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Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2001

Delegates also submitted a list of candidates for a 29-member administrative council to run the affairs of the war-ravaged country until a more representative government is installed.

"There were tears in our eyes, tears of joy, when we finished," said U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi.

A total of 30 delegates, representing four major Afghan factions, attended the Bonn talks, which began Nov. 27. The two largest factions, the Northern Alliance and the monarchists, have 11 delegates each while the remaining 12 are evenly divided between Afghan refugees living in Pakistan and Iran.

The breakthrough came when the Northern Alliance overcame its internal rivalries and put forward a list of its candidates for the proposed administrative council. Other factions had finalized their lists.

An umbrella organization of various ethnic and religious minorities, the Northern Alliance has become the strongest group in Afghanistan after ousting the Taliban from Kabul on Nov. 13. Aware his acquiescence is necessary for the success of any peace plan for Afghanistan, the alliance's leader, Burhanuddin Rabbani, was reluctant to approve a plan "prepared outside Afghanistan."

Instead he urged the United Nations, which sponsored the Bonn talks, to send the delegates to Afghanistan to name the administrative council, which will serve as a Cabinet under an interim head of government to be named later. Other factions refused to go to Afghanistan for this purpose, as they feared the presence of alliance troops in Kabul gives an undue advantage to Rabbani.

In an interview published in The Washington Post, Rabbani proposed a leadership council to guide the U.N.-sponsored administrative council in running the government. His moves worried the United States and other world powers working behind the scene to ensure the success of the Bonn talks.

U.N. officials involved in the negotiations said they threatened to withhold billions of dollars of aid the international community has promised to rebuild Afghanistan. The donor nations, including the United States, have insisted they will only provide financial assistance for rebuilding Afghanistan if it has a broad-based government representing all major ethnic and religious groups.

The Northern Alliance's approval came Monday evening when, after an emergency meeting in Kabul, Rabbani and other alliance leaders agreed to name their candidates for the proposed administrative council.

They also named four Afghan leaders outside the alliance to head the interim government. They are: Hamid Karzai; a Pashtun royalist, former Afghan President Sibghatullah Mojaddedi; Abdul Sattar Sirat, an ethnic Uzbek and aide to the former king; and Pir Sayed Ahmad Gailani, a Pashtun spiritual leader. Rabbani's spokesman said any four of these nominees would be acceptable to the alliance to head the proposed interim government.

Once the alliance endorsed the U.N. draft for Afghanistan's future political setup, other factions wasted no time in naming their candidates for the administrative council.

U.N. officials said by Tuesday afternoon, they had more names than there are posts available in the interim administration, which is set to rule the country for six months.

The next step, expected to begin immediately, will be to choose which faction gets which job -- a delicate balancing act given Afghanistan's complicated ethnic and tribal mix.

The Northern Alliance wants the crucial ministries of defense and interior, which will give it direct control over the military and police.

Observers expect tough bargaining for key positions in the council, with every faction demanding a slot that strengthens its position on the ground and allows it to win over Afghanistan's powerful tribal leaders.

Once the distribution of ministries is complete, the United Nations will prepare to set up a commission to convene a loya jirga or traditional grand assembly of Afghan tribes. The jirga will not only endorse the U.N. plan but will also elect the next government for an expected period of two years.

The United Nations will help this government hold Afghanistan's first-ever general elections in two years and transfer power to those elected.

The former king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, is expected to participate in the assembly, though it is not clear if he will open it, as some of his supporters have demanded.

The U.N. draft also calls for establishing a supreme court in Kabul to create a new role for Rabbani who fears being sidelined by the interim government.

Some observers say reaching an agreement on the U.N.-sponsored political map for their country does not prevent Afghan factions from jostling with each other for more power.

"Once again the problem is more obstacles being raised because of discomfort with the agreement as a whole," said James Dobbins, who leads the U.S. delegation at the Bonn talks.

Although participating only as observers, Dobbins and his aides played a key role in arranging the agreement.

The U.N. text also proposes a multinational peacekeeping force for Kabul, but does not stipulate the force's size, mandate or duration. The text says peacekeepers would be deployed at the Afghan administration's request.

The Northern Alliance, which controls the capital Kabul, has softened its initial opposition to such a force.

There are serious differences between the Northern Alliance and other Afghan factions on the role of the peacekeepers as well. While the alliance wants a small force of not more than 200 to 300 U.N. monitors, other groups are demanding a larger force which can ensure their security in a city dominated by alliance troops.

Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.

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