Alliance gives OK for foreign peacekeepers

Accord is nearing on provisional rule

By Brian Whitmore, Globe Correspondent, 11/30/2001

OENIGSWINTER, Germany - The Northern Alliance dropped its resistance to international peacekeepers in Afghanistan yesterday and paved the way for a historic accord that could end two decades of war and bloodshed in the fractious nation.

The alliance's new tone on peacekeeping troops, and a rapidly emerging consensus on the makeup of a provisional government for Afghanistan, prompted a new optimism here that a breakthrough is imminent. Some delegates at the UN-supervised talks in this town outside Bonn confidently predicted that Afghan factions could reach a final agreement on a provisional government as soon as this weekend.

''I hope that in the next couple of days we will come to a complete agreement that will respond to the aspirations of the people of Afghanistan and about peace in our country,'' Yunus Qanooni, head of the Northern Alliance delegation, said at a news conference.

If establishing transitional administration ''requires the presence of an international peacekeeping force, we will not oppose this,'' Qanooni said, adding that his group, like the other groups represented here, preferred an all-Muslim force.

The alliance had earlier insisted on an all-Afghan force, but the other three groups negotiating here said their fractured and chaotic country needed foreign peacekeepers who could remain neutral.

Delegates also said any new Afghan administration, in the absence of multinational peacekeepers, would be governing under duress, with the Northern Alliance's military forces controlling most of the country.

''We had some difficulties yesterday on the composition of the security force, but today I am much more optimistic,'' Zalmai Rassoul, a delegate for the so-called Rome Group who is the former king's personal secretary, said in an interview.

Rassoul also said the Rome Group and the Northern Alliance have already put together a list of 120 names for an interim Supreme Council, which would act as a temporary legislature for Afghanistan. He said they planned to consult with the other two groups about the list.

''This list can be expanded as high as 200,'' he said. ''We need to create a body that is representative of all Afghan society, ethnically, religiously, regionally,'' Rassoul said.

The Northern Alliance and the Rome Group, which supports Afghanistan's 87-year-old deposed king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, are the two largest factions participating in the talks on Afghanistan's future. Any accord reached here would need their approval.

The other factions include the Pakistan-supported Peshawar Group and a group of exiles based in Cyprus backed by Iran.

Once the composition of the council is finalized, Rassoul said, the groups would move on to other issues, including the details of the peacekeeping force and the makeup of a smaller executive body - called an interim administration - of 15 to 25 members. The groups also must approve the fine print for both the council's and the administration's authority.

Despite the new optimism, delegates said it still could be days before the details are resolved.

On Wednesday, delegates had agreed to a broad plan to appoint a council of 120 to 200 people. The council originally was intended to convene in Afghanistan in about a month, and then choose an interim executive.

But yesterday delegates said they were leaning toward appointing both the interim legislature and executive at the talks in Germany.

''We are interested in seeing an interim administration formed as soon as possible,'' Qanooni said. ''We would prefer that this happen here.''

Qanooni's statement reversed a previous Northern Alliance demand, articulated by Burhanuddin Rabbani, the alliance's leader and Afghanistan's former president, that any final decision on a provisional government be reached inside the country.

As things stood last night, the legislature and executive appointed in Germany would run Afghanistan for about three months until an emergency loya jirga, or grand assembly of tribal leaders, could be convened to name a provisional government that would rule for two years and draft a new constitution.

A new loya jirga then would convene to ratify the constitution, and free elections would follow.

In backing down on his faction's position on peacekeepers, Qanooni spoke about an even more extensive force than anybody has suggested. The Northern Alliance, he said, would favor a peacekeeping force that secured not only Kabul, as most factions are calling for, but also other major Afghan cities and possibly the country's borders.

The United States is not expressing a position on peacekeepers at these talks, and US envoy James Dobbins said the United States ''is still assessing whether a force is needed and what kind of force it would be.''

However The Washington Post, citing Bush administration officials, reported today that the US Central Command, which oversees the war in Afghanistan, is opposing the imminent deployment of peacekeepers in areas freed from Taliban control out of concern this could encumber US military operations.

Turkey, Indonesia, and New Zealand have offered to contribute troops to a peacekeeping force. Delegates to the talks have also mentioned Bangladesh, Morocco, and Jordan as possible participants.

While a timetable for deploying such a force has yet to be discussed, most delegates are saying they want it on the ground when the interim government is installed in one month's time.

Meanwhile, the Rome Group is putting forth the deposed king to head the Supreme Council, and Rassoul said the 87-year-old monarch, who has lived in Rome since he was deposed in a palace coup in 1973, would return to Afghanistan to take up the post.

''The council needs to have legitimacy before the Afghan people, and this is why the king should head this body,'' Rassoul said.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2001