The New York Times

Thursday, October 7, 1999

U.S. Presses Security Council for Sanctions Against Taliban

By BARBARA CROSSETTE

UNITED NATIONS -- The United States on Wednesday asked the Security Council to impose economic sanctions on the Islamic Taliban movement in Afghanistan, demanding that the Afghans turn over Osama bin Laden, a Saudi-born militant who is wanted in the United States.

A proposed resolution circulated among Security Council members by the United States would ban all international flights by aircraft owned or operated by the Taliban government and freeze bank accounts and property abroad owned by the Afghan leadership. The proposed sanctions are similar to measures the United States imposed this year, but not as far-reaching.

Washington is also asking the Council for the right to use arms to enforce the sanctions.

The Afghan airline, Ariana, flies only to the United Arab Emirates; India and Saudi Arabia have stopped flights. Taliban officials say they have no overseas assets.

"We don't have a taste for caviar and French wine," a Taliban supporter said at the United Nations in New York on Wednesday. "We live on bread and onions."

The Taliban, which controls most of the country but has not been given Afghanistan's U.N. seat, maintains a small unofficial diplomatic office in Queens. The director of that office, Abdul Hakeem Mujahid, said he had discussed the possible U.N. sanctions with the Taliban leaders in Afghanistan on Wednesday and that they were "mentally prepared" for the blow.

Mujahid said that isolating Afghanistan would only play into the hands of Iran, which wants to attract a gas pipeline that American companies wanted to build in Afghanistan, and of Russia, which is also seeking greater influence in the region.

He added that the loss of international airline service would mostly hurt Afghan traders who have no other way to sell goods abroad. Government

U.N. officials reported recently that opium production has risen sharply in Afghanistan this year in areas controlled by the Taliban and by the remnants of the former mujahedeen coalition government, which was supported by the United States and is now confined to a small area in the northeast. But officials stop short of accusing the Taliban of profiting directly from drug sales.

Diplomats say that the sanctions resolution could come to a vote within a week. U.S. representatives are confidant they have broad support in the Security Council, including from Russia and China, which might otherwise oppose a resolution imposing economic sanctions on a developing country, are dealing with Islamic insurgencies.

The United States is also asking the Council to demand that Afghanistan stop harboring international terrorists, close their training camps and bring indicted militants to trial. In November 1998, bin Laden and another militant, Muhammed Atef, were indicted in U.S. District Court in New York on charges of complicity in the bombings of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August that year. A $5 million reward has been offered for the capture of either man.

After the bombings, the United States made air strikes on what it said was a camp in Afghanistan belonging to bin Laden, but the attacks failed to kill him or to persuade the Taliban to turn him over. Bin Laden is believed to have a close relationship with the Taliban's religious leader, the Emir Omar.

Mujahid said his government was willing to negotiate with the United States over the bin Laden case but would not accept "commands."