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American Morning
America's New War: Defections Under Way of Taliban Rank-and- File
Aired September 27, 2001 - 10:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now the global perspective.
CNN's Christiane Amanpour remains at her post in Islamabad, one of several cities where Pakistanis showed support for the U.S. war on terrorism.
Christiane, anything new?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Actually, yes, some quite interesting developments emerging that is enabling us to paint a little bit more of a full picture of what may be going on inside the Taliban -controlled parts of Afghanistan.
We reached a -- by phone -- one of the key Taliban government officials today, who is confirming what Mike Chinoy, our reporter near the Afghanistan border seems to be telling us, which is that there appear to be defections under way amongst the Taliban rank-and-file, if you like.
Mike Chinoy was reporting that people he's been talking to coming out of Afghanistan are saying that mid-to-low-level militia commanders are defecting, that various check points are being left unmanned, that people are going off into the country side. And that one area, an important area calls Haust (ph), which is one of the provinces there in Afghanistan, the tribal leaders and commanders have written a letter to Mullah Omar, telling him that they want nothing more to do with the so-called Arab fighters associated with Osama bin Laden in their region and they want them out of there.
We then contacted the government minister who we're able to talk to in Kandahar, the Taliban official, who said that, yes, there may be some defections, not around the Kandahar area, but in other parts of their control of Afghanistan, and that there is a rising sense of concern amongst the Taliban, who are discussing how to deal with the current situation. And that, in fact, there may be some defections and there is a rising sense of unease amongst them.
Again, these are all sorts of anecdotally reports that we're getting, but it continues to try to paint a fuller picture of what may be going on in the ranks of the Taliban right now as they know that they are faced with certainly a buildup, in any event, that could be quite fearsome. Now, we're also being told that Pakistani government is determined to, quote, "do all that they can" to show in their conscience that they have done everything they can to avoid any kind of military solution to this. And to that end, they are, they tell us, planning to send a delegation to Pakistan. We don't know -- sorry, to Afghanistan, again to reiterate the very serious nature of what's going on and how the Taliban must cooperate with the international community, otherwise face the consequences.
We don't know exactly when that delegation will happen, but they say this will be the last attempt and then that's it. Again, they say these will not be negotiations, simply another very strong message of what is required from the Taliban at this particular time.
In addition, the Pakistanis have organized today a day of solidarity and unity. There were plenty of people on the streets today, called out by the Pakistani government, to demonstrate their solidarity with the international community. It went off peacefully.
And those are the latest developments from here.
ZAHN: Christiane, I hope can you still here me. I have one brief question for you. You no doubt might have heard that there's much debate over whether Jesse Jackson should take the Taliban up on its offer to either serve as some sort of bridge-builder or a peace- maker. We interviewed him this morning. He also says there is an appeal for him to try to go into Afghanistan to secure the release of some Christians who are currently being jailed by the Taliban.
Any reaction from the Pakistanis at all?
AMANPOUR: No, not yet. Essentially what we understand is that request to Reverend Jackson came from the Taliban Embassy here in Islamabad. And then, of course, one of the parents of one of the Americans who is still being detained in Kabul asked if Jesse Jackson could come and try to release all eight of those foreign workers, aid workers, who've been accused of trying to spread Christianity and whose trial is under way in Kabul. But there's been no reaction from the Pakistani government.
ZAHN: All right, Christiane Amanpour, thank you so much.
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