Article Id: SAP20011025000091

Document Id: 0gltebf00lyp4r

Insert Date: 10/26/2001

Purge Date: 11/09/2003

Publish Date: 10/25/2001

Publish Region: Near East & South Asia

Lines: 140

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Title: Cluster bombs stoke humanitarian crisis fears as Afghan civilians  toll

mounts  

Document Number: FBIS-NES-2001-1025

Document Type: Daily Report

Document Title: FBIS Transcribed Text 

Document Region: Near East/South Asia, The Americas 

Document Date: 25 Oct 2001

Division: South Asia, North America 

Subdivision: Afghanistan, United States 

Sourceline: SAP20011025000091 Hong Kong AFP in English 1212 GMT 25 Oct 2001 

AFS Number: SAP20011025000091 

Citysource: Hong Kong AFP 

Language: English 

N/A

Subslug:  

[FBIS Transcribed Text]     ISLAMABAD, Oct 25 (AFP) - US forces peppered 

Taliban frontlines with cluster bombs for the first time Thursday as the 

civilian toll of their air campaign, and fears of a huge humanitarian 

disaster, reached alarming proportions. The cluster bombs -- fist-sized, 

armour-penetrating anti-personnel explosives that scatter over a wide 

area -- were part of intense overnight raids on frontlines north of 

Kabul, including Bagram air base, and Keshendeh and Dara-e-Souf, near 

Mazar-i-Sharif, a militia official said. 

    US forces this week intensified their raids on the frontlines in 

hopes of softening up Taliban positions and clearing the way for ground 

assaults by the opposition Northern Alliance. Although the opposition 

reported advances in the region of Mazar-i-Sharif, on a key supply route 

to Kabul, the raids appear to have had little effect in other zones so 

far. US officials, including President George W. Bush, have warned of a 

long and hard war, with continuing military action in Afghanistan and 

likely terror attacks at home. "Cluster bombs were dropped and many have 

not yet exploded" on the frontlines, Taliban spokesman Abdul Hanan Hemat 

told AFP. 

    The United Nations had already reported use of the ordnance in the 

western city of Herat, but this is the first time they have been reported 

on frontlines. The United Nations and many humanitarian organizations 

have urged the United States to stop using the weapon which, like 

landmines, can have devastating long-term effects; ordnance that fails to 

explode on impact can continue to kill and maim long after combat has 

ended. The Taliban appealed to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference 

to urgently send a delegation to evaluate the death and destruction 

wrought by more than two weeks of US bombing and reported growing numbers 

of civilian deaths. 

    At least 16 died in two overnight raids on the village of Takht 

Alaman, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) news agency reported, while a 

Taliban spokesman said another 20 and "maybe more" were killed in Ishaq 

Salaiman, both near the western city of Herat. Another Taliban spokesman 

told AIP that the southern city of Kandahar, the Taliban's spiritual and 

political headquarters, was also targeted, with one crammed bus 

"completely destroyed and the passengers ... martyred." 

    None of the incidents could be independently confirmed. The United 

States has persistently rejected Taliban accounts of civilian deaths as 

lies or exaggerations, although some -- including the recent bombings of 

a hospital and a mosque -- have subsequently been confirmed by the United 

Nations. With winter less than a month away, refugees fleeing the raids 

emptied the cities to mass on the country's borders, the United Nations 

estimating that one million people had fled their homes, leaving Herat, 

Kandahar and Jalalabad 70 percent empty. 

    A senior Pentagon official, Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem, said US 

forces would try to take action in the cities in a way to avoid hurting 

civilians. "It is not our intention to reduce the city to rubble while 

they hide in there. We will find clever ways to go after them," he said. 

"But it is extremely difficult." Washington was also worried that its bid 

to put other conflicts on the backburner for the duration of its 

anti-terror campaign was failing, notably in the Middle East, where 

tensions remained high in the escalating tit-for-tat war between Israelis 

and Palestinians. 

    Secretary of State Colin Powell renewed a US call for an "immediate" 

Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian towns after at least six Palestinians 

were killed Wednesday in a West Bank village. "At this time it would be 

appropriate for the Israeli government to immediately withdraw from ... 

villages they have occupied and try not to let this cycle of violence 

become even more intense," Powell said. "It's a very volatile period and 

I would like to see this start moving in the other direction." 

    More than 2,000 Afghan refugees, meanwhile, arrived Thursday at the 

border with Iran and moved into the Makaki refugee camp inside Afghan 

territory, a UNHCR spokesman in Tehran said. He spokesman said the 

refugees -- in addition to health and food concerns -- feared being 

pressed into service by the Taliban and of running foul of 

drug-traffickers operating in the area. He urged Iran to open its borders 

to the refugees, but Tehran, along with Pakistan, has kept its borders 

closed since the start of the US raids to punish perpetrators of last 

months terror attacks blamed on Osama bin Laden, his al-Qaeda network and 

their Taliban protectors. 

    More than 60,000 refugees have crossed into Pakistan since September 

11 and the number, according to UNHCR spokesman Yusuf Hassan, is expected 

to rise to 300,000 within weeks and up to 1.5 million in the longer term. 

"They are coming here," said refugee Abdul Hameel at the emergency camp 

of Killi Faizo near the Chaman border post in southwest Pakistan. "It 

will only take a few days, but they are coming." In a bid to ease the 

flow of aid into the country, Uzbekistan said it will open its border 

with Afghanistan to allow the UN to use a river port in the southern city 

of Termez to deliver aid to Afghanistan, a UN official said. 

    Officials in Western Pakistan reported that thousands of armed 

tribesmen had gathered on the border with Afghanistan, ready to join 

forces with the Taliban to wage war against the United States. The force, 

armed with automatic weapons, swords and axes, was gathering in Dir 

district, in the semi-autonomous tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, 

district official Ghulam Farooq told AFP. "More than 3,000 tribesmen have 

gathered at Samarbagh and more are pouring from across the Malakand 

division," Farooq said. "The situation is very tense but we are putting a 

security cordon in place." 

    Diplomatic traffic too was heavy in Pakistan, with Turkish President 

Ahmet Necdet Sezer on his way for talks with President Pervez Musharraf 

and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal bearing a message from 

King Fahd, whose content was not revealed. In Peshawar, a conference of 

1,000 exiled Afghan leaders issued a formal demand for an end to the 

bombing campaign of the Taliban militia and a ceasefire. "The warring 

parties of Afghanistan, the USA and its allies ... should rather pave 

ground for a political solution" to protect the innocent and prevent 

"further destruction of Afghanistan," a statement said. 

[Description of Source: Hong Kong AFP in English -- Hong Kong service of 

the independent French press agency Agence France-Presse]