KABUL, July 19 (Reuters) A wanted rebel leader in Afghanistan, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, has declared a ceasefire against the government, the leader said in a statement.
Aired by a private television and circulated in Kabul, the statement said: ''Members of Hezb-i-Islami have stopped and refrained from brother killing and from the destruction of the country and assumed political activity because it believes the Americans, like the British and Russians, will pull out (of Afghanistan).
''Hence, now we have to unite for creating an Islamic system and start our political efforts so that we can provide a tranquil life and everlasting peace for our Muslim countrymen,'' said.
The statement was obtained by Reuters today, but it was not immediately clear when and where the statement was issued.
Hekmatyar's sympathisers could not be contacted for verification and Afghan government officials were also not immediately available for comment.
Hekmatyar's forces are greatly outnumbered by Taliban insurgents and have not launched many attacks in recent months citing supply problems along the Pakistan border.
A radical, anti-Western Islamist, he once led the biggest mujahideen faction fighting the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation and was briefly Afghanistan's prime minister in a government that disintegrated in civil war in the early 1990s.
After losing to the Taliban when they captured Kabul in 1996, Hekmatyar went into exile in Iran, but the Iranian government forced him to leave in early 2002 after becoming increasingly embarrassed by Hekmatyar's support for Osama bin Laden's cause.
He then returned to Afghanistan and allied his fighters with the Taliban and launched attacks on Western and Afghan government targets from mountain strongholds in the south and east of the country.
REUTERS GT HT1420
Aired by a private television and circulated in Kabul, the statement said: ''Members of Hezb-i-Islami have stopped and refrained from brother killing and from the destruction of the country and assumed political activity because it believes the Americans, like the British and Russians, will pull out (of Afghanistan).
''Hence, now we have to unite for creating an Islamic system and start our political efforts so that we can provide a tranquil life and everlasting peace for our Muslim countrymen,'' said.
The statement was obtained by Reuters today, but it was not immediately clear when and where the statement was issued.
Hekmatyar's sympathisers could not be contacted for verification and Afghan government officials were also not immediately available for comment.
Hekmatyar's forces are greatly outnumbered by Taliban insurgents and have not launched many attacks in recent months citing supply problems along the Pakistan border.
A radical, anti-Western Islamist, he once led the biggest mujahideen faction fighting the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation and was briefly Afghanistan's prime minister in a government that disintegrated in civil war in the early 1990s.
After losing to the Taliban when they captured Kabul in 1996, Hekmatyar went into exile in Iran, but the Iranian government forced him to leave in early 2002 after becoming increasingly embarrassed by Hekmatyar's support for Osama bin Laden's cause.
He then returned to Afghanistan and allied his fighters with the Taliban and launched attacks on Western and Afghan government targets from mountain strongholds in the south and east of the country.
REUTERS GT HT1420
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