The New York Times

Tuesday, October 19, 1999

U.S. Steps Up Pressure on Taliban to Deliver Osama bin Laden

By BARBARA CROSSETTE

UNITED NATIONS -- With the Islamic Taliban movement of Afghanistan under a threat of U.N. sanctions if it does not turn over a Saudi-born militant for trial in the United States, a Clinton administration envoy met with a Taliban representative Monday in New York to press for action.

The Taliban leadership has been shielding the militant, Osama bin Laden, who is wanted in connection with bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998. The Taliban have proposed asking an international group of Islamic scholars to look into the case and perhaps find a way to meet the American request. But they have always stopped short of actually agreeing to place bin Laden in American custody.

The American envoy, Michael A. Sheehan, the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism, said in an interview after the talks with the Taliban representative, Abdul Hakeem Mujahid, that the United States was "always prepared to talk to them about ways in which the resolution can be implemented." But the bottom line, he said, is that bin Laden must be surrendered.

Mujahid represents the Taliban in New York. The movement controls most of Afghanistan, but it does not yet hold the country's U.N. seat because of opposition from the United States and other countries.

On Friday, the Security Council gave unexpectedly strong backing to a resolution to impose sanctions in 30 days that will freeze the Taliban's economic assets abroad and curtail international flights by the national airline, Ariania, if bin Laden and one of his chief aides are not turned over.

American diplomats were surprised last week when two Islamic nations on the Security Council, Bahrain and Malaysia, joined in a unanimous 15-0 vote for sanctions.

Mujahid said in a recent interview, though, that the Taliban's leaders do not have cash stored abroad and that the sanctions would hurt only Afghan traders and other middle-class citizens who use the airline.

The meeting Monday was the first between the United States and the Taliban since the resolution was proposed by the United States. Sheehan said that he described the move in the Security Council as just another step to put pressure on Afghanistan. "We're going to keep putting more bricks on the pile," he said.

The United States has been talking with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, the only three nations that have diplomatic relations with the Taliban government, a senior State Department official said Monday, adding that there appeared to have been some progress, including with Pakistan. U.N. officials say that the Taliban gets the strongest sustained support from Pakistan.

Other countries in the region, including Iran and Tajikistan, aid the remnants of the government ousted by the Taliban. That government, a coalition of factions that often fought one another, came to power with American backing after the fall of the last pro-Soviet government and continues to fight the Taliban in northeast Afghanistan. In a recent report to the Security Council, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that all outside military aid had to stop or Afghanistan's perpetual civil wars would never end.

The senior State Department official said that Nawaz Sharif, the deposed prime minister of Pakistan, had begun to distance himself from the Taliban before last week's coup. But American officials do not believe this was a major cause of his overthrow by his army chief, Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf.