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Libya Offers to "Rescue" Arab Afghans
ISLAMABAD, Dec. 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi's son, Saif El Islam Qadhafi, who is also head of the Qadhafi International Foundation for Charity Associations (KIF), is currently visiting Pakistan to discuss the future of the Arab Afghan fighters in Afghanistan.
On Friday, the younger Qadhafi said in New Delhi that Tripoli was working to evacuate holed-up Arab fighters for the Taliban from the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. He voiced disgust at the Northern Alliance over the deaths of Taliban soldiers at an alliance prison in Mazar-e-Sharif and said it was necessary to "rescue" Arab fighters from "torture".
"Some groups of the Northern Alliance committed heinous massacres in Mazar-e-Sharif, Kabul and other Afghan towns," the younger Qadhafi told reporters. "We see that this tragedy is going to be repeated in Kandahar. We know about the killing of scores of families of Arab Afghans and foreigners. We therefore think it is necessary to evacuate the fighters along with their families."
Seif El Islam Qadhafi said the KIF, which he heads, had already contacted the Taliban to facilitate the passage of the Arab fighters to Pakistan.
"We are in contact with the Pakistan government to provide them with provisional shelter which may protect them from aerial strikes," said Qadhafi. "We also made several contacts with Arab states to get amnesty for them and guarantees for their return," he added.
The Libyan leader's son said that Arab fighters should be sent home where they could "be judged and treated like other prisoners of war under U.N. supervision."
This Libyan initiative started nearly two weeks ago, the younger Qadhafi added. It was meant to to spare such purported massacres as that of Mazar-e-Sharif and the Qala-i-Jhanghi fort.
Qadhafi called the head of the Northern Alliance, Burhanudeen Rabbani, the day Kunduz went under siege, but, unfortunately, the events on the battleground were faster than the political movements, reported pan Arab newspaper,
Al-Hayat.
The younger Qadhafi added that if any problem happens during the evacuation from Afghanistan to Pakistan, it will be a responsibility shared by the Americans and the Pakistanis because nearly 90% of the cards are on the American table and the rest are with Pakistan.
On Saturday, Qadhafi will meet with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to deliver a special message from the Libyan president, reported Pakistani paper,
The News.
So far, Libya has offered relief assistance of $2 million for Afghan refugees in Pakistan. This is in addition to goods worth $700,000 distributed in Pakistan and inside Afghanistan by the KIF, the paper said.
The KIF is a non-governmental association involved in voluntary welfare work and has offices in Tripoli, the Philippines, Tahiti and Chad.
Last week, Kuwait's first deputy prime minister, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, told the Kuwaiti daily newspaper,
al-Seyassah, that the Kuwaiti fighters in Afghanistan are free to return to their country but will be questioned and are liable to be punished accordingly.
"Afghan Kuwaitis can return [to Kuwait] but we will question them and hold them accountable for their acts," Sheikh Al-Sabah said.
Afghan Arabs have the right to return to their countries but their countries have the equal right to question them, added Sheikh Al-Sabah, who is also foreign minister.
Meanwhile, in a statement published on it's website, Amnesty International reiterated its call for an urgent inquiry into the large-scale killing of captured Taliban fighters and others at a fort on the outskirts of Mazar-e-Sharif.
It urged the U.S. and U.K. to consider requesting a preliminary investigation by either the United Nations or the International Fact-Finding Commission.
"The events at the Qala-i-Jhanghi fort must not simply be brushed under the carpet, like so many other killings before them," Amnesty International said.
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