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Islamic
Leaders Call For Broad-Based Afghan Government, Condemn India
DOHA
(AFP) - In a final resolution released on Tuesday, Islamic leaders at their Doha
summit called for Afghanistan's warring factions to cooperate with international
efforts to set up a broad-based government in Kabul.
They
also condemned India for its "flagrant violations of human rights" in
Kashmir, a divided territory at the center of a half-century dispute with
Pakistan, a member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) that held
the summit.
The
summit, which closed overnight, "emphasized the impossibility of resolving
the Afghan problem by military means and called on the Afghan parties to the
conflict to stop hostilities."
The
rivals were urged, "to cooperate with the aim of setting up a
representative, broad-based, multi-ethnic government."
The
56-member organization "emphasized the importance of cooperation and
coordination between the OIC and the U.N. in creating propitious conditions for
achieving national reconciliation between the Afghan parties."
It
also called on "all states to stop immediately supplying all parties in the
conflict with arms and ammunitions" and for a halt to the production and
export of illegal drugs in Afghanistan.
Rival
Afghan delegations attended the Islamic summit to campaign for Kabul's suspended
membership in the OIC.
Qatar
invited Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel and a representative of
the ousted Afghan regime of former president Burhanuddin Rabbani to attend the
summit, which opened Sunday.
The
Taliban religious militia, which holds most of Afghanistan, urged the Muslim
leaders to give them the country's OIC seat that has remained vacant since they
drove the Rabbani government out of Kabul in 1996.
But
the seat remained empty again in Doha and the OIC resolution on Afghanistan made
no mention of the dispute.
"Qatar
is only the host country and all the states have to agree, especially as there
is a problem between the Taliban and their opponents," Qatari Foreign
Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani told reporters.
U.N.
chief Kofi Annan, an observer at the summit, appealed to Iran and Pakistan - OIC
members which back different warring sides -"to work even more closely
together towards the noble aim of achieving peace."
The
Taliban administration is recognized only by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates, while most countries continue to maintain ties with
Rabbani. The two sides agreed earlier this month to U.N. sponsored peace talks.
The
OIC has coordinated with the U.N. on peace efforts.
On
Kashmir, the OIC "condemned flagrant violations of human rights of Kashmir,
and called on member states to take all necessary measures to convince India to
put an immediate end to these violations."
It called for "the people of Kashmir to
exercise their inalienable right to self-determination."
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