Taliban threatens Afghan elections
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The success of the recent loya jirga has increased hopes of secure elections.
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) -- A top Taliban commander has warned that Afghans who take part in elections this year will face attack, the first direct threat the guerrillas have issued to the U.N.-backed polls.
Mullah Dadullah, who is blamed for ordering the killing of a foreign Red Cross worker last year and a series of massacres during the Taliban's rule, warned Afghans not to vote in the poll due to be held in June.
"The people of Afghanistan must not participate in the election," he said after contacting Reuters from an undisclosed location. "If they do, they will come under Taliban attack."
Dadullah is one of the most-trusted lieutenants of elusive Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and a member of a 10-man leadership council set up last year. It was the second time in three days he had called Reuters to issue a threat.
The Taliban threatened late last year to disrupt a loya jirga, or grand assembly, called to approve a constitution to pave the way for the elections.
The assembly was held successfully amid tight security, but guaranteeing safe polls will be a much taller order for the foreign peacekeepers and a U.S.-led force based in Afghanistan.
Jean Arnault, the top U.N. official in Afghanistan, said he expected there to be threats against the elections, but pointed to the successful loya jirga.
"There were warnings issued by people claiming to belong to the Taliban ... These warnings in fact had very little impact," he told a Kabul news conference.
In Washington, the U.S. State Department said security problems were complicating the organization of the elections and said it was open to delaying the poll if that was what the government wanted.
"We will certainly do everything in our power to work with the Afghan government to have the elections, as promised, in June," department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters.
"If it comes down to it and they don't feel that can be achieved, I'm sure we'll work with them on whatever is appropriate."
Voter registration has fallen behind schedule with only 1 million of the 10.5 million eligible voters listed and threats from the guerrillas are likely to hurt the effort, especially in southern provinces where they have mounted repeated attacks.
U.N. officials have already expressed concerns about registration in the south, especially of women in what are ultraconservative Islamic areas.
Aid workers targeted
Dadullah reiterated a Taliban vow to target Muslims working for foreign aid agencies or assisting the United States and threatened more suicide attacks against U.S. soldiers and NATO-led peacekeepers.
"Everywhere there are U.S. and ISAF forces, we will do suicide attacks," he said, referring to International Security Assistance Force peacekeepers.
"We will kill all those Muslims who are working with America and its 52 other non-Muslim allied countries," he said when asked why the Taliban was targeting Muslim aid workers.
"We will build our country with Islam, not with road-building ... for every part of the road they asphalt they make 300 Muslims non-Muslim."
The United States has made repair of infrastructure, especially roads, a priority in its effort to rebuild Afghanistan and win hearts and minds in the war-ravaged country since overthrowing the Taliban in 2001.
On Wednesday, EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten said in Kabul that NATO would need to take a bigger security role in Afghanistan if there was to be any hope of the country holding the elections on time.
Copyright 2004
Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
