U.S. jets press attacks on Taliban positions near front lines; Taliban claim hospital was hit

DON PATHAN Associated Press Writer

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. jets pounded Taliban positions Monday near front lines outside the Afghan capital and a key northern city, the Taliban said. The attacks appeared aimed at helping Afghan opposition forces advance.

In Islamabad, Pakistan, Taliban Ambassador Abdul Salam Zaeef claimed U.S. and British jets attacked a hospital in the western Afghan city of Herat, killing more than 100 people. The report could not be independently confirmed.

Britain denied its planes took part in any raid against Herat, and the United States cast doubt on the Taliban claim.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he did not have any specific information about a hospital, "but I put as much credibility in this Taliban report as others that have been proven wrong."

Zaeef also claimed the Taliban had shot down two U.S. helicopters over the weekend - one of which landed crippled in neighboring Pakistan, while the other crashed in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon has denied any of its helicopters were shot down, though it said a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in an accident Saturday in Pakistan, killing two U.S. servicemen on board.

Meanwhile, a refugee crisis was building at Pakistan's sealed border with Afghanistan. An Afghan man died of wounds suffered when border guards opened fire to force back up to 15,000 trapped Afghan civilians pushing and pleading for entry.

As the bombing campaign went into its third week, the strikes near the front lines suggested the start of a more aggressive American campaign on behalf of northern-based opposition forces facing the fundamentalist Taliban regime.

But it was unclear whether the poorly armed and poorly trained opposition forces would be able to make significant gains against either the capital Kabul or the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif - something they have been unable to accomplish since the air campaign began Oct 7.

A Northern Alliance intelligence officer, Motavar, complained that the attacks were not over a wide enough area. "We are satisfied, but we would like a broader bombardment over a larger area," said Motavar, who like many Afghans uses only one name.

Haji Gul Rahman, a deputy brigade commander at Bagram, north of Kabul, said there were casualties among the Taliban, but he couldn't say how many.

In the capital, the Taliban's official Bakhtar news agency reported heavy bombing Monday at positions 30 miles to the north.

Bombing in the same area Sunday marked the most substantial U.S. strikes to date against Taliban positions defending Kabul from the Northern Alliance forces, stalled for years 12 to 25 miles north of the city.

Bedraggled opposition fighters watched, excited, as smoke and dust billowed up. However, there was no report Monday of any opposition advances.

As sunset approached, two U.S. jets dropped six bombs, five of them on Taliban front-line positions north of Kabul, while another fell on the Northern Alliance side. There was no word on casualties.

U.S. jets also mounted fierce attacks throughout the night around the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, where opposition and Taliban forces have been stuck in a seesaw battle for days. The strikes devastated two heavily fortified bases that had been guarding the southern approach, damaged tanks and artillery sites, and destroyed an ammunition depot, Khan said.

Still, as in the front near Kabul, there were no claims Monday of significant opposition advances around Mazar-e-Sharif.

Taking control of Mazar-e-Sharif would let the opposition control key supply lines for arms from neighboring Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. But the United States and Britain have been reluctant to help the alliance seize Kabul until a broad-based government is in place to replace the Taliban.

Skies over Kabul were quiet through the night and into the day Monday. A day earlier, a U.S. raid shattered two homes in the city's northern Khair Khana district - killing at 13 civilians, including three women and four boys ages 8 to 13.

Zaeef, the Taliban envoy to Pakistan, also said U.S strikes Monday hit two health clinics in south-central Urzgan province - though he did not know how many casualties resulted - in addition to the 100-bed hospital in Herat.

"More than 100 were martyred. Patients and doctors were killed," he said. "It is clear that American planes are targeting the Afghan people to punish the Afghan nation for having chosen an Islamic government."

The Taliban's Bakhtar news agency reported that at mid-afternoon U.S. planes hit the Nawabad section of Herat, destroying five houses and killing eight to 10 people. It did not mention a hit on a hospital.

The Pentagon has said it is targeting only sites linked to the Taliban or Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network, accused in the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States. U.S. officials have expressed regret for any unintended casualties.

Afghanistan's neighbors have closed its borders to Afghan civilians fleeing the U.S.-led attacks.

Stranded, up to 15,000 Afghans are camped out in a no man's land between the Afghan and Pakistan borders at the Chaman crossing.

Pakistan officials said both Pakistani and Taliban border guards opened fire Sunday to quell a stone-throwing protest by hundreds of refugees demanding entry. Doctors at Chaman said Monday a 23-year-old Afghan died of a bullet wound. Another bullet injured a 13-year-old Afghan boy.

Pakistan border guards insist they were firing into the air only.

MEKONG NAVIGATION PACT: Currents of suspicion still run

Don Pathan
THE NATION

CHIANG SAEN, Chiang Rai, Thailand

Every day a group of 75 to 100 men gather by the loading dock at Chiang Rai's Chiang Saen district waiting to offload hundreds of boxes of goods sent down from southern China via the Mekong River.

It's a back-breaking job, and the pay is low - about Bt100 per day on average- but the men are not complaining. A job is a job, they say.

