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Afghan Talks to Replace Taliban Open in Upbeat Mood
BONN, Nov. 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Afghan delegates gathered in Bonn Tuesday under intense pressure to forge a broad-based government to replace the crumbling Taliban regime, but upbeat over turning the page on decades of bloodshed.
As he formally opened the U.N.-sponsored inter-Afghan summit in the suburb of Koenigswinter, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer urged delegates to "seize this historic moment," reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Four Afghan delegations are attending the meeting. The Northern Alliance, the largest party, controls the Afghan capital of Kabul. The Alliance's military victories have largely overtaken the political process in recent weeks, and its commitment to share power is still untested.
Zahir Shah's delegation, the former king, is seen by some as a potential unifying figurehead in a nation of many different ethnic and linguistic groups, according to BBC's online news service.
The Cyprus Group, made up of Afghan exiles, politicians and former mujahideen fighters believed to be close to Iran. The Peshawar Group, headed by Pakistan-backed Pashtun leader Pir Gailani, thought to support the former king.
Representatives of the four delegations got down to tough talks on an interim government and a multinational security force to ease the country into peace.
In their opening speeches, the Afghan delegates insisted they were ready to make the conference an historic turning point in their country's history.
"I have come to Bonn with high expectations. Our people have behind them a golden era of resistance against oppression. But we are in a new era," Yunus Qanooni, head of the Northern Alliance delegation, said in his opening speech.
The Northern Alliance - dominated by ethnic Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras but itself divided - marched into Kabul as the Taliban fled the city last month, ignoring warnings from the United States, Britain and other Afghan groups not to do so.
This created fears that the Alliance would attempt to cling to power on its own, a scenario that could cause a repeat of the vicious internecine fighting that erupted after the collapse of the Moscow-backed Kabul government in 1992.
But Qanooni dismissed these concerns, saying, "We have come to Bonn with sincerity and support any proposal which could lead to peace," he said. "Our message is peace and national unity."
Another Alliance delegate, Hussain Anwari said that he expected a political deal would be forged within three days, but he reiterated stiff opposition to the presence of a multinational force, reported AFP.
Diplomats observing the Bonn conference said there was broad agreement among the delegates for Zahir Shah, 87, to act as the figurehead of an interim administration.
The real problem, observers said, would be over who becomes his deputy or prime minister - and who holds the key portfolios of defense, interior and finance. That would be followed by tough talking over a continued international presence in the country.
An interim government will pave the way for a Loya Jirga - a traditional "grand council" of elders - that will decide the next step towards a formal government, according to a U.N. blueprint.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, told the conference participants that they must choose peace and reconciliation over fresh fighting.
"You must not allow the mistakes of the past to be repeated, particularly those of 1992," Brahimi warned in a reference to bloody infighting between Afghan groups in the wake of the overthrow of the Soviet-backed regime of President Najibullah.
"To many skeptics, this is what you are about to do. You must prove them wrong," he said.
Abdul Sattar Sirat, the head of the ex-king's entourage, used his opening speech at the inaugural ceremony to describe the Bonn meeting as an opportunity to lay the "foundation stone" for a new Afghanistan. "We are happy that this golden opportunity has been created," he said.
The delegates for the other two teams - the so-called Cyprus process and Peshawar group - also pledged their determination to strike a deal, although they are both seen as less powerful players in the talks.
"We believe that the Afghans will be able to agree on a transitional government. We will exercise great flexibility," said Sayed Hamed Gailani, the son of a prominent Pashtun leader, before the delegates went behind closed doors for the first discussions.
For these landmark talks, the first serious meeting of rival Afghan groups in nearly a decade, delegates are to be secluded in the Petersburg government residence nestled in the mountains about nine miles (15 kilometers) from Bonn.
The venue is ideal for such a summit, there are few distractions, and during the talks, diplomats from foreign powers keen to see their favorites win a stake in a future government will be kept out.
A U.N. source said the talks were likely to be characterized by hard, complex talking, with intermittent consultations by the delegates with their respective bosses overseas.
But any deal will have to satisfy the ambitions of Afghanistan's rival ethnic groups and powerful warlords, as well as key competing players in the conflict such as Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Iran and the United States.
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