WASHINGTON, Nov 20: The United States prefers death or capture, rather than negotiated surrender, for besieged Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and his Al-Qaeda backers, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Monday.
As US commandos searched Afghanistan’s rugged terrain for Osama bin Laden, Taliban militia leaders were trying to negotiate surrenders of their last remaining strongholds — Kandahar in the south and Kunduz in the north.
While admitting Washington could not control the negotiations with opposition leaders, Rumsfeld said the United States was pushing to ensure Taliban leaders and members of the Al-Qaeda group would not escape.
“Would we knowingly allow him (Omar) to get out of Kandahar? The answer is no, we would not,” Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon press briefing.
“The United States is not inclined to negotiate surrenders. Nor are we in a position, with relatively small numbers of forces on the ground, to accept prisoners,” Rumsfeld said.
He said the United States wants to avoid the possibility that Al-Qaeda forces could slip out of Afghanistan and “destabilizing neighboring countries.”
US commandos inside Afghanistan — now numbering a few hundred — have set up roadblocks to block the movement of supplies and trap fleeing Taliban and al-Qaeda troops, and are identifying targets for air bombardment, Rumsfeld said.
Central Intelligence Agency operatives also are in the country, and have been “doing a darn good job” in cooperation with the military forces, he said.
President George W. Bush said the net tightening around Osama.
“We are hunting him down,” he said after a White Houe cabinet meeting.
“Our strategy is well thoughtout. We won’t leave Afghanistan before the strategy is completed.”
Estimates of the number of Taliban troops defending Kunduz run as high as 30,000, including a hardcore element of Arab, Chechen and Pakistani fighters from the al-Qaeda.
US warplanes have bombed Kunduz and its surroundings for nearly a week. A Taliban commander, Mulla Fazil, said on Sunday more than 1,000 people had been killed in the air strikes.
RUSSIAN ENVOY: Russia’s special envoy to Afghanistan said on Tuesday the Northern Alliance had assured him any future government of the country would be broad-based, but Moscow would countenance no Taliban participation.
Alexander Oblov, one of a handful of diplomats shuttling between meetings with leaders in Kabul, said Russia wanted to see a stable Afghanistan and supported efforts by the United Nations to broker peace talks outside the country.
He met ousted President Burhanuddin Rabbani late on Monday and was expected to hold talks with Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.
“President Rabbani spoke a lot about how in the future a new governmental structure needs to be set up which will answer the interests of all Afghans, both those living inside and those temporarily outside the country,” Oblov told reporters in Kabul.
“It will be a broad-based government, looking after the interests of all ethnic groups,” he said.
BUT HE ADDED: “The Taliban in any form cannot take part in government, there is no room for them... They discredited themselves with their involvement in international terrorism and the drugs trade.”
Oblov said Moscow did not just want to back its traditional allies. He said Russia wanted to see the participation of the majority Pakhtoons.
“As far as I know, there is a consensus that the Taliban will in no way form part of a future government. But do not confuse the Taliban, who seized power, and the Pashtuns,” he said.
Oblov said Rabbani had not discussed the U.N.’s efforts to convene a meeting of Afghan leaders outside the country. Despite positive noises from Northern Alliance leaders, Rabbani has yet to give the U.N. envoy, Fransesc Vendrell, a formal reply on joining any such talks.
“The U.N. is leading the peace process, as is proper,” he said. “We want Afghanistan to be an independent, prosperous country and a good neighbour not just to its immediate neighbours, but to the whole world community.”—Reuters