Ten to 15 cargo ships, ranging from 75 to 100 tons, dock at the Chiang Saen pier daily, but the workload will get even heavier in coming days as more and more cargo ships arrive. 

In May, Thailand, Laos, Burma and China's Yunnan province took a major step towards strengthening regional economic cooperation by entering into an agreement - after five years of negotiation - to allow cargo vessels to navigate freely on the Mekong.

Local Thai officials said the Chinese merchants and sailors, with their vast experience from navigating the Mekong and other great rivers were looking to make the most out of the recently signed agreement aimed at facilitating commercial navigation along the Mekong.

Unlike in the past when the absence of a standard operating procedure gave rise to unscrupulous practices by customs and port officials, the agreement that came into effect in May put in place the necessary rules for safe and free navigation along an 886-kilometre stretch of the river. This extends from Simao port in Yunnan to Luang Prabang, a world heritage site and popular tourist destination in northern Laos.

Considering the political turmoil of the past decades, the agreement is indeed a major step towards regional cooperation. In the post-World War II period, the Mekong was divided along geopolitical lines, with Communist China in the upper reaches being sidelined from development schemes funded by Western powers. The move was aimed at preventing communism from reaching the river banks of the non-communist states south of China.

Decades later, following the fall of the Vientiane royalist government in 1975, the upper-lower line became blurred. As a result, the portion of the Mekong that separated pro-US Thailand from Communist Laos became a bitter dividing line between the two countries. For the hundreds of thousands of Indochinese refugees fleeing Communist rule, the river became the last hurdle before reaching the so-called free world.

Today, the gathering of porters at Chiang Saen's port is indeed a testimony of how political and economic realities have evolved over the years. Though the changes are welcomed, not all parties are completely sold on the idea that this is a "win-win" situation. For some, the heart of the problem is the issue of sovereignty. For others, the problems lie elsewhere - namely security and environmental degradation. 

Laos and Burma, which stand to gain only a fraction of what Thailand and China are reaping economically, have consistently pointed out that the great Mekong is not an "international waterway" and that the agreement does not constitute forgoing one's sovereignty for the sake of the whole.

Vientiane is also concerned that the dredging of the river to facilitate the movement of larger ships, as proposed by China, may exact too high a price.

In a recent interview with The Nation, Phongsavath Boupha, Lao deputy foreign minister, said dredging the Mekong was likely to have a wide range of effects, from environmental degradation to the shifting of the current border demarcation and riverbanks.

"Experts who carry out the study on the impact will have to be well versed in a wide range of areas as the dredging will affect a wide range of things," Phongsavath said.

The Chinese government is reportedly looking to invest US$5.6 million (Bt250 million) dredging the 331-kilometre section from the No 243 demarcation point between China and Burma to Houyxay in Laos. 

If all goes to plan, the project will start in December. Once completed, this stretch is expected to allow passage of 100-ton ships all year round, Liu Daqing, a leading technician in charge of the project, was quoted by China's state-run People's Daily as saying. 

And by 2007, 300-ton ships are expected to be able to navigate this stretch even in the dry season, the daily said. Currently the annual navigation capacity of the Mekong is four million ton and is expected to reach 10 million tons by 2007.

As for the generals in Rangoon, high on their agenda is the issue of security. Not only is the area on the Burmese side of the Mekong River rugged and not firmly within the grip of authority, the area is slowly being taken over by units of the United Wa State Army (UWSA). 

And although Rangoon and the 20,000-strong UWSA entered a cease-fire agreement over a decade ago, the arrangement is still a far cry from a meaningful and lasting peace settlement. Any development that enhances the standing of the Wa, said Thai army officers, is definitely a point of concern for both Thailand and Burma. 

The UWSA, dubbed the world's largest armed drug-trafficking group, has been declared "public enemy number one" by the Thai government. Checkpoints leading to the UWSA settlement and units have been ordered shut, while troop presence along the border has been beefed up to stop the flow of drugs into the Kingdom.

One good thing that has come out of the Wa's presence in the area, said a Thai border official, is the decline in banditry and river piracy.

But with or without the Wa, the face of the so-called economic quadrangular development zone - its social and economic landscape - is certainly changing. 

"A handful of people may be involved in the drug trade and other illicit activities," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, "but the real force that is shaping the area is the cross-border trade among the four countries."

Besides enhancing trade between northern Thailand and southern China, strengthening economic cooperation in the region will essentially enhance Laos' international standing, the official said.

The landlocked country that in the past served as a buffer between Thailand and suspicious Vietnam and China is today trying desperately to become a land-link nation. Along the way, it is also looking to become the "battery" for Southeast Asia through the sale of hydroelectric power.

"A strong Laos would be good for Thailand," said the official. "We wouldn't want a mass migration from up north [China] pouring down to this area."

As pointed out by Nawin Thepawong, the chief of Chiang Rai's commerce office, cross-border trade between Thailand and Laos continued at the height of the regionwide economic crises. He said Thai exports to Laos, especially electrical appliances, were climbing steadily throughout the turmoil.

Said the Thai official: "Don't underestimate the Laotians. They are good salesmen. Much of what they have purchased from Thailand is resold to China and Vietnam."