Afghans haggle over transitional leaders

3 Dec, 2001 01:10 AM5 mins to read

2.00 pm - by MARY DEJEVSKY

BONN - The four delegations to the Bonn talks on Afghanistan were last night haggling over the names of the country's future transitional rulers as they picked through a final document submitted by the United Nations as a basis for an agreement.

The 7-page document set out structures and guarantees for an interim administration that would hold power for six months, until a more lasting government structure could be put in place.

While the existence of a document represented the most concrete progress towards accord observed for several days, the UN spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, stressed that much work remained to be done. "We're not there yet," he insisted, taking for granted that the talks would stretch into a seventh day, and perhaps beyond. They had opened on a wave of euphoria and optimism last Tuesday, with all sides gratified that everyone invited had even turned up.

As the days of talking have ground on, however, the size of the task has become apparent. And yesterday, even from the sketchy details that emerged of the draft accord, it became clear how far the UN had had to rethink its original blueprint.

The structures now under discussion are quite different from the two-part executive and council proposed (and apparently accepted) at the outset, and no list of names for any of the leadership bodies has come near to being approved. "When it comes down to names, it gets very difficult," said a flagging Mr Fawzi. But he insisted: "It is important that we discuss and finalise a list of names in Bonn."

A member of the delegation representing the small Cyprus-based Afghan group said that the four delegations had each proposed 15 names of people they would like to see in an interim administration. The total of 60 names, he said, would be whittled down to 30 by the chief UN negotiator, Lakhdar Brahimi, and then re-submitted to the delegates for approval. Members of the Cyprus delegation, the smallest and most ethnically diverse of the four, have been acting as go-betweens, trying to find common ground with the bigger delegations representing the Northern Alliance and supporters of the former Afghan King. The fourth delegation represents the mainly ethnic Pashtun exiles based in the Peshawar region of Pakistan.

Under the latest proposals - met "with receptiveness", according to the UN - there would be just one interim body to govern Afghanistan, an executive of between 25 and 30 people that would take over "as soon as possible". Its mandate would last for six months, until an "emergency" tribal assembly, or loya jirga, could be held.

This would ratify a new executive and a larger "supreme national council" that would be given two years to draft a constitution. A new loya jirga would ratify the constitution and arrange for elections leading to a permanent government for Afghanistan.

The interim executive would be the only body chosen at Bonn, but it would satisfy the requirement, set by the UN at the start, that the delegations should not leave Germany until they had agreed the composition of an administration capable of making decisions. What it was concerned to avoid was a situation where structures had been agreed in principle, but with no names attached, which would leave the horse-trading - with all the attendant risks - for a future meeting.

Also in the draft document are proposals for a 21-member "independent commission on convening the emergency loya jirga" and for a Supreme Court of Afghanistan. No names will be decided for these bodies, but the principle would be laid down established that no member of one body could serve in another.

Much vaguer are draft proposals relating to the position of the former King and the installation of a multi-national peace-keeping force. The King, the UN suggests, could take a symbolic role in "presiding over the opening of the emergency loya jirga". This is less than the King's supporters would like, but could be acceptable to the other groups.

The former President whose forces again control Kabul, Burhannuddin Rabbani, is likely to lose his UN-recognised status as President as soon as any new arrangements are finalised. But the UN would prefer not to sideline him altogether, lest this foment discord in Kabul. His role, UN officials said yesterday, "is not decided."

The draft agreement - which could still change a great deal before it is finalised, sets out the need for an "interim" multinational peacekeeping force "as soon as possible", but does not stipulate its size or mandate, and stresses that any such force would be deployed only at the request of the Afghan administration.

The Northern Alliance has been reluctant to accept outside peace-keepers, but may concede the principle if, as seems likely, the other parties to the Bonn talks refuse to sign any agreement in which their security in Kabul is not independently guaranteed.

- INDEPENDENT

Story archives: