mountains and the Chechen crisis obstructed the project - or through Iran to Bandar Abbas. But the American firms were banned by US administration from operating in Iran. So only the Afghan option was available. "These companies contacted the Taleban and I cannot rule out they offered their support for the Taleban. In such cases, the assistance will be in millions or in the form a promise."
He denied reports that he was a partner in an Argentinean company, which was active in the project. "The company’s owner had contacted me to get some information. Nothing happens in Afghanistan without the knowledge of officials here (in Saudi Arabia)."
Asked whether the recognition of the Taleban was a hasty decision taken by the Kingdom, Prince Turki said: "At that time, Taleban had not created any controversy. It was controlling 95 percent of the territory when the Kingdom recognized the regime in 1997. It was also providing security and stability in the regions. We recognized them several months after they captured Kabul.
Prince Turki said another reason why the Kingdom recognized the Taleban regime was the prevailing agreement between the Kingdom and Pakistan since the time of President Zia ul-Haq to consult and coordinate on all matters concerning Afghanistan. It was as a result of this agreement and "the advice of our Pakistani brothers" that we recognized the Taleban.
In an attempt to analyze Taleban chief Mulla Omar’s personality, Prince Turki said: "I met him on two occasions. The first meeting lasted an hour, while the second ended after just half an hour. It was hard to understand a person in such a short time. I heard from his associates that he was very brave, fought against the Russians and was deeply religious. On the other hand, his opponents said he was an introvert who holds extreme religious views. He never tolerated any criticism of his decisions and never swerved from a decision under any circumstances, whatever risks it involved. This is what I learned about him from both his friends and foes."
"In my first meeting with Mulla Omar, he was very cordial, but in the second meeting he turned hysterical in his attacks on the Kingdom," the prince said.
In the first meeting, the prince was accompanied by Dr. Abdullah Al-Turki, present secretary-general of the Muslim World League.
"Mulla Omar did not object to Sheikh Al-Turki’s arguments on the extradition of the Al-Qaeda chief to the Kingdom and I thought he agreed with Al-Turki’s arguments on the basis of Shariah law. In the second meeting Mulla Omar was not in a mood to listen to any one."
The prince could not recall Mulla Omar’s exact words, except that he used an abusive language to criticize the Kingdom’s leadership.
Commenting on the Taleban’s atrocities against the opposition, the prince said Taleban’s treatment of the opposition in the past damaged not only its image but also that of Islam. "We used to ask the Taleban about the reported inhuman treatment of the opposition and they denied the charges. With the discovery of mass graves of defenseless men, women and children, the charges have been established."
The prince described the execution of the leader of the Shiite Wahdat party as "horrible". The chained leader was thrown out of a helicopter while it was flying to Kandahar. The Taleban leadership blamed a lower commander for the inhuman act, once the incident became public knowledge. "Such savage acts are against the teachings of Islam," the prince said.
The Taleban have been killing and oppressing innocent people in all the occupied regions, particularly in Mazar-e-Sherif and Bamian, he added.
Despite Mulla Omar’s unacceptable practices, the Kingdom had been striving to help patch up the differences between the Taleban and the opposition forces. It had a significant role in their meetings in Dushanbe, Islamabad, Peshawar, Germany and Jeddah under the supervision of the Organization of Islamic Conference.
"All these meetings, unfortunately, failed because of the Taleban’s obstinacy that anyone who wish conciliation should submit to the Taleban," the prince added saying the Taleban always rejected the idea of a national government with due representation for every ethnic group.