KHOST, Afghanistan, 11 May 2005 — Taleban leader Mulla Muhammad Omar has rejected an amnesty offered by Afghanistan’s reconciliation commission, a Taleban spokesman said yesterday. Omar, who has been on the run since his hard-line Islamist government was toppled by a US-led invasion in 2001, would never surrender to “enemies”, the spokesman said.
“We will never surrender to enemies — we will fight the battle on,” Abdul Latif Hakimi, who claims to speak for the Taleban, told AFP by telephone from an unknown location. Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, the head of the independent National Commission for Peace in Afghanistan, on Monday offered Omar and warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar an amnesty and the chance to enter politics.
“We don’t need any guarantee of safety from the government,” Hakimi told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location. “We’re not hiding. Mulla Omar, our leader, is not hiding. Rather, he is fighting.”
Mojaddedi said the amnesty, conditional on Omar and Hekmatyar disarming, obeying the new government and respecting the new constitution, would also cover Afghan detainees held at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. “We don’t see any difference in Afghanistan’s invasion by the Soviets and by the Americans, so how can Mojaddedi being a mujahid (holy warrior) himself ask us to surrender to our enemies?” asked Hakimi.
“Mojaddedi is not aware of the facts,” Hakimi said. “Why has he forgotten the lesson of jihad? He himself fought against the Soviets.” Omar had ordered Taleban fighters to battle on, Hakimi said. “On his orders we have increased attacks on US forces in recent weeks and will continue this.”
Omar is still wanted by the United States and has a $10 million bounty on his head for his role in sheltering the Al-Qaeda network and its leaders in the run-up to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States.
Taleban insurgents have fought a series of battles with US-led and Afghan government troops in recent weeks, scotching speculation a winter lull in violence signaled they were running out of recruits and resources. More than 80 insurgents have been killed over the past week in the south and east, the US military said. Two US Marines were killed, clearing a cave on Sunday and 10 government men were killed last week. The Taleban deny suffering such heavy losses and say they killed many more government and US troops.
President Hamid Karzai has tried to tempt fighters to give up under an amnesty open to all except militant leaders associated with atrocities or Al-Qaeda, but only a handful have accepted. Karzai, who is visiting Europe this week, has not confirmed Mojaddedi’s announcement. A US military spokesman said the amnesty was not a general one and people who had committed crimes would have to be held responsible.
Meanwhile, about 2,000 students in Afghanistan, chanting “Death to America”, protested yesterday over a report that US interrogators in Guantanamo Bay had desecrated the Qur’an. Newsweek magazine said in a recent edition investigators probing abuses at the US military prison in Cuba had discovered that interrogators “had placed Qur’an copies on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet”.
“American should apologize for this,” said one student at the protest in Jalalabad city, about 130 km east of Kabul. “Whoever has done this should be brought to justice and the Afghan government should condemn it.” Some protesters held up an effigy of US President George W. Bush shouting “Death to Bush”.
The students blocked the main road to Kabul but there were no clashes with police who kept watch from a distance, a witness said. Karzai, is due to visit the United States this month where he said he will seek special long-term ties with Washington. A high-level US military investigation into accusations of detainee abuse at Guantanamo Bay has still to be completed and released. The United States is holding more than 500 prisoners from its war on terrorism at the naval base on Cuba.
Meanwhile, a report said yesterday insecurity and spiraling bloodshed by Taleban rebels and other militants have hampered aid delivery in war-shattered Afghanistan. “Escalating violence is impeding the ability of humanitarian workers to deliver aid and to implement urgently needed reconstruction and development projects in Afghanistan,” the report by US-based CARE international said. Security has also deteriorated in the Afghan capital Kabul and some of the provinces.
“Researchers found that 53 percent of respondents believed the security situation for employees of their agencies either remained the same or deteriorated,” the report added. The report released by CARE and Afghanistan NGO Safety Office also linked the violence and insecurity to an ongoing counternarcotics effort led by the government and supported by the international community. It added that the violence could rise ahead of Afghanistan’s first post-Taleban parliamentary election, due for September this year.
