Deutsche Welle
English Service News
September 24th , 2001, 16:00 UTC
Afghanistan's ruling Taliban has called up troops to defend against a
possible U.S. attack as their supreme leader warned the United States
that killing him or Osama bin Laden would not end attacks on
Americans. In a statement to Washington, Mullah Mohammed Omar said
the United States faced a "vain and bloody" war if it did not change
its policies in the Middle East. The statement followed Taliban
calls for 300,000 fighters to defend Afghanistan and news that
Pakistani diplomats have been withdrawn from the Afghan capital,
Kabul. In the meantime in Washington, U.S. President George W. Bush
has taken measures to freeze financial support for Islamic militant
Osama bin Laden. Speaking outside of the White House, Bush said the
Treasury Department had the authority to freeze the U.S. financial
assets of foreign banks that refuse to cooperate in shutting down
militant groups. He said the authority was included in an executive
order he signed ordering the freezing of assets in the United States
of 27 different entities including "terrorist organizations,"
specific leaders and several non-profit organizations.
The head of the U.N.'s refugee agency has warned against any
"disproportionate" military retaliation by Washington against
Afghanistan, saying that it would deepen the misery of the Afghan
people. As the United States and Britain assembled troops and
military hardware for possible strikes, United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Ruud Lubbers said he was
worried military momentum was being created that would be hard
to halt. Lubbers has also called for a "humanitarian coalition"
between governments and various aid agencies to keep up pressure for
military restraint and to meet the desperate needs of the Afghan
people. Meanwhile in another development, the U.N.'s World Food
Programme (WFP) has reported that Afghanistan's ruling Taliban seized
1,400 tonnes of food and closed its offices in the southern city of
Kandahar. The U.N. said the Taliban had also closed its offices in
Kandahar over the weekend and barred its Afghan national staff from
using communications equipment.
The Vatican said on Monday it prefers a non-violent solution to the
crisis spawned by attacks on the United States, but it would
understand if Washington had to resort to force to defend its
citizens from future threats. The Pope's chief sapokesman
Navarro-Valls said self-defence sometimes implied the use of
violence for lack of an alternative.
Palestinian gunmen have shot and killed an Israeli woman in the West
Bank. Israeli police sources said the 28-year-old woman was killed
in her car as she and her husband drove through the Jordan Valley. An
Islamist group issued a statement in Lebanon, claiming responsibility
for the attack. The shooting dealt a fresh blow to a shaky ceasefire
and hopes of starting new peace talks. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon had previously said he would allow his foreign minister,
Shimon Peres, to meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat if the
ceasefire held, but planned talks have been canceled. Sharon met
French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine in Jerusalem and repeated that
Palestinian acts of "terrorism" had to stop in order for a meeting
between Peres and Arafat to take place. Sharon also accused
Palestinians of carrying out 99 "terrorist attacks" since Arafat
announced the truce on Thursday. He asked Vedrine to carry a message
to the Palestinian leader asking him to stop violence.
In Macedonia, constitutional reforms to end a guerrilla uprising and
improve the civil rights of the country's minority Albanians have won
preliminary approval in parliament. Legislators voted through 15
draft amendments to the constitution by simple majorities which were
well short of the two-thirds margin they will require when the
package comes for final ratification, expected by early next month.
Meanwhile at a checkpoint not far from the capital Skopje, Macedonian
security forces shot and killed an ethnic Albanian early Monday
morning in a sign of persisting tension along ceasefire lines. The
shooting occurred some 15 km (nine miles) northwest of Skopje after
three ethnic Albanians refused to stop at the checkpoint. An army
source said the incident was under investigation. It was the first
killing related to ethnic strife since the peace accord and truce
took effect six weeks ago.
Serbian News Network - SNN
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http://www.antic.org/
