Observer

Masa Berperang Sudah Tiba, Bush dan Blair beritahu Taliban

(It's time for war, Bush dan Blair tell Taliban)

Oleh: Patrick Wintour et. al.

Presiden Bush dan Tony Blair, semalam mengeluarkan satu amaran kepada regim Taliban di Afghanistan dengan kata-kaa keras betapa persiapan untuk memerangi mereka sudah selesai dan serangan akan dimulakan bila-bila masa sahaja.

Ini merupakan satu amaran terakhir kepada pentadbiran Taliban, yang telah dituduh melindungi Osama bin Laden, dan jaringan Al-Qaeda. Bush telah berkata: "Amaran yang menyeluruh sudahpun diberikan. Negara lain yang menyebelahi puak penganas akan turut memikul bahananya."

Beliau menambah: "'Kami menawarkan bantuan dan pesahabatan kepada rakyat Afghan. Cuma pemimpin mereka dalam pentadbiran Taliban, dan para pengganas yang mereka lindungi yang perlu takut."

Pendapat Bush itu telah dilaungkan kembali oleh Tony (burung tiong) Blair, yang berlagak lebih lantang dengan mencadangkan betapa permulaan hubungan yang ganas tidak boleh dielakkan. Dia memberitahu para wartawan yang mengiringi beliau ketika pulang daripada satu perjalanan diplomasi yang ligat selama tiga hari yang membawanya ke Russia, Pakistan dan India. 'Kita sudah bersedia. Semuanya sudah siap siaga'.

Semua amaran itu muncul ketika Taliban merancang satu usaha terakhir untuk mengelakkan mereka diserang, sambil mengumumkan mereka sudahpun membebaskan seorang wartawan British, Yvonne Ridley, dan bersedia merundingkan pembebasan lapan orang petugas amal yang dituduh bergiat mengembangkan pengaruh ajaran Kristian, kalaulah Amerika menghentikan keghairahannya mahu bertempur.

Tawaran itu telah ditolak dengan keras oleh seorang jurucakap Washington, yang berkata bahawa masa untuk berunding sudah tamat. Beliau menambah: "Presiden telah menyatakan dengan jelas dari awal dulu bahawa Taliban perlu membebaskan semua lapan orang pekerja sukarela itu dan kini adalah masa untuk bertindak dan tidak lagi untuk berunding."

Ketika mengulas tawaran Taliban untuk membebaskan lapan pekerja amal itu, dia berkata tidak ada gunanya berunding dengan Taliban, lagipun masa untuk tindakan tentera sudah tiba. Blair berkata: 'Sudah ada beberapa alasan penting untuk kita bertindak. Satu tindakan akan dilakukan."

Blair menyatakan keazamannya menjatuhkan pentadbiran Taliban dan menambah keutamaan sedang dimulakan untuk mencari penggantinya.

Dia sudah diberikan bahan-bukti dan maklumat terbaru perisikan yang meyakinkannya adanya hubungan yang tidak dapat dipisahkan antara Osama Ladin dan Taliban. Dia berkata: "Mereka bukan sembarangan, mereka memang ada kaitan dan memang berkait rapat."

Blair turut mengulang adanya kekhuatiran akan serangan tambahan oleh jaringan Osama Laden yang sedang dirancang, dan ini merupakan satu ulangan yang pernah dikeluarkan oleh perisikan AS dan jurucakap tentera mereka - termasuk kenyataan Pemerintah Turus NATO Commander Joseph Raiston - betapa satu lagi serangan adalah '100 peratus pasti.'

Namun, Blair memberikan penjelasan, bahawa sebarang tindakan ketenteraan akan tertumpu kepada sasaran khusus, dan beliau telah menafikan kemungkinan serangan dilaksanakan kepada negara lain yang dituduh menyokong keganasan. Citarasa di kalangan pegawai terdekat Blair menunjukkan bahawa serangan ketenteraan akan dijadualkan minggu ini, walaupun ada jangkaan berlangsungnya banyak perjumpaan sepanjang minggu itu.

Amaran daripada Washington dan London itu muncul ketika Taliban meneruskan usaha memperkuatkan pertahanan mereka terhadap sebarang serangan pertama, yang dijangka akan datang daripada peluru berpandu kapal AS dan British yang berlabuh di Teluk Arab, dan daripada pengebom B-52 yang terbang tinggi.

