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Hijack crisis

Britain's non-recognition

of Taliban complicates issue

LONDON: Attempts to broker a peaceful end to the hostage crisis on an Afghan jet at an airport near London on Monday were made more complicated by Britain's non-recognition of Afghanistan's Taliban regime.

While British police continue to speak to the hijackers who are holding some 150 hostages, the British government has been forced to open a channel to the Taliban.

But leaders of the hardline Taliban regime in Kabul said they were content to leave the matter in British hands.

"We are talking to representatives of the Taliban. It would be ridiculous not to, given that there are human beings at stake," a Foreign Office spokesman told AFP.

The discussions are being conducted on an informal basis, the spokesman said, as Britain has no diplomatic representation in Kabul and no third country to represent its interests.

"The UK does not recognise governments, we recognise states. There is no effective national government in Afghanistan with which we could conduct government to government business," he said.

The Taliban regime has no diplomatic representation in London. A charge d'affaires appointed by the previous government which was overthrown in 1996 by the Taliban, Ahmad Wali Masood, is the brother of Ahmad Shah Masood, leader of Afghanistan's main armed opposition group.

The Taliban have alleged that Masood's group is behind the hijacking, a charge the group has denied.

"We are in touch with a number of governments in the region and elsewhere. This is a matter for the British government. The plane is on British soil and we are fairly experienced in dealing with these sorts of matters. I don't think the lack of face-to-face contact will have any bearing," the spokesman said.

Afghan Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil on Monday said the ruling militia would neither open talks with the hijackers nor accept their demands.

If the British authorities wanted to talk with the hijackers that was "their own business," Mutawakil told a news conference.

"We have just said that the British government has got its own rules and they know how to deal with the hijackers. We have not had any direct contact with the hijackers so far.

"Since they have allowed the plane to land they should solve this issue according to their own applicable laws," he added.

Earlier, Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, also ruled out negotiations with hijackers.

"Terrorism is strongly condemned by us and we never want to negotiate with hijackers and will never accept their demands," Omar said in a statement.

Meanwhile two representatives of the Taliban met on Monday with French Foreign Ministry officials in Paris, a ministry spokesman said.

Francois Rivasseau named the two as Deputy Foreign Minister Abdurrahman Zahed and Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, a diplomat based at the Afghan consulate in the Pakistan city of Quetta.

The pair are touring European capitals in an attempt to make the regime in Kabul more acceptable in the west.ÑAFP