Thursday October 11, 12:53 AM

Islamic states avoid condemnation of U.S. strikes

By Miral Fahmy

DUBAI (Reuters) - The world's largest Islamic body expressed concern on Wednesday at the prospect of civilian casualties in Afghanistan but steered clear of condemning U.S. strikes against the Taliban rulers sheltering Osama bin Laden.

A communique issued at the end of an emergency meeting of foreign ministers of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) said member countries representing 1.2 billion Muslims condemned the September 11 attacks on the United States.

"The conference also expressed its concern that confronting terrorism could lead to casualties among innocent civilians in Afghanistan and asserted the importance of assuring the territorial integrity of Afghanistan and its Islamic character," the communique added.

The 56-nation OIC, meeting in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, said the conference expressed its rejection of the targeting of any Arab country under the pretext of combating terrorism.

It also rejected aggression against any Islamic state -- a phrase seen by delegates as referring to attacks on Afghan civilians rather than on alleged terrorists or the Taliban.

"We don't have to blame the United States because what happened in the United States is a big tragedy; 6,000 people were killed in one day and they were killed by terrorist action," Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani told a news conference at the end of the meeting.

"We don't generally support military action but then again we don't support terrorism either and we also have to identify terrorism and see its causes, which is why we asked for it to be discussed...at the United Nations in future," he said.

The Taliban have stirred strong criticism from many Muslim nations for their hardline ideology and only one country, OIC member Pakistan, recognises them as Afghanistan's government.

"These terrorist acts contradict the teaching of all religions and human and moral values," said the communique.

However, there was no enthusiasm for the strikes launched on Sunday on Afghanistan by U.S. and British forces hunting bin Laden, chief suspect for the attacks that killed about 5,600.

SOLID EVIDENCE

"We would have liked to see an internationally-led (anti-terrorism) campaign," said Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, when asked about the U.S.-led strikes.

"Terrorism is a global phenomenon and any action against it is best addressed through the United Nations and the international community," he said on behalf of the OIC's core Arab group. Qatar Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, current OIC president, opened the meeting by saying military action should be based on solid evidence and must not harm civilians.

"We assert our utter rejection of these attacks and assert that confronting them must not touch innocent civilians and must not extend beyond those who carried out those attacks," he said.

"This requires the existence of irrefutable evidence against the perpetrators and that military operations, after announcing the evidence, be limited to them alone," Sheikh Hamad added.

He said Qatar had not seen all the evidence against bin Laden. What had been provided did not constitute solid proof.

"But we believe that the United States would not do something like this without proof," he said.

The U.S.-led assault on Afghanistan has enraged many Muslims around the world who sympathise with the impoverished Afghans.

But their governments have mainly kept quiet after years of criticising the Taliban for sheltering militants such as bin Laden, who wants to purge Muslim states of pro-Western leaders.

Only Syria, Iraq and Iran -- known for their anti-American stance -- have criticised the U.S.-led air strikes on Afghanistan. Iraq and Syria also voiced concern at a U.S. warning that it might target other states in its campaign.

The OIC warned against targeting other Muslim states, but did not specify any response if the campaign was extended.

Sheikh Hamad criticised what he called the "short-term" view of Arab governments, saying: "Unfortunately, we do not look at how we can benefit from this situation in the long term."

He was echoing remarks by several delegates that they had hoped the OIC would take advantage of the U.S. desire to forge a coalition to resolve issues like the Palestinian-Israeli crisis.

Instead, the OIC declarations echoed Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's criticism of Israel for exploiting the attacks on America to launch new offensives against Palestinians.

-- Anonymous, October 10, 2001