http://www.boston.com/dailynews/320/world/U_N_trying_to_persuade_norther:.shtml

U.N. trying to persuade northern alliance to join meeting outside Afghanistan to form new government

By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press, 11/16/2001 19:28

UNITED NATIONS (AP) The top U.N. envoy for Afghanistan said Friday he is trying to persuade the northern alliance to take part in a meeting outside the country on forming a transitional government.

Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said he was sending his deputy, Francesc Vendrell, to Kabul on Saturday to try to get northern alliance officials to drop their demand that the gathering be held in the Afghan capital.

U.N. officials have made clear that they want the first meeting of Afghanistan's disparate ethnic groups to be held in a ''neutral'' country a view echoed Friday by Brahimi, who said it would be ''difficult'' for the initial gathering to be held inside Afghanistan.

''We are very much aware of the necessity of speed,'' he said. ''But we will go only as fast as the Afghans are willing to go. Unless we have answers and expressions of readiness to meet from the Afghans, obviously we cannot meet.''

Besides the northern alliance, Brahimi said, Afghan groups from inside and outside the country will be invited.

They include supporters of ex-King Mohammad Zaher Shah, who is seen as having a key role in helping determine a post-Taliban government, Iranian-backed Afghan exiles and opposition leaders, and representatives from mainly southern tribes with monarchist tendencies who met in Peshawar, Pakistan last month.

Brahimi said the agenda of the meeting will be to establish ''a provisional administration to take charge of Kabul on behalf of the whole people of Afghanistan.''

Norway's U.N. Ambassador Ole Peter Kolby said the meeting could be held Monday or Tuesday if the alliance agrees to a venue outside the country.

The northern alliance's various factions have routed the Taliban from most of Afghanistan, raising concerns that the coalition of ethnic minorities could engage in a new round of civil war and impede efforts to form a broad-based government for the country. Warlords from the different factions have now reclaimed control of cities they ran before the Taliban took power in the mid-1990s.

After the northern alliance took control of Kabul last weekend, its foreign minister, Abdullah, who uses one name only, invited all Afghan factions except the Taliban to come to the capital to debate a new government.

The United States is also urging the northern alliance to commit itself to the meeting, and to compromise on its demand that it be held in Kabul, a U.S. official said in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official said the United States backs Brahimi's difficult job of trying get disparate Afghan groups together.

Brahimi called the northern alliance an obstacle to a meeting, but said ''the principal obstacle is 30 years of conflict.'' He said he hoped ''very much'' that the meeting might take place next week.

He thanked the United Arab Emirates for being the first country to offer to host the meeting. He said the United Nations has also received invitations from a number of other countries, including Kazakstan, Germany and Austria.

A Security Council resolution adopted Wednesday night expressed strong support for Brahimi's efforts and warned Afghan forces ''to refrain from acts of reprisal.''

A meeting Friday morning of the ''Group of 21'' countries, which has been seeking peace in Afghanistan since 1996 also backed Brahimi's efforts. The meeting was also attended by members of the 56-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference.

''We all know the urgency to put all these factions and groups inside Afghanistan together,'' said China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Yingfan. ''We talked about (the) venue, about how to exert influence over all of these parties so that they could get together. I think that's very positive.''

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2001