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Power Vacuum in Kabul; U.N. Passes Resolution on Afghan Rule
NEW YORK, Nov 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Thursday a new resolution supporting efforts to form a broad-based multi-ethnic government in Afghanistan.
The resolution calls on all Afghan parties involved in efforts to form a new government to accept an invitation from the U.N. special representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, to attend a U.N. conference aimed at putting these plans into place, reported BBC's online service.
This would be the first step towards finding what Brahimi has called a "home-grown solution" to Afghanistan's problems.
But there is clearly concern about the rapid pace at which events are unfolding on the ground in Afghanistan.
The U.N. resolution addresses this concern in its final paragraph, where it encourages member states to support efforts to ensure the safety and security of areas of Afghanistan that are no longer under Taliban control.
While not explicitly mandating foreign military intervention, this is seen by some diplomats as opening the door to forces from the U.S.-led coalition in the region, reported the BBC.
The United Kingdom has already put several thousand troops on stand-by.
China also on Thursday said it does not rule out taking part in any international peacekeeping force to maintain stability in Afghanistan, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"We are ready to give sincere and earnest consideration to any effort that will contribute to stability and peace in Afghanistan," foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said.
Her remark was in response to a question on whether China would be willing to participate in a multinational peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.
The issue of peacekeepers in Afghanistan has attained renewed urgency this week, following rapid advances by Northern Alliance forces against the Taliban militia.
Zhang said the Chinese government was not yet in direct contact with leaders of the Northern Alliance. "Together with the international community we are ready to work for regional reconciliation in Afghanistan and for regional stability," she said at a regular ministry briefing.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, meanwhile, on Wednesday ruled out sending troops to Afghanistan as part of a U.S.-proposed Muslim peacekeeping force. Mubarak said he feared they might return to Egypt as "terrorists", reported the state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA).
"If the United States wants a peacekeeping force, it is better to look to Muslim countries from east Asia," Mubarak said. "We have already sent people to Afghanistan as fighters, and they returned here as terrorists, and we don't want to create new terrorists."
As attention focuses on the possible make-up of a new government in Afghanistan, there is a need for urgency - "speed, speed, speed" as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell put it - because nobody wants the Northern Alliance to settle in and take full control.
The alliance did so in Kabul in the early 1990s and was eventually driven out by the Taliban, reported the BBC.
The Northern Alliance is not a broad-based movement. It is largely comprised of northern Afghan tribes and not the country's majority ethnic grouping, the Pashtuns. But, on the ground, the alliance now has possession of the capital, Kabul.
Brahimi wants an immediate conference of Afghan factions, excluding the Taliban, to agree on a "provisional council." He wants the proposed ruling body to be chaired by someone who is a "symbol of national unity" - like the exiled King Zahir Shah, now living in Italy.
This council would set up a transitional administration to last for no longer than two years. A special tribal meeting called a
Loya Jirga would approve its program. The administration would draw up a constitution which a second
Loya Jirga would approve. A government would then be installed.
The U.N. is already playing a role through Brahimi, and will want to be closely involved throughout. But the plan has lagged far behind military changes and the trick now will be to prevent the Northern Alliance from consolidating their grip on the capital for regional reasons, as well as the ones already motioned.
In this regard, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said U.N. personnel would begin returning to Kabul on Friday. Since the U.N. has no military presence on the ground, he said, it had to rely on those already there.
The initial role of these forces, likely in the first instance to come from the U.S. and Britian, would be to protect civilians. They would also provide stability for any transitional authorities and provide security for international aid workers bringing assistance to the Afghan people.
Meanwhile, in Islamabad, various Pakistani political and religious leaders on Wednesday termed the taking over of the Afghan capital and other cities by the forces of Northern Alliance a serious threat to the security of Pakistan, the Pakistani daily,
Dawn, reported.
Speaking at an All-Parties Conference (APC), organized by the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam at Karachi Press Club, Pakistani party leaders deplored that Alliance forces, despite repeated assurances by United States that the Alliance would not enter the city, captured Kabul.
They contended that the U.S. has never fulfilled its promises after achieving its objectives. They condemned the U.S. bombardment of Afghan civilians and alleged that it was a bigger act of terrorism than the deadly September 11 attacks on the United States.
In a joint declaration, the APC demanded a halt to the military strikes on Afghanistan and asked for speeding up of relief activities under the United Nations. It urged the government to play its role in saving thousands of Afghans in Kabul and other cities from being slaughtered by soldiers of the Northern Alliance.
Secretary general of the Pakistani Tehrik-i-Insaf party, Mairaj Mohammad Khan, said every act of barbarism, either against Muslims or non- Muslims, should be condemned. He said support by successive Pakistan governments to the U.S. during the last 54 years has caused irreparable harm to the country.
"We have been trapped in a foreign debt of $38 billion. Despite full support by Pakistan to the U.S. in its so-called war against terrorism, America has refused to write off the debt. On the other hand, Russia allowed India to purchase its hardware worth US$7 billion," he stated.
He maintained that the U.S.'s goal was not to destroy Osam bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, but to occupy the oil and gas resources of Central Asian states, valued at over five trillion dollars.
Khan warned the government that the country faced the risk of being the next U.S. target if it failed to review its Afghan policy. After the downfall of the Taliban government, he added, Pakistan would have to spend heavy amounts for the maintenance of security along its Afghanistan border.
The chief of the Jamaat-i-Islami in Sindh province, Asadullah Bhutto, meanwhile, expressed utter surprise over the silence from human rights organizations on the killing of civilian Afghans by Northern Alliance soldiers.
He sarcastically posed a question to the U.S. whether it had any plan to attack and destroy the entire al-Qaeda network, which reportedly is active in 40 more countries, including Europe, in a similar manner.
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