US insists Taliban chief must be brought to justice

War on terrorism

The impending surrender of Kandahar and the fate of the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, threatens to drive a wedge between America and the opposition forces that Washington has propelled to the edge of victory in Afghanistan.

As reports flooded in yesterday that Hamid Karzai, the Pashtun tribal leader negotiating terms for the handover of the Taliban's last stronghold, was about to strike a deal with Mullah Omar offering some form of amnesty or safe conduct, the Bush administration made clear once again that it expected him to be brought to justice.

Both the White House and Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, served notice that any agreement that allowed the Taliban's spiritual leader to be sheltered in his own country afterwards was unacceptable. Asked if Mullah Omar should be allowed to "live in dignity" – the formulation being touted yesterday -- Ari Fleischer, Mr Bush's spokesman, said the President "believes very strongly that those who harbour terrorists need to be brought to justice".

From the Pentagon the message was the same, with the Defence Secretary underlining the "clear and unambiguous goals" that America had set out from the start.

Mr Rumsfeld did seem to offer some small room for compromise when he was questioned on whether it would be difficult for America to oppose a deal struck by Mr Karzai, the designated head of the interim government supposed to be installed on 22 December.

"I could fashion 1,000 hypotheticals," he said. A deal "hasn't happened yet ... and if it does, as Adlai Stevenson one said, 'We'll jump off that bridge when we get to it'."

One idea floated by Mr Rumsfeld was that the top Taliban commanders and senior figures in the Arab-dominated al-Qa'ida terrorist network might be handed over to their own countries – which in the case of Mullah Omar would mean him being dealt with by the Karzai government in Kabul.

But time and again, he returned to Washington's bottom line – "There won't be a negotiated solution that is unacceptable to the US" – and that did not include allowing Mullah Omar, who all along has stood alongside Osama bin Laden at the top of Washington's most wanted list, to get off scot free. Mullah Omar, he remarked acidly, "does not deserve a medal of freedom".

Though unarticulated, the looming disagreement underscores the diverging objectives of the Afghan opposition and its patrons in Washington; the former, in the person of Mr Karzai, is seeking to avoid further destruction of Kandahar and to consolidate its grip on the country.

The US priority was, and remains, the destruction of the Taliban and Mr bin Laden's organisation and ensuring that their leaders face justice for an outrage on US soil in which 4,000 people died – in foreign courts if necessary, but preferably before American judges, most probably at the military tribunals being set up to try suspected foreign terrorists, outside the US.

Mr Rumsfeld left no doubt that Mr Karzai would pay for any deal which fell short of this goal. "Our co-operation and assistance would clearly take a turn south" if senior Taliban and al-Qa'ida figures were treated too leniently, he said. "There are many different ways, depending on nationality and circumstance – but we want these people to be dealt with ... We want to bring them to justice, or bring justice to them." Ceasefire or no ceasefire, the Defence Secretary added, the US also reserved the right to continue its bombing campaign to ensure that Kandahar was not reinforced, and to "make sure that people who ought not to escape do not escape. To the extent that that this requires bombing interdiction, we will do that."

Both the Pentagon and the White House are extremely wary of the Taliban, and particularly of the Arabs and other non-Afghans fighting with them, who can expect little mercy from the opposition and thus have every reason to fight to the bitter end.

Even when the surrender of Kandahar is agreed, the fear is of a repeat of events 11 days ago in the prison fortress at Mazar-i-Sharif, when a US soldier and hundreds of others died in a bloody uprising by bin Laden loyalists. "These people have a habit of not doing what they say, you've got to be pretty careful with them and make sure they're unarmed," Mr Rumsfeld said.

The Pentagon was also at pains yesterday to warn that even if Kandahar falls, the military campaign in Afghanistan still had a long way to go. Despite heavy and continuing precision bombing of his suspected lair in the Tora Bora mountains near the Pakistan border, Mr bin Laden was still at large, officials pointed out. There were still pockets of Taliban resistance across the country, along with large areas where neither opposition nor US forces were present.

In the meantime, American forces would insist that every captive was closely questioned, Mr Rumsfeld said. "We can then make judgements about them, in a way that terrorism stops," he added.