US Leans on Pakistan to Find bin Laden Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit US LEANS ON PAKISTAN TO FIND BIN LADEN; Islamabad Backs Away from Ties with Taliban (sort of) [The tortured position of Pakistan's government is not to be envied; they are being told by the US to help deliver bin Laden, they have said they are 'not doing business with' the Taliban, although they have not broken diplomatic relations, and they have refused to recognize Rabbani's self-proclaimed re-establishment of a government in Kabul. Meanwhile, the country is beseiged by thousands of refugees from Afghanistan inside or just over the Pakistani border (see the BBC and Guardian roundups of this date for more details), and despite a police-state military dictatorship, the government is dealing with a seethingly hostile population. Given half a chance, everyone will turn on Uncle Sam in a nanosecond.] Gulf News Online http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=33138 Pakistan under pressure to help trace Bin Laden By Abdullah Iqbal Lahore, Nov 20--With Washington hunting for Osama Bin Laden inside Afghanistan, Pakistan is facing growing pressure to help track him down. According to well-placed sources within Pakistan's intelligence hierarchy, Washington believes Pakistan is in the "best position" to attempt to establish contact with persons within Afghanistan who may be able to provide critical information on the whereabouts of Bin Laden. "They (the Americans) believe the best, and most efficient way, is to have a local Afghan give him away, perhaps in exchange for head-money, and they are also convinced Pakistan can assist in the task of bringing this about," said a senior official. Although U.S. and British troops, according to reports, have encircled the area of less than 50km within which Bin Laden is said to be based, there is still some anxiety that the operation to capture him moves ahead as efficiently as possible. To achieve this, more detailed information on precisely where Osama is located, how many people are present with him and what weapons they possess could be of immense significance. Coupled with this are lingering fears that Bin Laden is in possession of uranium, obtained from the former Russian republics. * Gulf News Online http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=33139 Islamabad Puts Taliban Ties on Ice By Shahid Hussain Islamabad, Nov 20--Pakistan said yesterday it was no longer doing business with Afghanistan's Taliban although it had not withdrawn diplomatic recognition even as it rejected former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani's bid to re-establish his rule in Kabul. Pakistan said the Taliban militia's sole remaining embassy, in Islamabad, remained open. "We don't have relations, we don't conduct business between the government of Pakistan and whatever is left of the Taliban government," Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar told a news conference. "But relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan continue and they will be maintained according to our best intentions," he added. Pakistan said the Taliban's consulate in the northwestern city of Peshawar near the Afghan border was being closed, leaving the Islamabad embassy and a consulate in the southwestern city of Quetta as the embattled militia's only diplomatic missions. Pakistan yesterday also urged Rabbani not to obstruct UN efforts to put in place a representative transitional administration. "It is a transitional administration established by the UN with which we will be happy to deal on a government-to-administration basis." "We do not in the meantime recognise the claim of a leader to represent the whole of Afghanistan," Sattar said. Sattar said Pakistan hoped that Rabbani would play a "salutary role" toward the success of the UN-sponsored political process. "We hope that the decisions he makes while being in occupation of Kabul will not be aimed at preventing formation of transitional administration." Sattar called on the UN to take steps to resolve the situation created by the occupation of Kabul by Northern Alliance forces. "We were told that the Northern Alliance would be restrained from sending its forces into Kabul and they had themselves given indications to that effect. Then they entered Kabul to the surprise of the coalition partners as well as the UN." It would be "extremely difficult" for a transitional administration to function in a city which is under occupation of forces of one faction, he said. Sattar emphasised Pakistan has no hostility toward the Northern Alliance, that "it must have a role, just as other Afghans should, in the formation of a genuinely representative transitional arrangement." "This is not at all position that is hostile to any faction. We hope very much that all parties will play their due role." He called for sincere cooperation on the part of all Afghan sides to seize the present "historical opportunity" for salvaging their homeland from perpetual strife and instability. Explaining the ongoing political process, he said a planned U.N.-supervised meeting of Afghan leaders to discuss the future of their war-torn country could be held this weekend at a still undecided venue, possibly Switzerland. In the next step, a larger Afghan provisional council would be convened to form a transitional administration, which will govern for an interim period not exceeding two years. A 'loya jirga' (traditional assembly) would be held to give a mandate to the transitional administration and also guidelines for a constitution. Before the expiry of the two-year period a grand 'loya jirga' would take place to set up a future government. Sattar stressed that in accordance with the Security Council resolution both the transitional administration and the future government should be committed to peace with neighbours and to international obligations to combat terrorism and drug trafficking. He said the UN rightly rejected Northern Alliance proposal to hold the first meeting in Kabul as it was important to ensure an atmosphere "from pressures and coercion" which was not possible in the occupied city. The foreign minister said the Organisation of the Islamic Conference had endorsed the UN plan and the world should "expeditiously" complete the first phase. Regarding fears of a massacre in Kunduz city where thousands of Taliban, Arabs and Pakistanis are under the siege of the Northern Alliance, Sattar said the UN and the international coalition to prevent any reprisals or revenge killings. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-11.20.01-05:18:44-12256