Sanctions will hit Afghans hard

UNITED NATIONS, DEC. 20. Led by the United States and Russia, the Security Council on Tuesday imposed harsh new sanctions on the Taliban government of Afghanistan, leaving the United Nations profoundly split over the human and political damage the measures could inflict on one of the world's poorest nations.

The vote in the 15-member Council was 13 for the embargo, with China and Malaysia abstaining.

At a year-end news conference, the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, expressed his barely concealed displeasure at the move, which was also opposed by his Special Envoy trying to start peace negotiations between the Taliban and the remnants of an opposition army fighting in a corner of the country. The U.N. relief officials working in Afghanistan have been unusually public in their criticism. Private agencies also lobbied the Council against taking this step. ``It is not going to facilitate our peace efforts, nor is it going to facilitate our humanitarian work,'' Mr. Annan said of the Security Council action. ``I think we had given adequate indications of that to the Council. But the decision belongs to the Council and of course, once they take the decision, we have to adapt and take the necessary measures that are required.''

On Tuesday, the U.N. removed all its remaining relief workers from the country, fearing a backlash from the Taliban, who will be almost completely isolated diplomatically when the resolution takes effect in 30 days, and Taliban leaders will be barred from international travel. Air links will be cut and an arms and military training embargo will be imposed on only the Taliban and not their armed opposition, which is supplied by Russia, Iran and lately India. All assets belonging to Osama, the Saudi-born financier of Islamic militancy who is thought to be living in Afghanistan, will be ordered frozen around the world.

The U.S. has been demanding Osama's expulsion from Afghanistan to stand trial for masterminding explosions at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. The new sanctions are linked to the refusal of the Taliban to meet that demand, made in a first round of sanctions a year ago. For Russia, the Taliban is assumed to be behind an Islamic rebellion in Chechnya.

In Washington on Tuesday, a senior administration official said: ``This sends an important signal not only to the Taliban, but also to Pakistan that pressure against the Taliban's continued safe haven for terrorists will only continue. The only way to turn the corner on our bilateral relations with the Taliban is for the terrorism issue to be resolved.

''If the Taliban and Islamabad believe that the next administration will look at this issue differently, they are delusional,`` the official said. ''There is no issue in Washington that has stronger bipartisan support than combating terrorism.``

Russian and U.S. pressure on Security Council members and some officials in the U.N. secretariat has been intense, diplomats said. Two weeks ago, as the sanctions resolution was circulating, the Russian representative complained to the Deputy Secretary- General, Mr. Louise Frechette, that the coordinator of relief work in Afghanistan, Mr. Erick de Mul, of the Netherlands, was undermining the anti-Taliban campaign by drawing attention to what he believed would be the adverse effects of the tightened embargo on ordinary Afghan citizens, already among the poorest people in the world.

The U.S. Ambassador, Ms. Nancy Soderberg, said the Security Council was taking ''a strong stand against terrorism.`` She described Osama as ''the world's most wanted terrorist.

Mr. Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Ambassador, said that the one- sided nature of the sanctions was fully justified. ''It is the Taliban which has provided their territory for the use of terrorists and open support for the Chechen, Uzbek, Tajik, Uighur and other extremists.``

- New York Times

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