[Sila maklum kisah ini bersumber dari perisik Arab Saudi. - Editor]

The Guardian
5/11/01.

Taliban Pernah Bersedia Menyerahkan Osama Laden Pada 1998

(Taliban Agreed Bin Laden Handover in 1998)

Oleh: Brian Whitaker

Pemimpin Taliban Mullah Mohammed Omar, pernah membuat persetujuan tiga tahun dulu untuk menyerahkan Osama bin Laden, tetapi menukar fikiran setelah peluru berpandu AS menyerang mereka. Demikian kisah yang diceritakan oleh bekas ketua risikan Arab Saudi semalam.

Dakwaan itu dibuat oleh Putera Turki al-Faisal, berkemungkinan mempertikaikan soalan kenapakah tidak diusahakan rundingan untuk mendapatkan Osama Laden sebelum dilancarkan serangan bom di Afghanistan.

Dalam satu temubual dengan Arab News, Jeddah, dan MBC TV kepunyaan kerajaan Saudi, Putra Turki menceritakan bagaimana beliau membuat dua lawatan rahsia di Kandahar, yang pertama sekali pada Jun 1998.

'Raja Fahd dan Putera Mahkota Abdullah telah menghantar saya menemui Mullah Omar untuk memujuk beliau menyerahkan Osama Laden kepada kerajaan kami,' katanya.

'Mullah Omar meminta saya memberitahu raja dan putera mahkota bahawa dia sudah bersedia menubuhkan satu jawatankuasa bersama untuk mengatur acara penyerahan itu.'

Satu kemungkinan kenapa Taliban sudah bersedia menyerahkan Osama Laden ialah pada waktu itu mereka sudah tidak berminat dengan kehadiaran beliau lagi.

'Ketika mereka menguasai Jalalabad pada 1996, Osama Laden sudah pun ada di situ, dilindungi oleh Sheikh Yunus Khales, seorang bekas pemimpin Mujahidin,' jelas putera Turki.

Setelah menguasai kawasan itu, Taliban berjanji mengawal Osama Laden tetapi gagal. Pada Ogos 1998, penyokong Osama laden mengebom dua kedutaan AS di Nairobi dan Daressalam, yang mengorbankan beberapa ratus nyawa. Sejurus kemudian, AS lancarkan pengeboman menyerang Afghanistan dan Sudan yang mengakibatkan terbatalnya rencana Mullah Omar.

Putera Turki pergi semula ke Kandahar pada September berikutnya, tetapi menyatakan beliau menyesal dengan tindakannya itu. Mullah Omar menukar pendiriannya dan mengutuk Arab Saudi sambil berkata, 'Saya tidak ada pilihan selain membatalkan perundingan.'

Putera Turki yang telah dilucutkan jawatannya pada Ogos 31, sudah lama melibatkan diri dengan hal ehwal Afghan sejak Soviet menakluk Afghanistan pada 1979.

Ada desas-desus ketika beliau disingkirkan itu mengatakan AS tidak berapa selesa dengan hubungannya dengan Taliban kerana kegagalannya mendapatkan Osama Laden menyerah diri.

Tamat.

Terjemahan: SPAR

Asal:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/ story/0,1361,587849,00.html

The Guardian
Monday November 5, 2001

Taliban agreed Bin Laden handover in 1998

Brian Whitaker

The Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar agreed three years ago to hand over Osama bin Laden, but changed his mind after US cruise missile attacks, the former head of Saudi Arabian intelligence said yesterday.

The claim, by Prince Turki al-Faisal, is likely to raise questions about whether more efforts could have been made to negotiate Bin Laden's extradition before launching the latest bombing campaign.

In an interview with the Jeddah-based Arab News and Saudi-owned MBC television, Prince Turki described two secret visits he made to Kandahar, the first in June 1998.

"King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah sent me to meet Mullah Omar to persuade him to hand Bin Laden over to the kingdom," the prince said.

"Mullah Omar asked me to inform the king and the crown prince that he wanted to set up a joint committee to arrange procedures for the handover."

One possible reason for the Taliban's willingness to surrender Bin Laden at the time was that they were not keen to have him in the first place.

"When they occupied the eastern city of Jalalabad in 1996, Bin Laden was there, being sheltered by Sheikh Yunus Khales, a former mojahedin leader," the prince explained.

After taking over the area, the Taliban promised to control Bin Laden but failed to do so. In August 1998 Bin Laden's supporters bombed the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, killing hundreds of people. Shortly afterwards, the US launched reprisal attacks on Afghanistan and Sudan which seem to have scuppered the handover plans.

Prince Turki returned to Kandahar the following September, but said in his interview: "I wish I had not gone."

Mullah Omar reversed his decision and was abusive about Saudi Arabia, he said. "I had no choice but to break off negotiations."

Prince Turki, who was relieved of his intelligence post on August 31, had been closely involved with Afghan affairs since the 1979 Soviet invasion.

There were suggestions at the time of his removal that the US was unhappy about his relations with the Taliban and his failure to secure Bin Laden's extradition.