Pakistan on Friday slammed a draft United Nations arms embargo against Afghanistan's Taliban militia and accused Russia and India of supplying weapons to opposition forces. Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said the proposed embargo against the Taliban, who rule some 90 percent of the country, but not the opposition Northern Alliance was without precedent in its bias.
"On one hand it seems to sanction the continued supply of arms to the Northern Alliance and it is therefore a prescription for the strengthening of the opposition to the government of Afghanistan," he told AFP. "I have never come across sanctions from the (United Nations) Security Council which are so one-sided, which seem to be a prescription for fuelling the strife."
He said Pakistan favoured a total arms embargo and a peaceful resolution to the Afghan conflict but accused Russia and India of "funnelling arms supplies" to opposition commander Ahmad Shah Masood through Central Asia. The foreign minister said that "according to reports," other anti-Taliban Afghan warlords were living in Russia and "expecting supplies of equipment to start military actions against Afghanistan."
"Is that any way to promote peace, the supply of arms to a group that has very little territory under its control?" he said.
Russia and the United States asked the UN Security Council Thursday to impose an arms embargo and other sanctions on the Taliban to force it to close alleged terrorist camps and extradite Osama bin Laden.
The new curbs would broaden aviation and financial sanctions imposed last year after the Islamic militia refused to extradite bin Laden, a Saudi dissident and billionaire wanted for his alleged involvement in US embassy bombings in East Africa in 1998. Other sanctions being discussed include the closure of the Taliban's offices overseas, a travel ban on Taliban officials except for negotiations or humanitarian reasons, and the freeze of the financial assets of bin Laden and his organization, Al-Qaida. Bureau Report