09643

01/13/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09643

TALEBAN LOOTED AFGHANISTAN

Leaders of the now-defunct Taleban regime made public spectacles of chopping off the hands of accused thieves -- including starving beggars who stole in order to eat. At the same time, Taleban leaders, including Mullah Mohammad Omar, committed theft on a massive scale. Even as he called on the Afghan people to fight to the death against the U.S.-led coalition, Omar and his cronies were cleaning out the Kandahar branch of Afghanistan's central bank.

According to news reports, on October 16^th, a personal emissary of Mullah Omar arrived at the bank with a check signed by the self-proclaimed "commander of the faithful," Mullah Omar. Some five-million dollars in U.S. and Pakistani currency were dumped into a large flour sack. "There was no money after that," said a bank official. Millions more were taken from banks in other cities. In Kabul, Taleban leaders stole more than six-million dollars. "They just came and took it," said Allah Hashmee, manager of the Kabul bank.

Mullah Omar and his fugitive colleagues are also believed to have disappeared with millions of dollars in proceeds from drug-trafficking and funds supplied by their terrorist paymaster, Osama bin Laden. Mullah Omar, in particular, profited handsomely from his association with bin Laden and his Al-Qaida terrorists. Bin Laden lavished cash and other gifts on Omar, including an expensive home -- now in ruins from a coalition air strike.

While Afghan children starved, Taleban leaders and their troops helped themselves to humanitarian relief aid. They extorted taxes and fees from aid workers trying to help suffering Afghans.

As they fled, Taleban troops robbed people they claimed to be protecting. Hospitals were stripped of medical supplies and generators. Homes and businesses were looted. In many cases, Taleban and Al-Qaida members destroyed what they couldn't carry away.

Robbery and theft are far from the only crimes for which Mullah Omar and his gang should be held accountable. They should also be made to answer for murder, torture, and years of repression. But the fact that in the end they proved to be little more than common thieves shows how petty these evil men really are.