Taliban says it is willing to talk with U.S.

- - - - - - - - - - - - By Kathy Gannon

Oct. 31, 2001 | KABUL, Aghanistan (AP) --

Four weeks into the U.S.-led air campaign, a a senior Taliban official said Wednesday the ruling militia is willing to negotiate an end to the conflict -- but as a sovereign nation and not "a province of the United States."

"That's the message for Americans," chief Taliban spokesman Amir Khan Muttaqi said in an interview with the first Western reporter allowed into Kabul since the bombing began Oct. 7.

President Bush launched the air assault after the Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, chief suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

"We do not want to fight," Muttaqi added. "We will negotiate. But talk to us like a sovereign country. We are not a province of the United States, to be issued orders to. We have asked for proof of Osama's involvement, but they have refused. Why?"

Before the bombing campaign began, Bush brushed aside numerous offers from the Taliban to negotiate bin Laden's status -- including offers to hand him over to a third country or even try him here under Islamic law.

The United States has repeatedly said that the demand to surrender bin Laden and his lieutenants in the al-Qaida network is not negotiable, and waves of bombers have pounded the capital and other cities.

During the interview, Muttaqi, who also is education minister, exuded confidence, arguing in effect that Afghanistan's weakness was its strength. U.S. bombing, he maintained, will not crack the Taliban.

"We don't have anything for the American bombs to destroy," he said. "We are not a country with a sophisticated computer system, a big, important telecommunications system or modern aviation system to destroy."

Muttaqi spoke in his spartan office with a Kalashnikov rifle on the table before him. His two security guards also carried assault rifles.

"Each Afghan has a rifle in his home and each Afghan's home is his bunker," Muttaqi said.

Afghanistan, ravaged by more than two decades of war, is one of the world's poorest countries, Annual average income in a good year is barely $200.

Even before the bombs began to fall, the United Nations called Afghanistan a humanitarian crisis ---- perhaps the world's worst.

Kabul, the capital, lies largely in ruins, destroyed by an earlier civil war. The estimated 1 million people are mostly those too poor to flee.

"The educated, the people with money, everyone is gone," said Wali, a young student who was planning to get to Pakistan, even though Afghanistan has sealed its borders.

"Most of the people who are here, believe me, cannot even afford the bus fare to leave," he said.

Although Islamic governments have distanced themselves from the Taliban, many Muslims sympathize with bin Laden and the embattled Taliban, and Muttaqi hinted at a possible Muslim backlash against the United States if the conflict continues.

"America, what do you want to do?" he said. "Don't make Muslims everywhere angry. Muslims have no problem with Americans. It is American policy they disagree with. America should not oblige thousands and thousands of Muslims the world over to feel for the victims of the bombing because they will cause more trouble for America."

Associated Press

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2001

Answers

Top.

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2001

Where's the proof?

ie., where's the list of those we need to execute...

Taliban and al-Qaida are siamese twins; Bush gave Taliban the chance to cut themselves loose, they chose not to. So they'll suffer the same fate... we won't be negotiating with Osama either...

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2001

Throughout the weeks since September 11, the Taliban have lied just about daily--as evidenced by their own words, both on our media and al Jazeera. Those clips weren't taken out of context. They cannot be trusted to negotiate in good faith. You all know about Chamberlain and Hitler. . .

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2001