Is the Northern Alliance as Brutal as the Taliban?

This is a partial transcript from The O'Reilly Factor, November 28, 2001. Click here to order the complete transcript.

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: Is the Northern Alliance as brutal as the Taliban? Joining us from Washington is Northern Alliance spokesman Haron Amin.

What should happen to these guys who went to Afghanistan, joined the Taliban, from Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia — foreigners who came in there to basically cause trouble? What should happen when they're captured?

HARON AMIN, NORTHERN ALLIANCE SPOKESPERSON: Well, Bill, if they get captured, they should be treated in our courts. Or if they want, if the international community wants to take them away, then the United Nations might take, and, you know, whatever destiny befalls them afterwards, that should happen.

But they have to be responsible to the crimes, crimes of war, crimes against humanity, and the perpetration of the kind of crimes that they committed against the people of Afghanistan.

O'REILLY: All right, but you don't have...

AMIN: That should be part of the whole package.

O'REILLY: ... the Northern Alliance doesn't have any court.

AMIN: No, we have courts in Kabul.

O'REILLY: Where?

AMIN: Yes, in Kabul, we have ministry of justice. I mean, we have these courts that were there before, that they're still there. We have lawyers and every...

O'REILLY: How many people have been tried, and how many people have been tried in those courts in the last three weeks since you've taken Kabul?

AMIN: Well, we haven't tried anybody because we still have to sort things out. People are...

O'REILLY: That's what I mean.

AMIN: ... still in prisons. Yes, but it's going to happen, Bill, but still in line with that, we have asked the international community, tribunals and others, and international lawyers, to come and help us in facilitating the due process of law in Afghanistan.

O'REILLY: All right. Now, reporters from all countries have examined some of the bodies of these Taliban who surrendered, and they got bullets in the back of their head. What response do you have?

AMIN: Well, remember that at the time when the incidents occurred in the compound in Mazar-e Sharif, no one really knows what happened. There was general pandemonium inside the Kali Jungi, and we still have to sort things out.

But definitely you had some Taliban with al-Qaeda members that may have been involved in killing these individuals. Remember, in Kunduz, before anybody even engaged the Taliban on the ground, the al-Qaeda people were killing a lot of the Taliban who wanted to defect.

So you've got a lot of things at hand, and needs to be sorted out first.

O'REILLY: All right. The Northern Alliance have been accused of executing some people too, you know that. Have they?

AMIN: Well, every case that we have observed, every case that we have scrutinized, it has been so that others have done it on a reprisal basis, on a local basis, acts of reprisal.

I mean, there is the general picture, and the general picture is much cleaner than what some people imply here and there.

O'REILLY: All right, so you're saying that there has been some local executions, but it's not the policy of the Northern Alliance, is that...

AMIN: Absolutely. The United Front condemns such acts, and we are a signatory to the Geneva Conventions...

O'REILLY: But can't you guys control...

AMIN: ... on the treatment...

O'REILLY: ... your people? It doesn't look like you can control your people.

AMIN: No, we can. Remember, there is a lot of transition. I mean, Bill, there cannot be overnight transformation in Afghanistan. No one should expect it. But that's why we want to work with the international community, that's why we want to work with all the...

O'REILLY: All right, you want it, you say you want...

AMIN: ... the factions in Afghanistan.

O'REILLY: ... to work with the international community, yet the Northern Alliance today turned down a United Nations offer of a security force in Kabul. So what's that all about?

AMIN: Well, see, when Brahimi came up with a proposal on Afghanistan and deployment of forces, he chalked out three proposals in order of preference. Number one, an all-Afghan security force. Number two would be an international force. Number three would be a United Nations deployment.

He said he preferred the first one. We haven't even talked about the most preferred one by Brahimi, and here somebody wants to...

O'REILLY: Yes, but what's the downside...

AMIN: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

O'REILLY: ... of having a U.N. security force in there?

AMIN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

O'REILLY: There's no downside to that. You could have your force too. What's the downside of having them around?

AMIN: Yes, I'm saying, well, let us talk about it. They're talking about it. And whatever the Bonn gathering is going to decide on, that is going to be the best plausible outcome.

O'REILLY: What?

AMIN: But we have not ruled out...

O'REILLY: Mr. Amin, wait a minute...

AMIN: ... we have not ruled out (UNINTELLIGIBLE)-

O'REILLY: ... I'm not letting one guy in the Northern Alliance tell me what's the best plausible outcome. The United States, the one that did all this for you, and it seems to me that a United Nations security force is a very logical and possibly humane thing to do.

AMIN: Bill, again, we have not ruled it out. We want the international deployment. But we are saying, Do it in such a way that everybody is informed about it, and we will be...

O'REILLY: Uhhhhhh.

AMIN: ... we have no adamant opposition to that.

O'REILLY: I think you got to embrace it, Mr. Amin, I really do. I don't think a downside (UNINTELLIGIBLE) unless you can show me a downside to the U.N. security force, and I don't think you can, not buying it.

Last topic, women. Should women have equal rights in Afghanistan to do (UNINTELLIGIBLE) what men should do?

AMIN: Indeed.

O'REILLY: They should have equal rights across the board. Right?

AMIN: We're saying exactly that we want the woman to have the kind of rights that they had under the 1964 constitution, which is not only right to education and to health care and so on and so forth, but also to elect themselves to office, and also to vote in the elections. This is what we want. But remember, we've got to go gradual at this, because everyone getting together in Bonn had agreed to that, and everyone in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) agreed to that.

So it's going to be, again, not an overnight transformation. We're working very hard on that...

O'REILLY: All right. But look, Mr. Amin...

AMIN: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

O'REILLY: ... let me give you some advice here. If you want to win the hearts and minds of people like me and Americans, you got to embrace the concept first. You got to say, Yeah, we want rights for women, yeah, we want U.N. security people in there. Because both of things are knowable. You can't be going the excuse, we got to go slow.

Just my opinion. What do I know? Mr. Amin, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

AMIN: Thank you.

Click here to order the complete transcript.

Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2001 Fox News Network, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2001 eMediaMillWorks, Inc. (f/k/a Federal Document Clearing House, Inc.), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Fox News Network, Inc.'s and eMediaMillWorks, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.