United Nations Orders Taliban: Hand Over Bin Laden

by Selwyn Manning - breaking news

The United Nations Security Council has urged Afghanistan's ruling militia, the Taliban, to comply with texts ordering that Osama bin Laden be handed over.

All terrorist training camps must also be closed down immediately, the UN Security Council ordered.

Members of the United Nations Security Council this afternoon [New Zealand time] said the Taliban must immediately comply with UN Security Council resolutions, especially those calling on the group to hand over indicted terrorist Osama bin Laden.

Speaking to the press following closed-door consultations on the situation in Afghanistan, Council President Ambassador Jean-David Levitte of France [pictured right] offered a succinct account of the Council's demands. "Today there is one, and only one, message the Security Council has for the Taliban: implement the resolutions of the Security Council, in particular resolution 1333, immediately and unconditionally," he said.

Resolution 1333, adopted on 19 December 2000, tightened sanctions imposed by the Council against the Taliban after Mr. bin Laden was indicted in the United States for the bombings of US embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam.

The text demands the handover of bin Laden "to appropriate authorities in a country where he has been indicted or to appropriate authorities in a country where he will be returned to such a country, or to appropriate authorities in a country where he will be arrested and effectively brought to justice."

The Council resolution also demanded that the Taliban act swiftly to close all terrorist training camps in territory under the group's control.

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