Fed: Authorities trying to confirm 2nd al-Qaeda Aussie = 2

AAP General News (Australia)
12-17-2001
Fed: Authorities trying to confirm 2nd al-Qaeda Aussie = 2

"Australian authorities have not yet had access to Mr Hicks and discussions are continuing
with US authorities in this regard."

Mr Williams and Defence Minister Robert Hill said investigations into Mr Hicks's activities
were continuing, and authorities were still considering laying charges under Australian
law.

"We can assure Australians that if Mr Hicks has committed a crime against Australian
law, the government will do whatever is necessary to bring him to justice," they said.

But the ministers said they had no information about a second Australian reportedly
captured in Afghanistan.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer's office said the Australian mission in Islamabad
was trying to confirm reports the man had been abandoned in a Kandahar hospital by fleeing
Taliban forces.

US broadcaster National Public Radio quoted a Kandahar doctor as saying the Australian
had been left behind with other wounded soon after the Taliban stronghold fell on December
7.

"One of the wounded al-Qaeda fighters is an Australian with blue eyes, says Dr Ali,"

reporter Sarah Chayes said.

"They were left behind when the Taliban cleared the ward of their wounded just after
they surrendered the city."

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd has been in Pakistan for the past week
on a fact-finding mission and is due back in Australia on Wednesday.

He said one of the key problems facing Afghanistan was mines in nearly 1,000 square
kilometres of land, which was stopping an estimated 3.1 million Afghan refugees from going
back to their homes.

"Australia must make an additional substantial contribution now - either in cash or
in kinds, through the considerable expertise of the Australian military and others, or
both," he said.

Meanwhile, a group of ground zero workers from New York's police and fire services
plan to holiday in Sydney with their families next year.

NSW Premier Bob Carr said 25 firefighters, police and their families would take a break
from cleaning up the World Trade Centre site to visit in February.

New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who had also been invited, accepted the offer on behalf
of the personnel but had not yet decided if he would join them.

AAP kmh/apm/de

KEYWORD: TERROR AUST N/L 2 CANBERRA

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