Dec. 17, 2002. 06:51 PM

Camps are being reactivated, report warns

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - New foot soldiers for Islam's holy war are streaming into Al Qaeda training camps that have been recently reactivated in eastern Afghanistan, a UN report on the terror group said today.

While Osama bin Laden's financial base has been mostly dismantled his terror network still enjoys significant support and has "access to substantial funding from its previously established investments," said the report by an expert panel.

Michael Chandler of Britain, who led the group, told a news conference that Al Qaeda operatives might be present in about 40 countries, which he did not identify.

The UN experts warned in the report that Al Qaeda has the potential to obtain nuclear material and build "some kind of dirty bomb."

More than a year after a U.S.-led coalition ousted Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers, who harboured bin Laden and his followers, the report said "one of the most recent developments to come to light is the apparent activation of new, albeit simple, training camps in eastern Afghanistan" for Al Qaeda supporters.

Chandler said the camps may have sprung up near the eastern town of Asadabad, in Kunar province. But he said since U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan were constantly looking for such facilities, these camps were "small, discreet and mobile" and did not stay in one place for too long.

"Particularly disturbing about this trend is the fact that new volunteers are making their way to these camps, swelling the numbers of would-be Al Qaeda activists and the longer-term capabilities of the network," the report said.

Reports of training camps have also surfaced from Peshawar, near the porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Last week, some officials in Pakistan's intelligence community and Interior Ministry said suicide squads were being trained in Pakistan by Al Qaeda operatives to hit targets in Afghanistan. The Pakistani government denies the presence of such camps.

Many "disillusioned" young men still flock to such camps, either to be trained as "foot soldiers" for Al Qaeda or to receive more specialized training. He did not give details.

"There is a tremendous amount of sympathy in some countries for the movement," Chandler said, referring to Al Qaeda. He did not name any country.

There are no precise numbers for suspected terrorists, but "the figure of 10,000 is tossed around," he said.

The Oct. 12 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, confirmed the extent of relationships between Al Qaeda and the loose coalition of extremist groups in Southeast Asia, while the Nov. 28 attacks in Mombasa, Kenya, demonstrated a shift in tactics by the group to hit soft targets, the report said.

The blasts in two nightclubs in Bali killed 192 people, mostly foreign tourists. In Mombasa, a vehicle packed with explosives plowed into the Paradise Hotel, about 20 kilometres north of the Indian Ocean port. Ten Kenyans, three Israelis and three bombers died. Minutes earlier, unidentified assailants fired two missiles at an Israeli jet taking off from Mombasa's airport, narrowly missing the aircraft that was filled with Israeli tourists returning to Tel Aviv.

"Soft targets, preferably with maximum casualties, would now appear to be the order of the day," the report said.

Chandler said there was no proof that Al Qaeda had obtained nuclear material, but there was evidence to show that the group had expressed interest in it.

"Our concern is you can actually get the stuff," he said.

The report noted the recent seizure by Tanzanian police of 110 kilograms of suspected uranium, an element that can be used as fuel in a nuclear bomb. Experts later said they believed the uranium was not weapons-grade.

Chandler said his group had no evidence linking Al Qaeda to Iraq's suspected program to build weapons of mass destruction.

Under UN sanctions, which the expert group is monitoring, all countries are required to freeze the finances and impose arms embargoes and travel bans on individuals and groups associated with bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and Afghanistan's former Taliban leaders - wherever they are in the world.

According to the UN, the list currently has 324 names, including 232 individuals and 92 groups.

Richard Grenell, the U.S. spokesman at the UN, said President George W. Bush had spoken earlier about a long haul in the fight against Al Qaeda.

"Much has been accomplished and there is much more to be done. As the president said in the beginning this war will be a non-traditional war and will take a long time," Grenell said.

In Washington, a counterterrorism official said the Bush administration was aware of Al Qaeda activity in Afghanistan, but said no major training activity was going on.

In a report about one year after the Sept. 11 attacks, the group had warned the United States and other countries involved in the campaign against terror that Al Qaeda still had the money and recruits to strike.

It has repeatedly urged countries to abide by UN sanctions to freeze funding to suspected terror groups and provide names of terror suspects so that they can be tracked down.

"Many countries have refrained completely from providing names of such persons or entities," the report said.

Most of these countries, which it did not identify, cited legal complications in accusing people or organizations of being linked to terrorism without enough evidence.

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2002