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Conference on Afghanistan to Open Monday
BERLIN, Nov 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The United Nations conference on the future of Afghanistan, which opens in Germany Monday, will be held near Bonn, rather than in Berlin, the German foreign ministry announced.
A spokesman said the conference would be held at a discreet mountaintop hotel overlooking the Rhine, at Koenigswinter.
The aim of the conference is to bring together various Afghan parties with a view to setting up a transitional post-Taliban government.
The talks were hastily called after the Northern Alliance, with the aid of U.S. air strikes, forced the ouster of the Taliban from the capital, Kabul, and most of the rest of the country earlier this month.
There are concerns over any one power taking over the country as concerns over the Northern Alliance's human rights records have continued to cause anxiety both among the Afghan people and the international community.
The Petersberg Hotel, which belonged to the federal government for many years while the government was in Bonn, is a favorite site for delicate diplomatic encounters.
Its situation and difficult access also simplify security precautions. Only one steep and narrow mountain road leads to the luxury establishment.
In a statement confirming the venue near Bonn, the German foreign ministry reiterated that the United Nations was hosting the conference and that the German ministry would be providing technical organization.
But, anti-Taliban Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani said Wednesday that he though only limited progress could be achieved at multi-party Afghan talks scheduled to be held in Germany next week.
"We hope that this will be the last conference of its sort to be held outside Afghanistan," Rabbani said in an interview published in the Russian
Vremya Novostei daily.
The Bonn meeting "is important, but does not touch the most prominent problems," he said. "The most vital problems have to be discussed within Afghanistan, and not outside its border.
The newspaper quoted Rabbani as saying that he viewed the German meeting as "insignificant."
Rabbani further said that he would like to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the near future to discuss the creation of a post-Taliban government in Afghanistan.
His comments came one day after the U.N. Security Council called the conference "indispensable" and urged all Afghan parties to attend.
The Northern Alliance has expressed willingness to share its authority in a post-Taliban coalition government, however, the United States has expressed concern that Rabbani is personally reluctant to take part in a broad-based coalition.
The Northern Alliance gave only qualified approval Monday to a U.N. blueprint for forming a new broad-based government, saying it agreed in principle with the U.N.-sponsored plan to build a multi-ethnic administration but held reservations about the fine print.
Rabbani, ousted by the Taliban in 1996 but still the U.N.-recognized president, defended the alliance's moves to consolidate its authority in Kabul and other areas of Afghanistan under its control, saying that otherwise there would be anarchy.
"We continue to be the official government of Afghanistan. And we must carry out our functions until the new administration is formed," he said.
"We can't delay this for a single day because it will lead to anarchy, which is not in the people's interests," Rabbani added.
The alliance's political figurehead said that some individuals who had been in the ranks of the Taliban could play some role at lower levels in the country's administration but not in the future Kabul government.
"Among the Taliban there are some people who we can deal with, not in the government but at other levels. We are talking about a few individuals. But there is no question of the Taliban as a movement [having a role]," he said.
The alliance, dominated by the country's Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara minorities, is suspected by the majority Pashtun, to which the Taliban belong, of trying to exclude them from power.
The United States has called for "moderate" Taliban to be allowed to participate in the new power-sharing administration.
Rabbani meanwhile said that he did not want to see large contingents of foreign troops in Afghanistan, although some military presence was acceptable for strictly limited humanitarian tasks.
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