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U.N. hopes for Afghan gov't on hold
11/17/2001
By EDITH M. LEDERER UNITED NATIONS — U.N. hopes for speedy action to install a broad-based
government in Afghanistan are on hold because the victorious northern alliance
doesn't appear to be in any hurry to share power. In just over a week, alliance forces that controlled a tiny part of northern
Afghanistan swept south as Taliban fighters fled to escape punishing U.S.
airstrikes. Suddenly, two-thirds of Afghanistan is in alliance hands, including
the capital, Kabul, and warlords from the various alliance factions are filling
the power vacuum. ``It's all happened quicker than we thought,'' Britain's U.N. ambassador, Sir
Jeremy Greenstock, told British Broadcasting Corp. radio Saturday. ``We didn't
realize the Taliban were such a house of cards.'' Former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, whose faction dominates the alliance
toppled by the Taliban in 1996, returned to Kabul on Saturday, appearing to
further entrench the alliance's hold on the country. This wasn't part of the U.S. or the U.N. game plan. The United States had gotten a promise from the northern alliance not to take
Kabul so the United Nations could quickly arrange a meeting of Afghanistan's
disparate ethnic groups and put together a broad-based government to run the
country. But with the alliance savoring its newfound power, the prospect of a truly
representative government has become more uncertain. A White House official said Saturday that the United States has been
pressuring the northern alliance — largely made up of ethnic minorities — to
share power and to let the U.N. oversee assembly of the new government. Several
U.S. officials are in the region and in direct contact with the northern
alliance, including James Dobbins, the special envoy for Central Asia. The official, speaking on condition he not be identified, reiterated that the
administration does not want to force a government on Afghans. But the new
government must represent the country's diverse ethnic and political factions,
the official said. The top U.N. envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, has outlined plans for a
two-year transitional government backed by a multinational security force. He is
trying to organize a meeting of Afghanistan's many ethnic and tribal groups to
decide their own future — hopefully sometime next week. The United Nations wants it held on ``neutral'' turf outside Afghanistan. But
after the capture of Kabul, the alliance's foreign minister, Abdullah, invited
all Afghan factions except the Taliban to come to the capital to debate the new
government. The United States is urging the alliance to commit to the meeting and to
compromise on its demand that it be held in Kabul, a U.S. official said in
Washington on condition of anonymity. Brahimi's deputy, Francesc Vendrell,
arrived in Kabul on Saturday to try to persuade alliance officials. ``It's an extraordinarily difficult situation in which the U.S. and its
allies are not in a position to exert control, or even significant influence,
over their local allies on the ground whose military victory they smoothed the
path for,'' said former Canadian ambassador David Malone, president of the
International Peace Academy, a New York think tank. Col. Bob Stewart, who was commander of the British U.N. forces in central
Bosnia during the Balkans conflict, said the United Nations was moving too
slowly. ``Fundamentally, the United Nations should have moved much faster and got
people on the ground there,'' he told BBC. Greenstock said he didn't think the criticism was fair. ``You can't just move in behind a load of warlords and start taking over a
capital city belonging to another country,'' he said on the radio program. ``It all has to be done with legitimacy, with the support of the Security
Council, and these things take a few days to organize,'' Greenstock said. At a closed-door meeting Friday with the ``Group of 21'' countries that has
been seeking peace in Afghanistan, diplomats quoted Brahimi as saying: ``Don't
tell me speed is of the essence. Tell the factions. And use your influence to
get them to the meeting and back off from Kabul.'' Ravan Farhadi, an envoy for Rabbani's government, which is still recognized
by the United Nations, told the General Assembly the alliance had no intention
of monopolizing power. ``All ethnic groups must be equally represented and given a voice,'' he said
Wednesday. But diplomats say Farhadi has little clout with alliance military forces. And
if the northern alliance fails to keep its envoy's promise, it risks ``losing
the international recognition that the Rabbani government tenuously enjoys at
the United Nations,'' Malone said. No multinational force has been drawn up yet, but a host of countries have
pledged troops. Along with U.S. forces already on the ground, the foreign troops
could pressure the northern alliance forces to share power. Brahimi said Friday that ``we will go only as fast as the Afghans are willing
to go.'' But, he said, ``the more time is wasted, more problems may crop up and
make progress that much more difficult.''
Associated Press Writer