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Bin Laden Urged to Leave Afghanistan
Sep 20, 2001.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- (news - web sites) (AP)
As America gears up for war, Islamic clerics Thursday urged terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) to voluntarily leave Afghanistan, where he and his followers have had sanctuary for five years, the Taliban news agency said.

The statement carried by the Bakhtar news agency came at the end of a two-day meeting by hundreds of Islamic clerics who were called to Kabul by the Taliban government to decide about U.S. demands to hand over bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

The clerics' statement set no deadline for bin Laden to accept or reject the call, and it was unclear whether this would be enough to dissuade President Bush (news - web sites) from launching massive military strikes against the impoverished Central Asian nation of Afghanistan.

“The Ulema wants the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to encourage Osama to leave Afghanistan, but of his own free will,” Bakhtar said, referring to the council of hundreds of clerics which had met for two days.

The final statement appeared to a compromise between the hard-liners among the clerics, who would be ready to go to war to protect bin Laden, and those who wanted to rid the country of a devastating threat.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, who called the meeting of the clerics, are likely to follow its direction. But it was uncertain whether bin Laden would be prepared to leave Afghanistan, where he has lived since 1996 and allegedly operated training camps for Islamic extremists.

There was no mention in the clerics' final statement about the camps or bin Laden's followers, who include thousands of radicals from throughout the Muslim world.

On Wednesday, Mullah Mohammed Omar, leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement, said it was willing to meet with U.S. officials but also accused Washington of unfairly vilifying bin Laden.

The council of clerics, which began meeting Wednesday in the Presidential Palace, moved to the hotel, another heavily damaged building in the war-shattered capital, to continue its talks Thursday.
(More: AP News Source)

Dan