AZ Daily Star

Tucson, Arizona Thursday, 29 November 2001

Alliance rejects U.N. plan for international police force

By Margaret Coker COX NEWS SERVICE

KOENIGSWINTER, Germany - Signs of unity and cooperation at the Afghan peace talks cracked on the second day of discussions Wednesday when the Northern Alliance rejected the U.N. idea of an international force to help police the country and guard international aid distribution.

The issue of security is one of two items being discussed at U.N.-sponsored talks among four Afghan factions; the other is Afghanistan's political future.

The United States and the international community say a security solution is key before distributing billions of dollars in humanitarian and economic aid being pledged for the war-torn country.

"We don't feel a need for an outside force. There is security in place," said Younus Qanooni, head of the Northern Alliance delegation in Germany, referring to the alliance's own forces.

Factions contest alliance-run security

Having a Northern Alliance-run security force is not acceptable to the other Afghan factions meeting for talks in Koenigswinter, a summer resort town outside Bonn. Such authority would imply that the Northern Alliance controls the country exclusively, a situation the peace talks are trying to avoid.

The Northern Alliance, dominated by the Tajik ethnic group, holds Kabul and about two-thirds of Afghanistan, after pushing out the Taliban with the help of U.S.-led airstrikes.

"Peace is not possible without neutral forces, and there are no neutral forces in Afghanistan," said Anwar-ul-Haq Ahadi, a delegate representing exiles from the Pashtuns, Afghanistan's dominant ethnic group, who have been living in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Qanooni's words brought criticism from international aid officials. They say the Northern Alliance has not been able to guarantee safety to their employees and convoys, and therefore their work to feed millions of Afghans is stalled.

"Ninety percent of the country is still a no-go area for all international aid organizations. There is no security," Kris Janowski, head of operations in Afghanistan for the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees, said in a telephone interview from Quetta, Pakistan.

Other delegations were meeting late into the night with U.N. special representative Lakhdar Brahimi.

The Northern Alliance has agreed on the broad outlines of a mechanism to share power with other Afghan factions, officials on both sides said Wednesday.

Little faith in alliance

But many Afghans have little faith in the alliance's ability to keep the peace, considering the country's recent history. The tenure of former President Bunurhuddin Rabbani, head of the alliance, was marred by brutal fighting between warlords, leading to the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s.

Qanooni made clear that he would consider a security force made up of groups that are not officially part of the Northern Alliance, a loose confederation of ethnic Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara commanders and the regions they defend. But, he said, international peacekeepers are not welcome.

"International soldiers are not necessary. We prefer a security force made up of Afghans ourselves," Qanooni told reporters.

According to U.N. officials, the issue of security has not come up officially during discussions at a hotel, where the four Afghan factions and representatives from Afghanistan's neighboring countries, the United States, Russia and the European Union are meeting in isolation.

-- Anonymous, November 29, 2001