Taliban deny killing Chinese

2004-06-11 13:53

Kabul - The Taliban militia on Friday denied killing 11 Chinese workers in northeast Afghanistan, in the bloodiest attack on foreigners since their harsh five year rule was ended by US-led forces almost three years ago.

Abdul Latif Hakimi, claiming to represent remnants of the ousted Islamic fundamentalist militia, said the horrific killings of the sleeping road construction workers "should not have happened".

"We deny the accusation of killing the Chinese workers in Kunduz province of Afghanistan," he said.

"And that should not have happened."

"When we do something we clearly claim responsibility for it... but we don't claim what we have not done."

President Hamid Karzai, in the United States to attend the G8 summit, blamed the killings on Afghanistan's "enemies" while Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said the cold-blooded murders were carried out by "terrorist elements."

Acting President Mohammed Qasim Fahim, the defence minister standing in for Karzai, on Thursday blamed the Taliban and their supporters.

"The acting president... considers the killings an inhumane act of those who try to place obstacles in the way of the reconstruction of Afghanistan and considers the network of Taliban, Al-Qaeda and their allies behind the incident," a statement said.

Hakimi said the Chinese reconstruction workers had not been targeted because they were not working for "American goals" or the UN.

Taking orders from Americans

"Unama (the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan) is taking their orders from the Americans and some other organisations such as MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres) are working for the interests of the Americans so they are our targets," he said.

"The rest of the organisations are safe and can continue their work."

Three Europeans working for Medecins Sans Frontieres were killed along with two Afghan support staff on June 2 when their vehicle was ambushed and shot at in northwestern Badghis province.

The aid group has previously criticised the US-led coalition in Afghanistan and is politically independent.

Road construction workers, particularly those working on the US-backed Kabul to Kandahar highway project, have been targeted by militants in the past.

A Turkish engineer was killed during an ambush on the Kabul-Kandahar road in the southeastern province of Zabul in early March.

- AFP