-Caveat Lector- http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=11134
WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Surrender leaves Omar’s fate uncertain By Muhammad Sadik, Arab News Staff KABUL/WASHINGTON, 7 December — Taleban leader Mulla Muhammad Omar decided yesterday to hand over Kandahar, his last stronghold in Afghanistan, to a local tribal chief, a Taleban spokesman said yesterday as Afghanistan’s fragile new power-sharing deal began to fray within a day of signing, and wounded refugees accused US bombers of slaughtering civilians on the roads. Opposition commanders fighting the militia in Kandahar called a cease-fire after the Taleban agreed to surrender, a spokesman for former Kandahar governor Gul Agha told AFP. "I have talked to commanders and they have told me that there is no more fighting as a result of the talks," said Qayyum Jan. In a later development, anti-Taleban opposition forces took control of Kandahar airport, a source close to Gul Agha told AFP. "Our men moved to the airport without any resistance," said Akbar Jan who is a member of Gul Agha’s family. "We have taken control of the whole airport because the Taleban have already pulled out." New Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai told CNN yesterday that the Taleban militia had agreed to surrender Kandahar. He expected the handover process to start today and continue for two to three days. Karzai told the American news network that he had offered a general amnesty to the "common Taleban" but militia leader Mulla Omar would have to renounce terrorism. Former Taleban ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef confirmed that the militia would hand over Kandahar to tribal elders in the province. But he insisted that the Taleban would not surrender to Karzai, a Pashtun elder who has been cooperating with the United States to foment unrest among the southern tribes. "Omar has decided to hand over Kandahar to Mulla Naqibullah," said the former Taleban envoy, referring to a tribal elder who was once a military officer in the city. "It has also been decided that a commission headed by Mulla Naqibullah be appointed in which he will also act as governor of the city," another Taleban spokesman told AIP. "Both sides, the Taleban and the Northern Alliance, agreed to the surrender of Kandahar for the welfare of the people to decrease the casualties to life and to protect the dignity of the people," Zaeef told reporters in Islamabad yesterday. "Tomorrow the Taleban will start surrendering their weapons to Naqibullah. He will be in Kandahar tomorrow." Asked about the fate of Omar, Zaeef said: "His life will be saved and he will be allowed to live with dignity. He is a Mujahid, he has worked for the people of Afghanistan and he is not guilty." Zaeef said the militia had agreed to surrender Kandahar on condition Omar would not be put on trial. "They have promised us that Mulla Omar will live in his home and there will be no fighting with him. They will protect the honor and life of every Taleban," Zaeef told AFP. But the US said it opposed any amnesty for Mulla Omar and wanted him brought to justice. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfled ruled out a surrender deal for Kandahar that would allow Mulla Omar to live in "dignity." A US spokesman welcomed the news that the Taleban had agreed to surrender Kandahar but said coalition forces would keep up their pursuit of Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network. Arab members of the Taleban or Al-Qaeda would not be allowed to leave and would be punished, Karzai said. Haji Bashar, a long time associate of Mulla Omar, also confirmed the agreement under which Kandahar is to change hands. He was speaking to a Japanese television channel by satellite phone from Kandahar. US forces late yesterday fired mortars around their forward base in southern Afghanistan to repel what officers said was "almost certainly" an attempt by Taleban or Al-Qaeda forces to probe their defenses. Illuminating flares lit up the flat, dusty desert around the Camp Rhino base, while dozens of high-explosive shells let off solid thumps as they exploded. Journalists in the camp, who were handed military-issue flak jackets and helmets and told to huddle in a trench with their soldier escorts, reported seeing no incoming fire. A report quoting an American source said a son or son-in-law of Bin Laden was killed in US bombing. Meanwhile, in a clear sign that nothing is clear about Afghanistan’s future, the power-sharing accord that named Karzai as the next head of government, came under threat, with two powerful anti-Taleban leaders picking holes in its make-up. Traditional rivalries among anti-Taleban factions threatened yesterday to crack the new interim administration apart before it had even met. Warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum and Pashtun leader Sayed Ahmad Gailani called the deal unfair. A day after faction leaders signed a landmark accord for a broad-based democratic Afghanistan government, Dostum said he would boycott it. Dostum, whose forces dominate a swathe of northern territory including the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, told Reuters by satellite telephone that his mainly Uzbek Junbish-e-Milli faction was not fairly represented under the accord signed in Bonn on Wednesday. "We are very sad," Dostum said from northern Afghanistan. "We announce our boycott of this government and will not go to Kabul until there is a proper government in place." Ethnic Pashtun leader Sayed Ahmad Gailani, whose Pakistan-based faction of exiles took part in the Bonn talks, also criticized the deal as "unbalanced". The UN Security Council yesterday voted unanimously to endorse the Afghan agreement on the interim government, but deferred a decision on authorizing an international military force to support it. Earlier US B-52s bombers pounded the road between Kandahar and Spin Boldak, bordering Pakistan to prevent Taleban fighters and their allies in Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda militant network from fleeing across the border. Muhammad Amin, a spokesman for Hazrat Ali, leading local fighters in pursuit of Bin laden told Reuters by satellite telephone from Jalalabad that Bin Laden might have fled to the Spin Ghar mountains west of the Tora Bora area. He said anti-Taleban forces had captured some cave-riddled hills in eastern Afghanistan, killing 22 foreign fighters loyal to Bin Laden. "We found the bodies of 22 foreign supporters of Osama in a couple of caves and areas which we took overnight and yesterday afternoon," Amin said. He said fighting was raging in several areas of Tora Bora, a rugged district about 55 km south of the eastern city of Jalalabad, amid heavy US airstrikes in support of the anti-Taleban forces. Nine people, including a Taleban fighter, wounded in the overnight bombing were brought to the Pakistani border town of Chaman for treatment in Chaman hospital’s special ward for Afghan refugees. They said scores of people had been killed or wounded. Mulla Abdul Ali, from Kandahar, said he had seen 25 destroyed vehicles on the road to Pakistan. He said most Taleban forces were entrenched in the mountains around Kandahar. "There is very small number of Taleban in the city. The situation of the residents of Kandahar is very miserable. They can’t even leave their homes," he added. "The corpses of those killed in the US bombing and fighting are lying on the road between airport and Tor Kotal area," the mulla said. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. 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