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Northern Alliance Wants Limited U.N. Force in Kabul
KABUL, Dec. 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Northern Alliance continued to oppose plans for a several thousand-strong international security force in Kabul, saying it favored a small force of 1,000 men only to guard premises of the new interim government, news agencies reported.
Afghan defense ministry spokesman Barna Salihi said that incoming Defense Minister General Mohammad Qasim Fahim had delivered this message to the top United Nations envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, in talks in Kabul on Tuesday, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"General Fahim told Brahimi that in his view, 1,000 troops will be enough to guarantee security for the new government," the spokesman said.
Brahimi, however, said Wednesday that he had secured firm support from Northern Alliance leaders for a U.N. mission and multinational security force to be based in Kabul once an interim government is installed Dec. 22, reported U.S. daily newspaper,
The Washington Post.
"The force will not come to fight anyone or oppose anyone, but to help increase stability and security for the people of Afghanistan," said Brahimi, who met with Afghan leaders in Kabul Wednesday.
But the role, size and composition of the force remained unclear pending a resolution by the U.N. Security Council. And statements from the Northern Alliance's defense chief, whose troops control Kabul, suggested that his side might not be willing to cede as much power to an international force as U.N. officials expect, the
Post added.
"To establish our security we don't need any international force," Fahim said Wednesday. "Our own soldiers can maintain security here." He suggested that his forces might not withdraw entirely from Kabul, but said the Afghan populace is "tired of war" and that no one faction or ethnic minority should try to impose itself on the country.
In the U.K., British Prime Minister Tony Blair Tuesday said London was ready to take the lead in the proposed international force to Afghanistan, as other European governments offered to take part.
Up to 3,000 British troops, according to media reports, backed by armored personnel carriers, would form the largest contingent, with French forces forming the second largest.
Italy is also being spoken of as a likely contributor and Germany, too, is willing to participate.
At the end of three months, it would hand over to a larger multinational U.N. peacekeeping force led possibly by Turkey, reported AFP.
The agreement providing for creation of the interim government, reached on Dec. 5th outside Bonn, also calls for Northern Alliance troops to withdraw from the capital once an international force is on the ground.
Many Kabul residents said they feared that if Afghan forces remain in the capital, there would be a reprise of the factional violence that tore Kabul apart in the early 1990s.
U.S. and European authorities are focused on sending an initial contingent of up to several thousand foreign troops under British command later this month, with a larger force possibly to follow next year, Western diplomats and officials said.
However, other U.N. officials in Kabul stressed this week that the international force in Kabul would operate with "light footprints," and would be far more limited than U.N. peacekeeping missions in Kosovo and East Timor, which essentially took over governance.
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