Afghan Factions Begin Power Talks

KOENIGSWINTER, Germany — Under strong international pressure to put an end to decades of war, four Afghan factions began talks Tuesday on how to share power and secure peace once the Taliban are defeated.

The talks among the U.S.-backed northern alliance, a group of exiles backing former King Mohammed Zaher Shah and two smaller exile groups are the most concerted effort yet to stop the strife that has plagued Afghanistan.

With the United States, Russia and neighbors such as Pakistan and Iran exerting influence from the corridors, the delegates must decide how long a transitional administration would run the country before convening a national assembly and the makeup of a peacekeeping force under a U.N. mandate. Regional stability and billions in development aid are at stake.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer opened the conference with an appeal ``to forge a truly historic compromise that holds out a better future for your torn country and its people.

``The international community is prepared to make this great effort,'' but only if its expectations are met, he told the delegates.

The delegates must agree on binding rules for a future political system and respect for human rights, particularly for women, Fischer said.

``Their active participation in the social and political life of the nation is essential for the country's peaceful future,'' Fischer said.

Leaders of each of the four delegations gathered around the 36-seat table gave opening remarks, before the delegations broke up into a shifting series of groups.

Each of the four leaders underscored the need for flexibility and an interim authority that would include all Afghans, also women, who under the Taliban five-year Islamic rule lost most of their rights. Two women were among the 25 delegates at the table.

The northern alliance, which comes to the talks in a position of strength after ousting the Taliban from much of Afghanistan, said they would not use their battlefield victories to seek advantage.

``It is not our pride to monopolize power. It will be our pride to work for a broad-based government based on the will of the people of Afghanistan,'' said Younus Qanooni, leader of the northern alliance delegation.

``We want a new Afghanistan that emerges from the dark ages into the modern.''

In his remarks, the head of the delegation of Peshawar, Pakistan-based exiles expressed sympathy for the victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States.

``We condemn terrorism anywhere and in any form, and share the grief of the victims of these terror attacks,'' Sayed Hamed Gailani said, speaking in English. ``We are also saddened by the tragedies of alliance strikes on Afghanistan.''

Washington blamed Osama bin Laden and his terror network for the Sept. 11 attacks, and launched attacks against the Taliban after they refused to hand him over. The Taliban, which took power in 1996, were not included in the talks in Germany.

At the foot of Petersberg hill where delegates met, about 30 Afghan women protested for greater women's rights in their country. About 300 supporters of the exiled former king also demonstrated.

Before the conference opened, Ahmad Fawzi, the U.N. spokesman for Afghanistan, said that the Afghan groups must wrap up the talks in less than a week. The United Nations had previously said it would allow the talks to continue as long as necessary.

``Now we see the need for the Afghan groups to agree as soon as possible,'' Fawzi said by telephone Tuesday.

Leaders of the various factions have sent their deputies and the groups involved represent only the key combatants and prominent exile groups.

But the talks at a secluded luxury hotel across the river from Bonn, Germany, are seen as a historic opportunity to stabilize Afghanistan and avert a repeat of fighting between rival warlords after they drove out Soviet occupiers in 1989.

Many countries, including the United States, see the ex-king as a strong, symbolically powerful candidate for heading an interim administration.

As a Pashtun, he represents the largest Afghan group but he has been in exile in Rome since being ousted in a 1973 coup.

``The king's role is that of a father figure,'' said his grandson Mostapha Zaher, who is attending the talks. ``He has remained neutral and not taken sides.''

The other leading figure is Burhanuddin Rabbani, a Tajik, who heads the northern alliance, has retaken the capital, Kabul, and is recognized as Afghan president by the United Nations.

Western nations have linked the prospect of billions in reconstruction aid to the creation of an interim administration and respect to human rights by Afghanistan's new rulers.

``Until there is a government that is broadly representative and recognized by us, there's not going to be any reconstruction assistance,'' a senior U.S. official close to the talks said on condition of anonymity.

Germany, which has taken a lead role in organizing aid to Afghanistan, will hold a meeting Dec. 5-6 in Berlin where donor nations will discuss additional humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. Another conference on reconstructing the country will be held in Tokyo in January, Fischer said.

The push to provide aid is meant to underscore that the U.S. bombing is not against the Afghan people but at suspected targets linked to bin Laden and his terror network.