- AHL-E-SHADI, Afghanistan
-- The leader of Afghanistan's most radical Islamic group says Afghans
are tired of a central government that has no control beyond Kabul and
has permitted ''foreigners and outsiders'' to direct Afghan policy.
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- Abdurrab Rasul Sayyaf suggested in an interview that
Western forces, which he said have nearly completed their mission of driving
out the former Taliban regime and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda fighters,
should leave soon.
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- ''We have our own laws, our own habits, our own behaviors,''
said Sayyaf, who has no official role in the current government. Speaking
in English, he added, ''My aim is that the purposes of our beliefs should
be implemented. That is what I want, for the Afghans to be independent,
a country independent of outsiders.''
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- Sayyaf's remarks were the first public indication that
he is losing patience at being shut out of the new coalition ruling Afghanistan.
He also appears to be accelerating efforts to influence events here through
his speeches and other contacts, Western officials said. They said he was
hailed as Afghanistan's future leader when he showed up at the Saudi Embassy
earlier this week.
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- His aspirations could cause problems for Afghan President
Hamid Karzai, who is promoting a secular government. An Islamic, isolationist
Afghanistan also would hamper the United States in continuing its war on
terrorism and its efforts to promote regional economic and political stability.
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- Sayyaf, a guerrilla fighter in the 1979-89 war against
Soviet forces, is the pre-eminent conservative Islamic leader in Afghanistan.
His weekly messages from mosques in the Kabul area are carried on radio.
According to Western officials, he is supported by hundreds of thousands
of Afghans, many of whom believe he should lead the country.
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- Sayyaf and his followers seek a strictly Islamic nation
where foreigners, especially non-Muslims, have no influence. But his interpretation
of Islam is not as harsh as the Taliban's.
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- After the 1979-89 war, Sayyaf founded the University
of Sawal al-Jihad outside Peshawar, Pakistan. U.S., British and other Western
intelligence officials have described the institution as a training school
for terrorists. Among the graduates: members of the radical Abu Sayyaf
group in the Philippines. They took their name from the university's founder.
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- Sayyaf refused to recognize Karzai's government after
it was formed last December. But he has since participated in several political
events, including the loya jirga (grand council) in June that established
Afghanistan's two-year transitional government.
-
- Interviewed at his heavily guarded hillside headquarters
an hour's drive north of Kabul, Sayyaf would not say whether he believed
the U.S.-led intervention that forced out the Taliban nearly a year ago
had merit. But he said it was time for the U.S. and other international
forces to leave.
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- ''They (the Americans) said they came for two purposes.
The first was to give punishment to the Taliban and its regime, which was
keeping terrorists. The second was to eliminate the bankers of the terrorists,''
he said. ''They have punished the Taliban, and they are almost finished
eliminating the bankers. They should go, because we want to have good relations
and good friendship with the United States in the future.''
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- He dismissed charges that he and his supporters are responsible
for any of the recent terrorist attacks against the United States, its
allies or the Karzai government. The Afghan president narrowly escaped
an assassination attempt during a visit earlier this month to the southern
city of Kandahar.
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- He's no fan of Karzai. Sayyaf accused the government
of squandering international resources. ''They are causing the government
to get weaker.'' He said he will continue to speak out against the failures
of the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.
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- As for those U.S. and Western officials who say he must
be kept out of power, Sayyaf laughed and took off his turban. ''Do you
see horns on my head? I am a human being,'' he said. ''I fought for my
country. Come see me face to face.''
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