October 23, 2001
China denies any contacts with Taleban Anil K Joseph in Beijing China on Tuesday vehemently denied maintaining contacts with the Taleban regime in Afghanistan and rejected reports that it had paid millions of dollars to terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden to get hold of unexploded US-made cruise missiles launched at his camps in 1998. "At the moment, China has no relations of any kind with the Taleban," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi told reporters when asked to comment on claims by Taleban commander-in-chief Jalaluddin Haqqani, who said the militia was "in touch" with China, which was assisting them in the war against the US. "I have not read about the report you just mentioned," Sun said while restating China's position against terrorism, which he described as "consistent". In the past, China had acknowledged having contacts with all factions, including the Taleban in Afghanistan. However, China said that since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US, it not maintained any contact with the Taleban. According to reports, Haqqani, who was in Islamabad to hold talks with officials, told reporters that "China is still assisting the Taleban in the war against the US". He also said the Afghan militia "continued to be in touch with Beijing". The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman also denied a report that Beijing had paid Laden several million dollars for access to unexploded US cruise missiles following an attack on his bases three years ago. "The allegation that China received cruise missiles is totally groundless," Sun asserted. "Since the September 11 incident, we have found that there are people who have been doing all they can to distort China's image. These are out of ulterior motives. These attempts will not succeed," Sun said. The Guardian of London had reported that an agent of the Al Qaeda network in Europe told an associate, in a secretly taped conversation, that Chinese businessmen had paid $10 million for access to the missiles. Reports suggested that following the 1998 US attack, carried out in reprisal for the bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, China had acquired two unexploded Tomahawk missiles. The daily said a 32-year-old Libyan terrorist suspect met the head of Al Qaeda's Italian cell, Sami ben Khemais, in a Milan flat and told him of China's involvement in the procurement of missiles. It said unknown to the two men, the flat had been bugged by Italian anti-terrorist officers. PTI
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