December 8, 2001	Saturday	Ramazan 22, 1422

WASHINGTON, Dec 7: The United States is to insist that senior Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders be punished, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday, but they will not necessarily have to face US justice.

“At least at this moment, I have not seen or heard anything that would suggest that anyone is negotiating something that would be contrary to what our interests are,” Rumsfeld told reporters.

But Rumsfeld, who has said the United States would vigorously oppose freedom or safe conduct out of Kandahar for Omar, warned US cooperation with opposition leaders in the south “would clearly take a turn south” if a surrender deal went against those views.

“If you’re asking would an arrangement with Omar where he could, quote, ‘live in dignity’ in the Kandahar area or some place in Afghanistan be consistent with what I have said, the answer is no,” Rumsfeld said in a Pentagon briefing.

“We are interested in seeing that they be punished and that they stop doing what they have been doing.”

Hamid Karzai, designated to lead a newly-named Afghan interim government, said common Taliban soldiers would be granted amnesty, but foreign fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden were criminals to be brought to justice.

Rumsfeld would not elaborate how Omar or other senior Taliban or Al-Qaeda leaders should be dealt with.

“I would like to see us take control or see that control is in the hands of people who will handle the conclusion in a way similar to what we would do,” he said. “Now how that might be I don’t know.”

“With respect to Al-Qaeda of all levels, you don’t want them milling around the country and you don’t want them leaving the country because they’re just going to go out and kill people in some other country. So they need to be stopped.”

“And clearly, with respect to the senior people, they’re going to get a great deal of attention,” he noted.

“Every time you successfully deal with one piece of the puzzle, obviously you’re able to focus a bit more on the remaining pieces of the puzzle,” Rumsfeld said.

SECRET TRIALS: UN human rights chief Mary Robinson said Friday that US assurances about secret military courts for terror suspects were insufficient and voiced concern about the lack of guarantees for a fair trial.

Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the US was undermining its own system of checks and balances in a manner that went beyond the limits allowed by human rights law in an emergency.

“One of the safeguards of democracy is eternal vigilance, it is that we cannot cease to be vigilant, and in that sense no, it is not enough to say to trust me as a government — that is a complete undermining of the safeguards that are rightly upheld and subscribed to,” Robinson said.

US President George W. Bush has issued an executive order authorizing the trial of suspected terrorists captured during the war against terror by secret military courts.

On Thursday US Attorney General John Ashcroft defended the order during a Senate committee hearing and said critics were undercutting the struggle against terrorism.

Robinson reiterated that the Sept 11 attacks warranted special measures.

But she said the “broad reach” and “vaguely worded” nature of the order undermined human rights provisions that should be upheld even in a crisis. —AFP