| Northern Alliance demands withdrawal of Western troops from Afghanistan Yesterday, representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Emergency Situations arrived in Kabul - this is the first foreign delegation since the capture of Kabul. They intend to hold talks with Burhanuddin Rabbani, the Afghan president overthrown by the Taliban five years ago, who returned to his homeland the day before.
At an urgently convened press conference, the ex-president said that he would “welcome” the creation of a new government on a broad basis in the near future and was ready to transfer to it the power currently represented by the leaders of the Northern Alliance. A little earlier, the United Anti-Taliban Front (UAF, the same Northern Alliance, but renamed to give it the appearance of universality) confirmed Rabbani’s presidential powers and made a number of key appointments to ministerial posts from its ranks.
The UN and Western countries are strongly opposed to any one faction ruling Afghanistan and suspect the northerners are intent on securing control of a future coalition government. UN representative Francesc Vendrell, who arrived in Kabul yesterday, met with Rabbani and his Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, who made a public promise to convene a loya jirga (an all-Afghan council of tribal leaders, regional military and political leaders) in a matter of days. The congress will have to determine the formula for a political settlement and the state structure of the country. “This will be a meeting of Afghans with the participation of the UN,” Minister Vendrell reassured.
Apparently, hoping for the prudence of the northerners, the West has not yet refused to support them. The US Air Force continues to strike the two main remaining Taliban cities - Kandahar in the south and Kunduz in the north. In Kandahar, Mullah Omar agreed to a meeting with representatives of the Pashtun leaders, but flatly refused to surrender the city to them, saying that “the Taliban will fight to the death.”
Meanwhile, one of the factions of the Northern Alliance, Jamiyat-e-Islami, whose founder is Rabbani himself, and his Minister of War Mohammed Fahim demanded that a group of one hundred anti-terrorist coalition troops (mostly British) serving Bagram airport near Kabul , was reduced to 15 people. "The deployment of British forces," said Jamiat-e-Islami spokesman Haji Aref, "contradicts the beliefs of the Afghan people." With the deployment of the French contingent in Mazar-i-Sharif and the sending of German military personnel to the region, such contradictions, presumably, will only grow.
However, it is premature to say that the Northern Alliance is firmly in power. In the eastern province of Nangarhar, militia leaders, without waiting for Kabul's approval, elected as governor Haji Abdul Qader, the former head of the region and brother of the famous Pashtun warlord Abdul Haq, who was hanged by the Taliban last month. In Kabul, supporters of King Zahir Shah, overthrown in 1974, are preparing his return to his homeland (including in terms of ensuring security) and participation in the loya jirga. The West, as we know, is betting on the 87-year-old former monarch. Alexey SLOBODIN |
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