Pakistani minister asks Afghan refugees to leave

As a Pakistani, it seems to be getting more and more frustrating every time Karzai is put in front of the media. Not only was his 'government' recently rude to the Pakistani media, but his constant whining in front of the camera is just sickening.

KABUL: The Pakistani prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, said that he wanted the three million Afghan refugees still living in Pakistan to go home, as one way to end the problem of insurgents using the country as a haven.

The remarks, made Thursday after a meeting with President Hamid Karzai here in the Afghan capital, marked the first time Pakistan had been so blunt in demanding that the Afghan refugees leave. Many fled Afghanistan more than 20 years go during the Soviet occupation and have been living in Pakistan ever since.

Aziz arrived for talks with Karzai in an effort to smooth tensions between the neighbors, but after more than two hours Karzai bluntly acknowledged that relations were only growing worse.

"Unfortunately, the gulf in relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan is getting wider, and it is not getting narrower," Karzai said after their meeting.

The two leaders emerged with no agreement on the main areas of contention, namely Pakistan's plan to fence and mine the border, and Afghanistan's project to convene two tribal gatherings, or jirgas, of national representatives from both countries, to try to foster peace between the countries.

Afghanistan has repeatedly condemned the project to fence and mine the border as a diversion from the real problem of terrorism, which it says is being incubated in Pakistan. Pakistan has also dragged its feet on organizing the tribal gatherings, promising only to form a commission to work on the idea.

"The Afghan people want to remove all those obstacles which create the divide in our relations," Karzai said. "Those obstacles are created by terrorist activities which are hindering Afghanistan's reconstruction and making our schools burn.

"Security will not come to Afghanistan unless together we and Pakistan, with good and friendly relations, become tough in the fight against terrorism."

He added that he wanted to hold the gathering of jirgas so people could speak their minds.

Without offering specifics, Aziz said the two leaders had agreed to work on resettling three million Afghan refugees back in Afghanistan and removing the sanctuary that refugee camps provide to insurgents.

"Refugee camps on our side of the border sometimes are safe havens for elements who are from Afghanistan and take safe haven there after conducting activities," he said.

He also defended Pakistan's plan to fence and mine the border as one way to restrict the movement of people who represent a threat to security.

In what appears to be the first exchange with a journalist since he went into hiding five years ago, the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, said that he had not seen Al Qaeda's chief, Osama bin Laden, in five years, The New York Times reported from Peshawar, Pakistan.

Omar also said he would never negotiate with the U.S.-backed government of Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan. He also threatened to continue the war until foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan.

The statements were made in written response to questions sent by e-mail messages to the Taliban spokesman, Muhammad Hanif, who often speaks to journalists by telephone from an undisclosed location. Hanif said that Omar had written the replies himself and that a courier had returned the answers on a USB computer drive.