Taliban still pose threat to Afghans

12/28/2001

By JEFFREY SCHAEFFER
Associated Press Writer

SHIBERGAN, Afghanistan — Former Taliban fighters who have "simply changed their turban color" and melted into the population represent a threat to the stability of Afghanistan and its interim government, the newly appointed deputy defense minister warned.

``The Taliban cannot wage war against us, but they can still create huge problems like committing acts of terrorism and kidnapping our people,'' Gen. Rashid Dostum said Thursday in northern Afghanistan. ``There are still risks.''

Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek warlord, was a key member of the northern alliance that helped overthrow the Taliban and a major power broker in northern Afghanistan and its main city, Mazar-e-Sharif.

His appointment Monday was seen as an attempt by interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai to bolster support for the transitional government, which took office last weekend. Dostum had been angry because the key ministries of defense, foreign affairs and the interior all went to an ethnic Tajik group from the Panjshir valley.

In eastern Afghanistan, unidentified assailants fired four rockets overnight at the city of Jalalabad, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported Friday. Two rockets targeted a military installation, but there were no reported injuries, the news agency said.

This month, anti-Taliban forces based in Jalalabad overran al-Qaida hideouts in the nearby Tora Bora cave complex with the help of intense U.S. bombing and teams of elite U.S. troops. U.S. and some Afghan officials have said there are still pockets of resistance in the area.

Hundreds of local commanders and politicians waited Thursday at the guest residence outside Dostum's compound in the town of Shibergan to congratulate the general on his appointment. He told foreign reporters that he was concerned many Taliban remained in the region.

``They have simply changed their turban color. They have changed their uniform,'' he said.

Dostum said he was willing to commit as many as 15,000 soldiers to hunt for terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden and members of his al-Qaida organization, blamed for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Dostum also pledged to work to disarm people who are not affiliated with the country's militia forces — groups of fighters loyal to local warlords who fought against the Taliban — and to merge the militia into an integrated national force.

``We want to bring discipline to the soldiers (and) bring peace to northern Afghanistan,'' he said.

Dostum, 47, was a key partner in the anti-Taliban northern alliance, but he also has a long history of bad blood with many northern alliance commanders.

His large army of well-trained fighters fought side-by-side with U.S. special forces troops last month in taking Mazar-e-Sharif, the first major Taliban city to fall under the pressure of relentless American airstrikes.

Taliban remnants are just one of the difficulties facing the interim government and the foreign countries trying to help rebuild Afghanistan after decades of war.

In southern Afghanistan, aid to hungry and displaced people is being blocked by two long-standing problems — common crime and fighting among Afghan factions.

The U.N. World Food Program said Thursday it has been unable to deliver aid to 238,000 hungry people in and around the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.

U.N. relief agencies have returned to other parts of Afghanistan that were abandoned by the Taliban, but Kandahar remains a ``no-go area'' because of power vacuums and tension between rival militias outside the city, WFP spokesman Jordan Dey said in Islamabad, Pakistan.

He described the situation as ``chaotic'' but said a United Nations team planned to assess security in the area Friday and that food trucks in southwestern Pakistan were ready to move into Kandahar within days.

``Where there is agreement as to leadership and authority, those areas are relatively safe,'' Day said. ``Where there is a power vacuum, or not clear lines of authority, it's more chaotic.''

In other developments:

— The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, operating in the Arabian Gulf, launched some 80 sorties Thursday over Afghanistan. All warplanes returned to the ship safely without dropping any bombs, marking the fifth consecutive day that warplanes from the carrier have not dropped bombs.

— Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the U.S. military will hold Taliban and al-Qaida detainees at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba. When asked whether he thought Cuban President Fidel Castro would object, Rumsfeld said he didn't ``anticipate any trouble with Mr. Castro.''

— Uzbek President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan said he fears defeated Taliban and foreigners who fought alongside them could cross into Uzbekistan and other former Soviet republics of Central Asia. Uzbekistan, which has played host to U.S. troops for the anti-terror campaign, has struggled in recent years with Islamic militants.