Taliban leader threatens to 'heat up' Afghan war
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: In his first written interview since he was driven from power in 2001, the Taliban leader, Muhammad Omar, has said he has not seen Osama bin Laden in five years and would never negotiate with the U.S- backed government of Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, and he has threatened to heat up the war in that country until foreign troops withdraw.
"First of all, foreign troops should leave Afghanistan and then the institutions they have created should be dismantled," the fugitive guerrilla leader said in response to written questions sent to him through his spokesman. "Unless that happens, the war will heat up further. It will not decrease."
Omar claims to be at large in Afghanistan but is widely thought to be hiding in Pakistan,
"The people themselves have risen up to fight the Americans," he said. "Nobody can tolerate this kind of subjugation and sacrilege of their culture and religion. It would be humiliating for anybody to think that the nation does not want to evict American forces. No nation can accept the dictates of a handful of dollar-greedy and treacherous people."
He dismissed as a conspiracy hatched by American intelligence Karzai's effort to convene a grand assembly of Afghan and Pakistani elders and leading representatives to try to forge peace between the two nations.
"Only those people who have sold out to foreign forces will participate," he said. "Our participation is absolutely out of question."
Omar, who fled his last stronghold in Afghanistan, the southern city of Kandahar, in December 2001, said that he had not seen or tried to make contact with bin Laden since 2001, and that although his movement did not have a specific alliance with Al Qaeda, they were fighting for the same goals.
"I have neither seen him nor have made any effort to do so, but I pray for his health and safety," he said. "We have never felt the need for a permanent relationship in the present circumstances.
"But they have set jihad as their goal, whereas we have set the expulsion of American troops from Afghanistan as our target. This is the common goal of all the Muslims."
Asked about the suicide bombers who have made more than 100 attacks in Afghanistan in the past year, he said they were acting on religious orders from the Taliban.
"The mujahideen do not take any action without a fatwa," he said, referring to an Islamic edict. "They seek fatwas before they take any action in their self- defense."
He denied receiving outside assistance, and dismissed as Western propaganda, allegations that Pakistan was providing assistance and a safe haven to his movement.
"We have not received any assistance so far, nor can anybody prove that," he said. "The leadership, resistance and Shura are all based here in Afghanistan."
Omar's written replies were sent by e-mail by the Taliban spokesman, Muhammad Hanif, who often speaks to journalists by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Hanif said that Omar had written the replies himself and that a courier had returned the answers on a USB computer drive.
"The leader does not use any phone, Internet, or satellite phone out of caution," Hanif said in an e-mail message. " We contact him through his secretary, that's why it took longer to get replies."
In his replies, the Taliban leader showed himself unrepentant for his refusal to surrender bin Laden to the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and for blowing up the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan in March 2001.
He also repeated the same reasons that his government always gave for its harsh strictures that closed girls' schools and forbad women to work ââ¬â namely that his government was fighting a war and could not do everything at once.
"Our stand to grant refuge to Osama bin Laden was based on principles," he said. "If there were people who were opposed to us giving refuge to him, they should have done so with logic and reason, and not used bullying or threats."
The council of clerics, which was the highest authority of the Taliban government, asked bin Laden to leave of his own free will, but never had any intention to force him to leave, he said.
"The clerics had declared jihad against the United States in total opposition to his surrender to the Americans," he said.
Asked if the destruction of the Buddhas had been a mistake in retrospect, he said: "Sharia is Sharia. There is no distinction on whether a certain thing is difficult or easy. A certain number of Muslims have been influenced by other civilizations and that's why they seem to find Islamic injunctions too difficult."
"Girls schools were either too few or were nonexistent before we took over," he added.
"We were preparing a strategy for girls' education in accordance with the Sharia."
He blamed the anti-Taliban forces of the Northern Alliance and international sanctions for preventing his government from achieving its aims.
"We could have formed a real government had we achieved full and total control over the whole country, and we did manage to run the government in an organized manner with the blessing of Sharia and divine laws," Omar said.