Di Kabul, kesangsian terhadap munculnya dua buah pesawat yang terbang tinggi di ruang angkasa bandar itu adalah dianggap sebagai gelombang pertama serangan yang melibatkan satu pusingan tembakan anti-pesawat udara yang memakan masa 15 minit lamanya.

Ketika ribuan manusia melarikan diri untuk berkumpul di khemah pelarian di barisan sempadan, rupanya kumpulan Taliban telah memperkuatkan kubu pertahanan mereka sepanjang 10 batu garisan depan pertahanan di bahagian utara Kabul. Demikian laporan pegawai tinggi tentera yang berkata mereka memang sentiasa berhubung dengan bakal petualang yang akan belot di kalangan ketua medan perang Taliban.

Sumber itu berkata bahawa, Taliban sudah menyediakan satu kubu pertahanan sokongan dua kilometer di bahagian belakang kubu pertahanan pertama di bahagian utara bandaraya itu.

Pakatan Utara itu berpendapat pembikinan kubu pertahanan yang kedua itu adalah satu usaha kepimpinan Taliban untuk menaikkan semangat askarnya, NAMUN, MEREKA MENGAKU BAHAWA KEWUJUDAN BENTENG KEDUA ITU AKAN MELECEHKAN USAHA MEREKA, untuk menyerang Kabul secara kilat sebaik sahaja AS melancar serangan udaranya. Lalulintas hubungan radio yang dipintas menunjukkan pertahanan kubu depan Taliban masih dianggotai oleh pejuang yang berani mati daripada Pakistan dan dunia Arab, katanya.

'Seandainya mereka semua orang Afghan, tidak ada masalahnya lagi. Tetapi masih ada orang Arab di sana. Kami masih dapat mendengar mereka melalui radio.'

Media di Iran yang berjiran sudahpun meramalkan semalam kemungkinan pelancaran serangan udara AS ke atas Kabul dan bandar utama seperti Kandahar di Selatan, dan Jalalabad di bahagian Timur, termasuk amaran Taliban kemungkinan negara jiranpun akan diserang juga. Sudah ada beberapa petanda pasukan Pakatan Utara bersedia untuk menyerang.

Pihak yang menentang Taliban sedang membina satu landasan pesawat udara kira-kira 30 batu di utara Kabul. Sudah kelihatan beberapa buah helikopter baru di Lembah Panjsheer yang dikawal oleh Pakatan Utara. Ada laporan bagaimana ratusan orang telah dikerahkan oleh Jeneral Mohamed Fahim, komander pakatan itu yang menerima tabik hormat barisan kereta kebal buatan Soviet jenis T-72 dan T-56, pada hari Jumaat yang lalu. Yang masih tidak jelas lagi, apakah semua kelengkapan perang itu bekalan lama ataupun kelengkapan perang baru hasil janji Moscow membekalkan kelengkapan bernilai $40 juta itu.

"Sebelum tercetusnya peristiwa ngeri di New York, pihak Taliban memang telah bersiap sedia, menghadapi peperangan dalaman," kata seorang pegawai Pakatan Utara. "Tetapi, apabila dicabar oleh kumpulan sejagat, mereka dapat merasakan kelemahannya."

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, 'menteri luar' pakatan utara itu ada berkata betapa ibupejabat Taliban di Kandahar sudahpun berpindah dan ketua agama Taliban, Mullah Mohamed Omar, telah turut berpindah daripada Kandahar. "Mereka telah memunggah semuanya keluar untuk pergi ke tempat yang tidak diketahui."

Tamat.

Terjemahan: SPAR

Asal:

http://www.observer.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4272103,00.htm

It's time for war, Bush and Blair tell Taliban

We're ready to go in - PM | Planes shot at over Kabul

Patrick Wintour, Kamal Ahmed, Ed Vulliamy Washington and Ian Traynor, Jabal Saraj in Afghanistan

Sunday October 7, 2001

The Observer

President George Bush and Tony Blair yesterday warned the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in the starkest terms that preparations for the war against them were complete and attacks could be launched at any time.

In what amounted to a final warning to the Islamic fundamentalist regime, which is accused of protecting Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist network, Bush said: 'Full warning has been given. For those nations that stand with the terrorists, there will be a heavy price.'

