UN Diplomat In Kabul Warns Of 'Talibanization'

Tom Koenigs, the UN special representative to Afghanistan, told reporters that other states should look at Afghanistan's experience with the Taliban and realize it is not worth repeating.

Koenigs criticized recent remarks by Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai, the ethnic Pashtun governor of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province.

Aurakzai said last week that ethnic Pashtun support for Taliban fighters is becoming a kind of nationalist resistance -- a "liberation war" against coalition forces.

Koenigs also expressed concern about attempts to curb the media in Afghanistan. He noted reports of journalists being intimidated and the forced resignation of the head of national broadcaster Radio Television Afghanistan for reasons that have not been made clear.

He said parliament is also planning to amend the media law in a manner that will harm media development in Afghanistan. The proposed amendments follow complaints that the private media have become "un-Islamic."

(AP, AFP)