"But if there were problems, those were largely because of the conspiracies of the infidels and foreign enemies, for instance, the impositions of sanctions on Taliban, organizing anti- Taliban forces and preparing them to fight the mujahideen."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/04/news/omar.php?page=2
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: In his first written interview since he was driven from power in 2001, the Taliban leader, Muhammad Omar, has said he has not seen Osama bin Laden in five years and would never negotiate with the U.S- backed government of Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, and he has threatened to heat up the war in that country until foreign troops withdraw.
"First of all, foreign troops should leave Afghanistan and then the institutions they have created should be dismantled," the fugitive guerrilla leader said in response to written questions sent to him through his spokesman. "Unless that happens, the war will heat up further. It will not decrease."
Omar claims to be at large in Afghanistan but is widely thought to be hiding in Pakistan,
"The people themselves have risen up to fight the Americans," he said. "Nobody can tolerate this kind of subjugation and sacrilege of their culture and religion. It would be humiliating for anybody to think that the nation does not want to evict American forces. No nation can accept the dictates of a handful of dollar-greedy and treacherous people."
He dismissed as a conspiracy hatched by American intelligence Karzai's effort to convene a grand assembly of Afghan and Pakistani elders and leading representatives to try to forge peace between the two nations.
"Only those people who have sold out to foreign forces will participate," he said. "Our participation is absolutely out of question."
Omar, who fled his last stronghold in Afghanistan, the southern city of Kandahar, in December 2001, said that he had not seen or tried to make contact with bin Laden since 2001, and that although his movement did not have a specific alliance with Al Qaeda, they were fighting for the same goals.
"I have neither seen him nor have made any effort to do so, but I pray for his health and safety," he said. "We have never felt the need for a permanent relationship in the present circumstances.
"But they have set jihad as their goal, whereas we have set the expulsion of American troops from Afghanistan as our target. This is the common goal of all the Muslims."
Asked about the suicide bombers who have made more than 100 attacks in Afghanistan in the past year, he said they were acting on religious orders from the Taliban.
"The mujahideen do not take any action without a fatwa," he said, referring to an Islamic edict. "They seek fatwas before they take any action in their self- defense."
He denied receiving outside assistance, and dismissed as Western propaganda, allegations that Pakistan was providing assistance and a safe haven to his movement.
"We have not received any assistance so far, nor can anybody prove that," he said. "The leadership, resistance and Shura are all based here in Afghanistan."
Omar's written replies were sent by e-mail by the Taliban spokesman, Muhammad Hanif, who often speaks to journalists by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Hanif said that Omar had written the replies himself and that a courier had returned the answers on a USB computer drive.
"The leader does not use any phone, Internet, or satellite phone out of caution," Hanif said in an e-mail message. " We contact him through his secretary, that's why it took longer to get replies."
In his replies, the Taliban leader showed himself unrepentant for his refusal to surrender bin Laden to the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and for blowing up the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan in March 2001.
He also repeated the same reasons that his government always gave for its harsh strictures that closed girls' schools and forbad women to work ââ¬â namely that his government was fighting a war and could not do everything at once.
"Our stand to grant refuge to Osama bin Laden was based on principles," he said. "If there were people who were opposed to us giving refuge to him, they should have done so with logic and reason, and not used bullying or threats."
The council of clerics, which was the highest authority of the Taliban government, asked bin Laden to leave of his own free will, but never had any intention to force him to leave, he said.
"The clerics had declared jihad against the United States in total opposition to his surrender to the Americans," he said.
Asked if the destruction of the Buddhas had been a mistake in retrospect, he said: "Sharia is Sharia. There is no distinction on whether a certain thing is difficult or easy. A certain number of Muslims have been influenced by other civilizations and that's why they seem to find Islamic injunctions too difficult."
"Girls schools were either too few or were nonexistent before we took over," he added.
"We were preparing a strategy for girls' education in accordance with the Sharia."
He blamed the anti-Taliban forces of the Northern Alliance and international sanctions for preventing his government from achieving its aims.
"We could have formed a real government had we achieved full and total control over the whole country, and we did manage to run the government in an organized manner with the blessing of Sharia and divine laws," Omar said.
"But if there were problems, those were largely because of the conspiracies of the infidels and foreign enemies, for instance, the impositions of sanctions on Taliban, organizing anti- Taliban forces and preparing them to fight the mujahideen."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/04/news/omar.php?page=2
