Security Council urges Taliban to comply with texts ordering bin Laden handover

Members of the United Nations Security Council today said the Taliban must immediately comply with Council resolutions, especially those calling on the group to hand over indicted terrorist Usama bin Laden.

Speaking to the press following closed-door consultations on the situation in Afghanistan, Council President Ambassador Jean-David Levitte of France 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.