He added: 'We're offering help and friendship to the Afghan people. It is their Taliban rulers, and the terrorists they harbour, who have much to fear.'

Bush's comments were echoed by Tony Blair, who was even more outspoken in suggesting that an outbreak of hostilities was imminent. He told journalists accompanying him as he returned from three days of whirlwind diplomacy in Russia, Pakistan and India: 'We are ready to go. Everything is in place.'

The warnings came as the Taliban made a desperate last-ditch bid to avoid attack, announcing that it was releasing the British journalist Yvonne Ridley and would negotiate the release of eight foreign aid workers accused of being Christian missionaries if America would halt its bellicose stance.

The offer was immediately rejected by a White House spokesman, who said that the time for negotiation had run out. He went on: 'The President has made clear from the beginning that the Taliban need to release the aid workers and that it is time for action, not negotiation.'

Responding to the Taliban's offer to release the eight aid workers, he said there could be no negotiation with the Taliban and the time for military action had arrived. Blair said: 'There are strong important reasons for taking this action. An action is going to be taken.'

Blair stressed his determination to see the removal of the Taliban regime from power and added that the priority was now to work towards replacing it.

He had seen new intelligence that convinced him of the inseparable link between bin Laden and the Taliban. He said: 'They are enormous, they are intimately connected and totally linked.'

Blair also renewed fears that further attacks by bin Laden's network were being planned, echoing comments by US intelligence and military spokesmen - including those yesterday of Nato Supreme Commander Joseph Ralston - that another attack was '100 per cent likely'.

Blair made clear, however, that any military action would have a tight focus and ruled out attacks on other states accused of supporting terrorism. The mood among Blair's staff indicated military strikes could take place this week, although there are expected to be more meetings and visits during the week.

The warnings from Washington and London came as the Taliban continue to reinforce their defences against the first wave of attacks, expected to be cruise missiles launched from US and British ships in the Gulf, and from high-flying B52 bombers.

In Kabul, fears that two high-flying aircraft seen above the city yesterday were part of that first wave led to an intense burst of anti-aircraft fire lasting 15 minutes.

As thousands continued to flee to border camps, it emerged that the Taliban have doubled their fortifications along 10 miles of front line to the north of the capital, Kabul, according to senior opposition military officers who say they are in regular touch with would-be defectors among the Taliban's field commanders.

The sources said yesterday that the Taliban have constructed a second line of defences two kilometres behind the existing front line to the north of the capital.

The alliance is endeavouring to present the new defensive lines as a vain attempt by the Taliban leadership to boost morale among its forces, but also concedes that the reinforcements could frustrate their plans to storm Kabul should the US launch air strikes. Intercepted radio traffic showed that the Taliban's forward troops still included fearsome fighters from Pakistan and the Arab world, they said.

'If the [Kabul] defences are manned by Arabs and Pakistanis, they will be an important obstacle to us, because they are ready to fight to the last, to the death,' said an opposition general.

'If they are Afghans, they won't be any obstacle. But there are still Arabs there. We can hear them on the radios.'

With the media in neighbouring Iran yesterday predicting imminent US strikes on the key Taliban cities of Kabul, Kandahar in the south, and Jalalabad in the east, and warnings from the Taleban that they would target neighboroughing states, there were also growing signs of Northern Alliance forces preparing for an offensive.

The opposition is constructing an airstrip 30 miles north of Kabul. Some apparently new helicopters have been spotted in the Northern Alliance Panjsheer Valley stronghold, north-east of Kabul, hundreds of men have been called up, and General Mohamed Fahim, the alliance commander, presided over a parade of over 30 Soviet T-72 and T-55 tanks in the far north on Friday. It was not clear if the hardware was from the existing armoury or whether it was newly acquired from the $40 million of equipment promised by Moscow.

'Before the events in New York, the Taliban were ready and very, very seriously preparing for a new round of internal war,' said a senior Northern Alliance officer. 'But when faced with the international challenge, they now feel very weak.'

Dr Abdullah Abdullah, the alliance's 'foreign minister", said the Taliban headquarters in Kandahar had been completely evacuated and that the Taliban's religious leader, Mullah Mohamed Omar, had also moved from Kandahar. 'They've moved everything to an unknown location.'