|
Afghan Factions Sign Landmark Deal for Post-Taliban Government
BONN, Dec 5 (News Agencies) - Rival Afghan factions Wednesday signed a historic power-sharing agreement to form a post-Taliban government and set the country on the road to recovery and democracy after two decades of war.
The accord was sealed after nine days of exhausting negotiations and paves the way for a six-month interim administration headed by Hamid Karzai, from the dominant Pashtun ethnic group.
The deal gives the Northern Alliance control of three key portfolios in the 30-member cabinet, which includes two women and is due to be up and running by December 22.
It also gives a symbolic role to the former king and provides for a U.N. security force for Kabul.
The agreement was signed in the German city of Bonn by the leaders of the four delegations and U.N. special envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, to applause from an audience that included German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
"We were the champions of resistance and will be proud to be the champions of peace," said Yunus Qanooni, the Northern Alliance's chief negotiator and the interim government's interior minister.
"Today we have ended a military process and have entered into a political process," he added, pledging his groupings "100 percent" backing for the deal.
A delegate from the so-called Peshawar group, Sayed Hamed Gailani, summed up the atmosphere in a single phrase.
"There are two things evident today: Yesterday's rain does not have the courage to cry, and the sun cannot hide its smile," he said.
The appointment of Karzai, a 44-year-old tribal Pashtun tribal leader currently fighting the Taliban near their last stronghold of Kandahar, was seen as an attempt to balance Afghanistan's delicate ethnic mix.
It cements a whirlwind transformation in Afghanistan's fate since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, the trigger for massive U.S. air strikes that have dislodged the Taliban militia from most of the country and put the Northern Alliance back on top.
Showing the strain from nine days of frantic diplomacy, Brahimi recognized the accord was far from perfect, and that its signatories were not fully representative of the Afghan people.
Reminding Afghan leaders they bore responsibility for the success of the agreement, Brahimi said the eyes of the world would be upon them.
But even though the jubilation was tempered by warnings over tough days ahead, reaction overseas was upbeat.
Key members of the anti-terror coalition, such as Britain, France, Germany and the United States, welcomed it.
U.S. President George W. Bush hailed the accord as "a positive agreement that bodes well for the people of Afghanistan," Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said, adding that the deal "will allow the people of Afghanistan to take their country back."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair called it "a truly remarkable achievement." "Afghanistan has now the chance for a new beginning," he added.
Schroeder said "the conclusion of this agreement is not only an encouraging sign for the region but for the whole world, as it shows the role the United Nations can and should play."
"Now that the Taliban regime has been overthrown, it is essential that all sections of the country meet to establish stable state institutions, with full respect for rights, public freedoms and human dignity," said French President Jacques Chirac.
Iran, a key player in Afghanistan, which has reservations over the return of royals next door, said it had "no objections" to the appointment of Karzai.
Pakistan, which has seen its Afghan policy reduced to ashes with the collapse of the Taliban, cast a wary but hopeful eye on the Bonn agreement, with officials in Islamabad looking closely to see if it will produce a Kabul administration they can work with.
President Pervez Musharraf promised "all possible assistance and cooperation to the interim set-up in Afghanistan for the gigantic task of reconstruction and rehabilitation."
The deal was ground out in exhausting round-the-clock negotiations in a hilltop government retreat outside Bonn.
Donors emphasized that billions of dollars of potential reconstruction aid hinged on a positive conclusion, and the agreement was signed as a major conference to coordinate aid for Afghanistan opened in Berlin.
It was sealed two months after a U.S.-led coalition launched an air war against the Taliban for its support of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization, blamed for the September 11 attacks.
Under the terms of the accord, the interim government would run Afghanistan for six months before an emergency Loya Jirga - or grand traditional assembly of elders - appoints an 18-month transitional government.
Former king Mohammed Zahir Shah, 87, is also being pulled out of exile: he gets a symbolic role presiding over the Loya Jirga.
The agreement provides for a mainly Muslim U.N.-mandated international security force in Kabul and its surrounding area, and possibly other urban centers.
The deal tries to allay the fears of Pashtuns with the appointment of Karzai, a former deputy foreign minister who is also an ally of the exiled king.
The nomination of Karzai and the unifying role of the former king are seen as helping reconcile the Pashtuns to the transitional arrangements pending elections in some three years' time.
The Taliban regime drew much of its support from the Pashtun, who live mainly in southern Afghanistan and are the traditional rulers of Afghanistan.
The Northern Alliance - now in control of Kabul and much of the country - is dominated by minority ethnic Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras.
But overall they have come out on top.
Of the 30 posts in the cabinet, 18 are from the Northern Alliance, 11 are from the loyalists to the ex-king, and one is from the moderate Pakistan-backed Peshawar group. But no camp holds the majority vote.
Eleven in the cabinet are ethnic Pashtun, eight are ethnic Tajiks, five are ethnic Hazaras and three are ethnic Uzbeks. The remaining three come from smaller ethnic groups.
U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said the Alliance's foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, interior minister Qanooni and defense minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim, would all keep their jobs.
The three ethnic Tajiks are from the main faction within the Northern Alliance, and were protégés of the legendary resistance commander Ahmad Shah Masood, who was assassinated by suspected al-Qaeda attackers two days before the terrorist attacks in the United States.
There was no immediate indication whether Northern Alliance leader Burhanuddin Rabbani would play any role in the new administration - a full, final cabinet list has yet to be released.
After days of digging in his heels, Rabbani finally agreed to rubber-stamp his camp's nominations and effectively sign away his status as titular head of state.
|
