The Hindu : On the trail of a 'war criminal'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 14, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

On the trail of a 'war criminal'

THE ONGOING "CAMPAIGN" against international terrorism has already raised several political and moral issues of objective concern to the global community. In the political arena, the U.S. is eager to widen the ambit of the apparent international "war against terror" in a manner suited almost exclusively to Washington's own conventional foreign policy agenda. This explains why the U.S. has begun to see on its radar screen such countries as Iran, Iraq, North Korea and their "terrorist allies" as possible new targets. These possibly potential targets of America's attention, perhaps also its anger, must be seen in the extended context of Washington's other plans at this point. Obviously, these other plans pertain to the Bush Administration's willingness to train its "anti-terror" focus, perhaps also its military prowess, on sundry South East Asian groups with suspected links to the Al-Qaeda terrorist outfit and its architect, Osama bin Laden. With the deposed Taliban "rulers" of Afghanistan having played host to Osama as the archetypal tsar of international terrorism, the strange case of the former "Taliban Foreign Minister" will be of immense interest to the U.S. Abdul Wakil Muttawakil, the "Foreign Minister" of the U.N.-ostracised Taliban regime, is now reported to be in the custody of the U.S. military forces, although there is no authentic word about what kind of custody, if at all, that might actually amount to.

Of relevance to this situation are some morally significant moves by the U.S. on a different even if related plane. In the wake of an international outcry over America's refusal to treat as Prisoners of War (PoWs) all those it holds captive from the ranks of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, the Bush Administration has now made a complicated legal decision. The U.S. President, George W. Bush, remains convinced that the PoW-status as a right under international law cannot be extended to either the activists of the Al-Qaeda terrorist mafia or indeed the Taliban camp-followers. Yet, in Mr. Bush's reckoning, some relevant benefits of the Geneva Conventions could accrue to the captives belonging to the Taliban and not the Al-Qaeda as such. It is against this background that the U.S. will now have to decide Mr. Muttawakil's status as a walk-in prisoner, if the reported accounts of his virtual voluntary surrender to the new Afghan authorities (and, therefore, the U.S.) are taken as true.

In a critical sense, Mr. Muttawakil's legal status as a prize catch of the U.S.-led "war on terror" might reflect his political value to Washington. Mr. Muttawakil was a key lieutenant of the cruel Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, and his `moderate' spokesman. So, the "Taliban Foreign Minister" is not an anti-U.S. military combatant under the various Geneva Conventions that impinge on the rules of war. Yet, the U.S. will be keen to explore the entire trail of the highest-ranking Taliban functionary in its custody with a view to tracing the genesis and expansion of the Taliban-Osama axis of terror. It remains to be seen how far such an arguable American aim of this order will also admit of the desire of the post-Taliban Afghan Government that Mr. Muttawakil be tried as a "war criminal". The Foreign Minister in the present internationally-recognised Government in Kabul, Abdullah Abdullah, wants Mr. Muttawakil to answer for the crimes that the Taliban inflicted on the Afghan people during its nefarious rule. With the U.S. having most recently praised the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, for his "abandonment" of the Taliban, Washington may consult Islamabad about the Muttawakil case.

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