WASHINGTON/KABUL, 8 February — The White House yesterday declared that the Geneva Convention applies to Taleban forces captured in the Afghanistan phase of the war on terrorism, but not to Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda followers. "President (George W.) Bush today has decided that the Geneva Convention will apply to the Taleban detainees but not to the Al-Qaeda international terrorists," Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.
The move comes after strong criticism — including from key US allies — stemming from alleged mistreatment of Taleban and Al-Qaeda detainees the United States is holding at "Camp X Ray" in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "It will not change their material life on a day-to-day basis: they will continue to be treated well because that’s what the United States does," said Fleischer, who noted neither group would get prisoner of war status.
Speculation was mounting yesterday that a leading member of the Al-Qaeda had been killed in a missile attack on a convoy in eastern Afghanistan. Some sources were saying it was possible that the unidentified man was Bin Laden himself.
The attack happened earlier in the week when an unmanned Predator spy plane operated by the Central Intelligence Agency and armed with Hellfire missiles, was tracking a convoy of vehicles accompanying an obviously important person, the CNN television network said. When the convoy stopped, a missile was fired and the apparent leader in the convoy — being treated by guards with "obvious prominence" — was killed.
US planes bombed suspected Taleban and Al-Qaeda positions in eastern Afghanistan yesterday. Elsewhere, about 600 fighters loyal to warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum refused to leave the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, defying a UN-backed security plan and undermining interim leader Hamid Karzai’s efforts to crack down on warlordism.
Karzai will visit his former home-in-exile Pakistan today for the first time since being named head of the UN-backed Afghan government, officials said. The announcement yesterday ends weeks of speculation about when Karzai would make his first official visit as interim leader to Pakistan, formerly a supporter of the ousted Taleban regime. His red-carpet welcome in the Pakistani capital today will symbolize not only Karzai’s dramatic change of fortunes, but also the turning of a new page in the often turbulent relations between the neighboring countries.
