International
Make way for new set-up, Taliban urged
By B. Muralidhar Reddy
ISLAMABAD, DEC. 5. The United States-led coalition today once again urged the Taliban to lay down arms and allow the new dispensation to take the war- ravaged country forward.
The Coalition Information Centre spokesman, Ambassador Kenton Keith, told a news conference here that the Taliban continued to fight even when it knew that it could not regain control of the country.
Asked about the fate of the militiamen, who surrendered before the Northern Alliance forces, he said it was for the Alliance to take a decision. But he maintained that the coalition was not in favour of allowing ``free passage'' to non- Taliban fighters associated with the militia and the Al-Qaeda network. He said the coalition wanted the foreign fighters to be taken into custody and interrogated.
``Politically, socially, militarily the message is clear: the writing is on the wall for the Taliban. Some of them realise this. Some of Mullah Omar's closest allies are deserting them.
But while Osama bin Laden sulks in his hiding place and Mullah Omar calls for a fight to the death it is the Afghan people who suffer. It is now time for those Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters who have left to allow Afghanistan to move on,'' he said.
The Ambassador maintained that the Taliban had nowhere to go and its men were being left behind - not by the coalition, not by any outside force, but by its own people. ``The contrast today is not just between the parties in Bonn and the Taliban. It is between the future and the past''.
He alleged that the Taliban did not care about putting civilians to difficulty and it did not care if innocent people were killed by its decision to prolong the fighting.
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