Afghan anti-Taliban president vows war

October 23, 2000
Web posted at: 10:41 PM HKT (1441 GMT)

FAIZABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) -- President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who rules just 5 percent of Afghanistan, said Monday the war against the Taliban movement that has captured the rest of the country would continue indefinitely.

"They are determined to have a victory," said Rabbani, as firing of what he said were reinforcements heading toward the front echoed off the mountains enclosing Faizabad.

"Until they reach the main goal, their campaign to liberate the country will continue. I hope the Afghan people will be free from this catastrophe."

Rabbani, interviewed by Reuters Television in what has become his latest capital after the fall of the city of Taloqan, 70 miles to the west, predicted an early recapture of the city and said two key military members of the government alliance who had been defeated earlier were about to re-enter the conflict.

The military chief of his government, Ahmad Shah Masood, met Ismael Khan, who was the leader in the areas of Herat in western Afghanistan, and general Abdul Rashid Dostum, who had controlled northwest Afghanistan, in the Iranian city of Mashhad earlier this month to plan a revival of their forces.

"They are key members of the Northern Alliance so the main objective of the talks held in Mashhad was to arrange and supervise their operations," Rabbani said.

He said he could not get comment on how soon their forces, which could include Afghans now living as refugees in Iran, would be active.

"They have taken strong steps in order to join hands with their arch enemy," said the veteran of a quarter century of struggle.

Condemns Pakistan

While condemning Pakistan for backing the Taliban -- Pakistan is one of only three countries which recognize it as a government -- Rabbani said that as a legitimate government he was entitled to buy arms from abroad. He confirmed that he recently acquired several Soviet-made helicopters that have been used in this month's fighting.

Rabbani said his forces -- known as the Northern Alliance -- would retake Taloqan before winter at the end of November that will halt the military activity and leave some 60,000 refugees from the earlier fighting unable to return home.

Rabbani said he believed the war could end only with a revolt inside the Taliban-held areas, or in pressure on the Taliban to negotiate, and most importantly international demands on Pakistan to stop arming the radical Islamic movement.

Pakistan has denied arming Taliban, which has imposed severe interpretations of Islam that have banned most women from activities outside the home.

Foreign military experts say the Taliban's change in only six years from a poorly trained force of Islamic students in the city of Kandahar to rulers of almost all of Afghanistan would have been impossible without the involvement of Islamabad.

"Unless the Pakistani leadership changes their policy against Afghanistan, no real peace can be restored in Afghanistan," Rabbani said. "It is obvious the only route they have selected is the military solution. The Taliban are a puppet regime...."

The alliance includes various ethnic factions -- Faizabad is a mainly Tajik town -- while the Taliban are from the Pashtun tribes that straddle the border with Pakistan.

"They have always welcomed any peace initiative," Rabbani said of his government, which is composed mainly of guerrilla leaders like himself who drove the Soviet forces from Afghanistan in the 1980s.

"They have always had this proposal...to have a dialogue not only with the Taliban but also with the Pakistani authorities. In order to restore peace in Afghan society, we are ready to open dialogue with all sides," he said.

The white-bearded Rabbani would not venture a guess as to how many years it might take before peace was restored to Afghanistan, but he said he was confident the Talebin's demand to be recognized as the national government would not be accepted.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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