-Caveat Lector- http://boston.com/dailyglobe2/347/nation/Disarmament_called_overstated+.shtml
WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Disarmament called overstated Tribal leaders say Taliban kept much By Patrick Healy, Globe Staff, 12/13/2001 ANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The recent Taliban disarmament in Kandahar was far less sweeping and crippling than initially believed, tribal leaders here revealed yesterday, with only about 40 percent of Taliban's guns, rocket launchers, and heavy artillery surrendered to opposing forces. Mullah Naqibullah, a Kandahar powerbroker who supervised the disarming, said that despite pledges to give up their weapons as part of a surrender agreement with opposition forces, Taliban commanders and soldiers fled the city Friday with thousands of weapons. After a news conference yesterday, where his remarks were frequently misstated by his interpreter from Pashtun to English, Naqibullah confirmed that Taliban firepower in the area is stronger than imagined by opposition commanders. ''Some of the weapons we took and are still with me, but more are still with these soldiers,'' said Naqibullah, a one-time Taliban sympathizer who is a tribal leader in the region. ''Now we must find these men.'' Five days after the fall of Kandahar, security here remains a major concern of both leaders and people on the street. The threat of a resurgent Taliban force was underscored yesterday by frequent sightings of US special forces in the city, and by reports of a continuing stand-off between T aliban and opposition soldiers in Sperwan, a village about 20 miles outside Kandahar. A heavily armed Taliban commander, Hafiz Majid, and an unknown number of troops were hunkered down in Sperwan yesterday and balking at terms of surrender from opposition forces. Majid, a close and trusted aide to Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, has insisted on a guarantee that he will not be killed, according to a military adviser to Afghanistan's prime minister-designate Hamid Karzai. The officer, speaking at Karzai's Kandahar headquarters inside Mullah Omar's former home, said negotiations had bogged down because Majid's safety is impossible to insure, given the enemies he has made over five years of Taliban rule. ''I don't think we can protect this man from being killed,'' said the officer, who requested anonymity but is familiar with the negotiations. ''His safety cannot be promised.'' US Special Forces units here are assisting with the hunt for former Taliban leaders and especially Omar. And despite the hundreds of armed anti-Taliban soldiers patrolling the streets - most of them armed with Kalashnikovs assault rifles - the American soldiers have also emerged as the guarantors of security here. The units are especially active at Kandahar airport, which was secured from Taliban fighters on Monday. At least two of the American units have been staying in unfurnished guest houses at Omar's former home. Those officers moved out yesterday afternoon to an undisclosed location, leaving packets of pork chow mein and western-style beans behind. No fighting was reported or heard in Kandahar yesterday, military officials said. Dozens of Taliban soldiers fled Kandahar - the spriritual birthplace of the strict Islamic regime - late last week as US-backed opposition units moved in. The Taliban forces, under the leadership of Omar, had initially agreed to surrender and give up their weapons. By the time of the surrender, most of the soldiers escaped the city and Omar remains at large. Since last Friday, few Taliban soldiers have been captured or killed and only a handful of weapons have been recovered, Naqibullah and other regional tribal leaders said after meeting with Karzai here yesterday. Naqibullah said that tribal leaders agreed to a request that the United Nations begin a massive disarmament effort in Afghanistan and especially Kandahar, where rival tribes, warlords, and roving highway bandits threaten the fragile calm achieved after last Friday's Taliban retreat. Karzai has supported a UN-mandated peacekeeping operation in Kabul when the new government takes office Dec. 22. But he and other Afghan leaders are wary of foreign troops fanning out across the country on a mission to collect arms. Whether the UN would agree to the disarmament request is also uncertain, but Naqibullah said Afghanistan's future depended on it. ''We need the UN to take all the weapons from all the groups, and only then will we have peace and stability,'' he said. People throughout Kandahar view Naqibullah with suspicion. He allowed Taliban soldiers to voluntarily turn over their weapons, and even when reports began surfacing that some of the men were fleeing with weapons, little was done to find them. In addition, the Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan initially said Omar would be allowed to stay in the city under Naqibullah's protection, a proposal that US officials rejected. Yet Naqibullah denies any past or current alliance with Taliban officials. ''If I was a supporter of the Taliban, they would have given me a ministry, yes?'' he said. Naqibullah said he expected the US soldiers to stay at least until a UN-led peacekeeping force arrives. ''The Americans have no choice,'' he said, ''because the people responsible for Sept. 11 are still here.'' *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! Write to same address to be off lists! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
