Congressman charges Clinton administration with favouring Taliban

Rohrabacher said he had got together with private agencies and sent six planeloads of humanitarian aid to the non-Taliban-controlled areas and the doctors who accompanied those delivering the aid had reported to him that 400,000 people were starving there.

US Aid administrator Brian Atwood, who was testifying, sought to assure Rohrabacher that the administration shared Rohrabacher’s views about the Taliban but that, in the absence of diplomatic representation in Afghanistan, the US Relied on the UN to deliver its humanitarian aid.

Meanwhile,reports said Ukraine was sending weapons on a large scale via Pakistan to the Taliban in Afghanistan, and Russia was reacting by offering arms to those opposing the fundamentalist militia.

The US intelligence officials told the Washington times that Ukraine’s government had been shipping large quantities of arms to the Taliban by air via Peshawar or by sea via Karachi.

Russia, which views the Taliban fundamentalists as a threat to the region, is reacting by stepping up weapons supplies to Afghans fighting the Taliban in the northern part of the country.

The influx of weapons to Afghanistan in the midst of a bloody civil war, said the officials, was a sign that Russia and Ukraine were backing opposing sides in the conflict.

According to intelligence officials with access to reports on the arms trade, said the paper, the Ukrainian military recently supplied the Taliban in Kabul arms and ammunition carried in 55 cargo jets.

The weapons were flown in Il-76 transports from the Ukrainian capital of Kievto Peshawar and then to Afghanistan, the officials said. Other weapons were sent by ship to Karachi.

The Taliban has the strong backing of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.