The New York Times

Tuesday, November 16, 1999

New Sanctions Incite Attacks by Afghans at U.N. Sites

By BARBARA CROSSETTE

UNITED NATIONS -- With international sanctions imposed on Afghanistan on Sunday because of the Taliban's refusal to turn over a Saudi-born Islamic militant to the United States, mobs in several Afghan cities have stepped up attacks and protests directed at the United Nations, organization officials said on Monday.

In recent days, demonstrations have been held at U.N. offices in several cities, including Kabul, the capital. On Monday, an office in Farah was burned, the United Nations reported from Islamabad, Pakistan. No staff members have been injured.

Diplomats say that the Taliban focus on U.N. offices, because there is no American presence in Afghanistan. U.N. officials there say that the Taliban, the Islamic militants who control much of the country, have been unable or unwilling to keep large mobs from overrunning their police units. Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the attacks on Monday and warned the Taliban that it was their responsibility to protect U.N. buildings.

U.N. agencies are providing an assortment of aid programs for Afghanistan again, after an interruption last year caused by security problems and the treatment of female staff members. The World Food Program recently reopened a bakery in Mazar-i-Sharif to make cheap bread available to 85,000 people. An antipolio campaign is in progress, and Unicef is helping support home schools where girls can receive basic educations.

The sanctions against the Taliban, which freeze assets abroad and bar the Afghan national airline, Ariana, from international routes, were approved by the Security Council at the insistence of the United States. Washington has charged the Saudi-born militant, Osama bin Laden, with complicity in the bombings of American embassies last year in Kenya and Tanzania.

Some relief officials have criticized the measures, saying that for many poor and barely middle-class Afghans the airline is the sole link with the outside world for trade and that ending the flights will kill much the incipient commercial activity.

On Monday, Afghan postal authorities asked for permission to fly at least twice a week to collect and deliver mail to this landlocked country. A sanctions committee being set up by the Security Council will make those decisions, officials here said.

The Taliban say that the United States has never presented them with evidence of bin Laden's links to the bombings or other acts of terrorism.