Taleban rejects temporary truce offer

Lubbers (R) is welcomed on his arrival in Afghanistan

In this story: Deadlock Catastrophe RELATED STORIES

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Taleban's foreign minister has rejected a temporary truce proposal by the U.N.'s top refugee official.

Ruud Lubbers, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, has been pressing for a short-term ceasefire during a four-day tour of Afghanistan.

Taleban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil has, however, offered immediate peace talks with the northern-based opposition.

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"We told him that a ceasefire for Afghanistan was not the answer to the problem. Many times we have had a ceasefire and it was not respected by the opposition," Muttawakil told a news conference following a 90-minute meeting with Lubbers in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul.

"Clearly we told the high commissioner we have to work for an end to the war."

Lubbers received support for his ceasefire from Afghanistan's opposition leader, former presdient Burhanuddin Rabbani, during meetings in opposition territory on Wednesday.

The opposition's military leader, former defense chief Ahmed Shah Massood, did not attend the meetings. Both the opposition and the Taleban have already engaged in fighting.

Deadlock

Lubbers said after his meeting Thursday with the Taleban that neither side seemed willing to stop fighting.

"I don't want to say I am disappointed but I am not happy," the former Dutch prime minister said.

Both sides are known to be sending weapons, manpower and troops to the front lines for more fighting. The Taleban rule 95 percent of Afghanistan and the opposition five percent.

Afghanistan's refugee camps are filled with desperation

Afghanistan has the world's largest internal refugee population, with more than 170,000 emaciated and desperate people living in camps in western Afghanistan, another 150,000 people living out in the open in the north, and 150,000 people in makeshift tent villages in the south.

And on Afghanistan's northern border with Tajikistan another 10,000 people are stranded on a dried-up riverbed, denied entry into the Central Asian country.

"You can see the situation of our people is desperate," Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the Taleban's foreign ministry spokesman, said in an interview on Thursday.

"You can see that they need everything. Their lives are filled with pain."

Catastrophe

The relentless conflict between the Taleban and their northern-based opponents, led by ousted defense chief Ahmed Shah Massood, as well as the worst drought in living memory, has created a humanitarian catastrophe, says the United Nations.

For four days, Lubbers has been asking officials on both sides of the conflict to lay down their arms for six months to a year to allow relief workers to step up their assistance.

International aid workers estimate that 3,000 families who fled fighting in Bamiyan are living as refugees in Kabul. They have found shelter in war-damaged buildings, homes abandoned by their owners, who fled years earlier when warring factions ruled Kabul.

The United Nations wants to register an estimated 80,000 Afghans living in that camp so that they can give them assistance.

Pakistan, which already houses an estimated 2 million Afghan refugees, said it cannot afford any more and wants the refugees to go home.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Taleban facing drought disaster
May 1, 2001

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