December 11, 2001	Tuesday	Ramazan 25, 1422

KABUL, Dec 10: A defence ministry spokesman in Kabul laid the ground rules on Monday for an eventual UN security force in the capital, and they appeared to contradict the UN-brokered agreement reached in Bonn last week.

A defence ministry spokesman said the Northern Alliance would maintain its troops in the capital even after the deployment of an international security force decided at a multi-party conference in Germany last week.

“Of course some of the units of the Northern Alliance will be in Kabul,” spokesman Mohammad Habeel said, adding that defence minister General Mohammad Qasim Fahim, “is a member of the government and of course his force will remain here”.

Fahim, who retains his post under the Bonn deal, insisted last week that any UN security force should limit itself to guarding government offices.

The agreement says: “The participants of the UN talks on Afghanistan pledge to withdraw all military units from Kabul and other urban centers or other areas in which the UN mandated force is deployed.”

Habeel also said the UN security force will not be allowed to patrol the capital, but only “places where the new government will meet.”

“It was agreed that our own forces will keep security in Kabul,” He said.

Habeel said the multinational force should not be deployed until after December 22, when the interim administration takes power in Kabul; it will be up to incoming prime minister Hamid Karzai to decide when the forc arrives, he said.

“This is a decision that will be made by Karzai,” the spokesman said. “If he finds it necessary (there will be a deployment), but if Northern Alliance forces can keep security, it will not be necessary.”

A delegation from the UN’s peacekeeping operation headquarters in New York met Fahim Monday, but “negotiations are continuing,” Habeel said.

British media reported on Monday that London is prepared to send 3,000 troops or more to lead the force.

US CONVOY: The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said a convoy of tanks and other US military vehicles was heading for Kandahar after leaving a base on Monday.

The agency, quoting witnesses, said the 30-vehicle convoy was being given air cover.

Other witnesses were quoted as saying they had already seen US soldiers in the city, including one soldier at Omar’s former residence.

There were reports of widescale looting in the city over the weekend and a close political ally of the Taliban warned on Monday that the situation remained bleak.

The warlords in the early 1990s were notorious for stopping travellers on the road from Pakistan to Kandahar at up to 20 different checkpoints, demanding money and a share of hauliers’ cargo at each stop.

“They have demarcated their area of influence by throwing chains across the road,” he said.

“No, we’re not going into Kandahar,” Captain Stewart Upton told an AFP correspondent with the US Marines in southern Afghanistan, commenting on Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) news agency reports that a US military convoy was headed for the city.

“But we’re continuing to conduct operations around Kandahar in support of opposition forces,” Upton said. “We’re still looking for al-Qaeda and any Taliban that still have their weapons.

“What you’ve seen is the moving of Marines and assets up north... closer to Kandahar to block possible avenues and exits,” he said.

AIP, quoting witnesses, said a 30-vehicle convoy, including tanks, was being given air cover as it moved toward the city.

Journalists with the Marines are still awaiting clearance to release details of the operation, including the equipment being used, but they have so far seen only light armored and multi-purpose vehicles and helicopters at the Camp Rhino base and no tanks.

Other witnesses told AIP they had already seen US soldiers in Kandahar, including one at the former residence of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.—AFP