Afghans near power-sharing deal

12/05/2001

By ANWAR FARUQI
Associated Press Writer

U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi AP/Hermann J. Knippertz

KOENIGSWINTER, Germany — Riding the momentum of a deal outlining Afghanistan's post-Taliban political course for the next 2 1/2 years, a U.N. spokesman said Wednesday Afghan negotiators were near agreement on a power-sharing plan for the future of the country.

U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has been meeting separately with the four factions to cull the list of 150 candidates put forward for 29 Cabinet posts for a new interim administration.

Delegates and observers at the talks said the factions had agreed the interim premier would be Hamid Karzai, a leading anti-Taliban commander who is fighting near Kandahar.

``The parties have made progress toward whittling down the list and agreeing on the head of the interim administration,'' U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said. ``We await a meeting of the four groups to ratify the final short list.'' That includes confirming Karzai.

``This is a very difficult hurdle,'' Fawzi said.

A consensus on the Cabinet could trigger a speedy transfer of power from the northern alliance in Kabul — with Dec. 22 envisioned as a target date — and secure billions in promised aid to reconstruct the country.

Reaching a consensus on ministry positions is at least as contentious as the framework deal reached early Tuesday under international pressure on northern alliance leaders in Kabul to remove obstacles that threatened to derail the talks.

Factions representing the northern alliance, exiles loyal to former King Mohammad Zaher Shah and two smaller exile groups negotiating Afghanistan's political future are seeking to adequately represent Afghanistan's main Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara ethnic groups — and also women, who have been virtually excluded from public life under the Taliban.

A delegate from the northern alliance, reached at the hilltop Petersberg hotel late Tuesday where the delegates have been meeting for over a week, said that the northern alliance wanted 70 percent of the Cabinet posts, including the powerful foreign, defense and interior ministries.

Earlier, a northern alliance leader in Kabul, Dr. Abdullah, told reporters that the seats should be distributed based on the 1974 census, the last before the country plunged into 23 years of conflict, showing 38 percent Pashtuns, 27 percent Tajiks, 17 percent Hazaras and 6 percent Uzbeks.

He said that translated into 11 seats for Pashtuns, but he did not specify how many seats the alliance was claiming.

Abdullah said the alliance also preferred Karzai because he represents Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns.

With the talks going into their final stretch, plans were being made for a signing ceremony later Wednesday morning.

``At this point that's simply a hope,'' U.S. envoy James F. Dobbins said Tuesday afternoon.

So far, the talks have been slowed not by disagreements among the factions but within the northern alliance itself, which comprises seven groups united in their fight to oust the Taliban from Afghanistan, but rife with bitter rivalries.

Brahimi was prepared to travel to Afghanistan immediately to begin preparations, Fawzi said, but first the United Nations was consulting with northern alliance leader Burhanuddin Rabbani on the date for transferring power. There was no word on those talks early Wednesday.

Rabbani is still recognized as Afghan president by the United Nations and portrayed by Western diplomats as reluctant to be shunted aside by a younger generation of leaders.

Under the U.N. plan, the interim administration would govern for six months until a national assembly of tribal leaders, or loya jirga, convenes to ratify a transitional government, paving the way for elections within two years. Taking a symbolic role, the ex-king is to convene the loya jirga. Also envisioned are the deployment of an international security force to Kabul and other parts of the country, steps to integrate Afghan fighters into a future national army, and the creation of a supreme court.

The final text, obtained by The Associated Press, also includes language saying the Afghan people have the right ``to determine their own political future in accordance with the principles of Islam, democracy, pluralism and social justice.''

The final text also expresses appreciation to Afghan fighters for defending the nation's independence and to Rabbani for ``his readiness to transfer power.''