Former Taliban Interior Minister explains his defection

1. Wide of presser
2. Mullah Shaksar walks in
3. Mullah Shaksar sits down
4. SOUNDBITE: (Pashtu) Mullah Shaksar, Former Taliban Deputy Interior minister
"I never left Kabul. I remained on my own place. The Taliban left. I left them because I always wanted to work for the betterment of Afghanistan. I want to bring a peace policy to Afghanistan. The Taliban didn't concentrate on the peace policy and other things. Therefore they left Kabul but I wanted to work on peace policy so I stayed in Kabul."
5. Cutaway
6. SOUNDBITE: (Pashtu) Mullah Shaksar, Former Taliban Deputy Interior minister
"I cannot say I am completely sure Mullah Omar is in Kandahar. As far as Osama Bin Laden, the Kandahar people don't know but they know about Mullah Omar."
7. Cutaway
8. SOUNDBITE: (Pashtu) Mullah Shaksar, Former Taliban Deputy Interior minister
"As for the Taliban, would they be there or not (in Bonn) that's up to the United Nations who has considered them as warring faction. I don't know if the Taliban would go or accept that conference or if the U-N would invite them or not. That's not clear. "
9. Wide shot of conference

STORYLINE:

Former Taliban Deputy Interior minister Mullah Shaksar held a news conference in Kabul on Saturday to announce his defection from the Taliban.

He is the highest ranking Taliban official to have defected.

He claimed that his alliance with the Taliban was one of expediency and that his main interest was furthering the cause of peace and stability in Afghanistan.

He claimed that he did not leave the Taliban, but when the Taliban left Kabul, he decided he would prefer to stay and work on a peace plan for the city rather than flee southward with Taliban fighters.

While Shaksar said that he had no idea as to the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, he added that he was sure the Taliban's spiritual leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was still in the militia's stronghold in Kandahar.

Asked about the talks between the various Afghan factions in Germany next week, Shaksar said it was unlikely that the Taliban would attend, and that in any case it would be up to the U-N to invite them.

At present the Taliban are excluded from the talks on the future of the country.
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