*EPF309 03/28/01
Excerpts: State Briefer Repeats UN Requirements of Taliban
(Taliban must expel bin Laden and close terrorist camps) (1030)

During the daily State Department briefing on March 27, Richard Boucher, Departmental Spokesman, said that the Taliban representative who met with working level State Department officials a week earlier had not brought "any new proposals."

He recalled the requirements of the United Nations are that Usama bin Laden be expelled from Afghanistan and brought to justice and that the Taliban close the terrorist camps. An alleged proposal to monitor bin Laden, he said, "doesn't meet" those requirements.

Following are excerpts from the State Department briefing on March 27:

(begin excerpts)

Q: On the Taliban. I know we addressed this a bit last week, when Mr. Ramatullah was here. You said that they hadn't brought any new proposals, or that you hadn't heard any new proposals yet. This guy insists that he has brought new proposals, that they're now willing to let a U.S.-led force in to monitor bin Laden where he is, and that the main thing they want from the U.S. now is to just sit down and talk.

MR. BOUCHER: What we have said is that we have not seen any proposals that address the requirements of the United Nations resolutions. The facts are that the U.N. resolution, the international community, has asked that Mr. bin Laden be expelled and brought to justice, and the terrorist camps be closed. Somehow monitoring of bin Laden doesn't meet that requirement. That's not a U.S. requirement. It's not about the United States. It's not really about one individual. It's an issue between the international community and the Taliban over the fact that they continue to harbor international terrorists, and they continue to support the activities of terrorists training in camps.

So this has been made very clear in two United Nations Security Council resolutions. We have provided all the information., the evidence from trials. We have provided other evidence from the trial, including confessions of one of the accused of his association with bin Laden. So there should be no question but that this is an international obligation that the Taliban should meet. And other things, any proposals that don't meet that, just plain don't cut it.

Q: But how would it hurt to --

MR. BOUCHER: And second of all, there's another aspect to what's being said these days that I think deserves some response., The charge that somehow the United States is killing Afghans is absolutely outrageous. It only masks, really, the Taliban's own disregard for the welfare of the Afghan people.

The United States has provided massive amounts of food, medicine, shelter for Afghans. There was $113 million worth last year that we provided; $50 million already this year. So we have continued to do everything we can to relieve the suffering of the Afghan people, and the Taliban, in contrast, have prosecuted a war, harbored terrorists and destroyed statues. So I think what's important here are the facts.

Q: Would it hurt to sit down and talk with them though, if that's what they're asking, anywhere, any time, any place?

MR. BOUCHER: No. We just talked to this guy last week. What we're looking for is action on the requirements that the international community has, action on the requirements of the U.N. resolutions.

Q: Last week you said that there were no new proposals that were brought into -I mean, has this been on the table before, this idea of allowing the U.S. into Afghanistan to monitor bin Laden's activity?

MR. BOUCHER: I would look back at exactly what I said. I think the characterization is we see no new proposals that meet the requirements of the U.N. I'll see if this monitoring idea has been around before, but certainly what we're looking for in terms of real proposals are proposals that meet the requirements of the United Nations to expel him and allow Usama bin Laden to be brought to justice.

Q: But you are saying that he did make this proposal, though?

MR. BOUCHER: I'll double check and see if it's a new proposal.

Q: No, no -- but he did -- I mean, he did --

MR. BOUCHER: Did he talk about monitoring?

Q: Yes.

MR. BOUCHER: I'd have to double check exactly that he did in that meeting or that letter.

Q: Richard, just one more on this. Do you think that as we go through sanctions review and different ways of formulating policy here, especially when more people are installed here, do you think that there is going to be any momentum towards a new look at these sanctions as well, although they're U.N. sanctions - I mean, we have a large input in that obviously?

MR. BOUCHER: These are U.N. sanctions that target a certain group and regime in Afghanistan, the Taliban. These are not sanctions against the Afghan people.
We support the Afghan people, to the tune of 100 million or more dollars a year, in terms of food, supplies and support. There is a group of people in Afghanistan called the Taliban who are harboring terrorists, who need to bring the terrorists to justice. And I think in terms of closing their offices, restricting their ability to operate as a group, that is entirely justified. I don't foresee any change, unless they wish to comply with the U.N. resolution.

Q: But we say the same thing about Iraq, and we're looking at retooling those.

MR. BOUCHER: I think in Iraq you have had a much broader set of sanctions. You have had a set of sanctions that, as the President has said, are crumbling and need to be refocused in order to achieve their purpose.

I think there is quite a distinction between the kinds of measures against the Taliban themselves, versus the need to make the measures against Iraq more effective in achieving their own purpose, which is to stop Iraq from getting weapons of mass destruction.

(end excerpts)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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