Net closing around bin Laden?

Taliban positions in the Tora Bora mountains have been under sustained attack for days Keystone Archive

A leading Swiss security expert says the search for terrorist suspect, Osama bin Laden, may be entering a decisive phase.

Professor Kurt Spillmann, an expert in security studies and conflict research at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, made the comments in an interview with swissinfo.

He said reports that bin Laden is “boxed in” in Afghanistan’s Tora Bora mountains suggest that the hunt for the prime suspect in the September 11 attacks may be soon be over.

“If latest reports are correct that Osama bin Laden is holding out in this cave system of Tora Bora then the American special elite troops may get closer to him by the day.”

However, Spillmann believes that, although bin Laden’s Taliban protectors may be a spent force both militarily and politically, it may be some time before he falls into the hands of anti-Taliban or US forces.

Pockets of resistance

He said it could be possible for a few pockets of resistance to hold out in the Tora Bora mountains indefinitely.

Spillmann added, though, that the United States is unlikely to rest until the Taliban’s spiritual leader, Mullah Omar, and bin Laden are brought to justice.

In Washington, President George W Bush has reiterated his determination to put the pair of them on trial, adding that a new videotape of bin Laden reportedly bragging about the September 11 attacks is further proof of his guilt.

“They are the two key people: the one responsible for the terror act, the other for the Taliban system which protected bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda organisation,” Spillmann told swissinfo. “Both of them are the villains in the drama for the Americans and they are out to get them.”

Years of conflict

On the future of Afghanistan, Spillmann is confident that, with an interim government now in place, the country can begin to put years of conflict behind it.

He said the reunion of Afghan leaders in Bonn is a significant step towards rebuilding the shattered country. However, he warned that there is always a chance that traditional rivalries between local warlords may continue to simmer and boil over threatening future peace.

“I think there is a better chance than there has been for 20 years that Afghanistan may return to a peaceful state, even a unified state, and that the time of the warlords is over,” said Spillmann.

“The eye of the world is upon Afghanistan nowadays and the pressure, tied to money for the reconstruction of Afghan society, will insist that they start anew.”

But the onus, according to Spillmann, will be on the United Nations and western countries not to repeat their mistake of a decade ago and turn their back on Afghanistan.

by Adam Beaumont