Afghan Pact On Track

An interim administration is on track to take over power in Afghanistan next week, U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Tuesday after meeting with leaders of some of the country's competing political factions.

The terms of the handover were reached earlier this month in Bonn, Germany, as was the agreement for an international peacekeeping force to be deployed.

The Bonn deal struck by the northern alliance and three exiled groups provides for a six-month interim government and the convening of a Loya Jirga, or traditional grand assembly, that would appoint a transitional authority to lead the country to elections by mid-2004.

Brahimi said after Tuesday's gathering that the faction leaders "have no objection" to the coming of a U.N.-mandated force, so long as it is approved by the United Nations.

Many Afghans support the presence of a peacekeeping force, fearing that bloody factional fighting would erupt otherwise. But some faction leaders — including Abdur Rassool Sayyaf, who is now the deputy prime minister but has been largely sidelined in the new interim administration — strongly oppose any peacekeeping presence.

Because the United Nations had not yet approved the peacekeeping force, Brahimi said he and the Afghan leaders had not discussed exact numbers or other operational issues. Northern alliance Gen. Mohammad Fahim told reporters earlier in the day that the force should not exceed 1,000.

Asked about those remarks, Brahimi said that Fahim and all other leaders he met said they were fully committed to the Bonn accords "including a force mandated by the United Nations."

"This force, when it comes, will come as a friend, not an enemy," Brahimi said. "So I think the issue of numbers is not going to be a problem and also what it does and does not do will be the subject of an agreement with the (Afghan) authorities."

Among those at Tuesday's meetings were Fahim, de facto leader Burhanuddin Rabbani, and acting foreign minister Abdullah — but not the new interim leader, Hamid Karzai.

The parties confirmed that the handover of power would take place on Dec. 22. Brahimi said he had been in touch with Karzai, who has been in the southern city of Kandahar overseeing the implementation of a power-sharing accord there.

There has already been grumbling among the groups taking part in the new government — and factions that were left out. Brahimi said changes in the makeup of the 29-member Cabinet would be possible, but only after the new government had taken over.

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A key source of dissent is the allocation of the hree key ministries — defense, foreign and interior. All three went to Jamiat-e-Islami, the party of Rabbani. In return for those key posts, Rabbani agreed to give up power to Karzai, who will head the U.N.-brokered transitional regime for the crucial next six months.

Brahimi said he did not know if Rabbani would have a role in any future government, but said he had promised to cooperate with the incoming administration.

The outside force would not likely have a lengthy role, the envoy said. Nations participating probably "would like to leave earlier rather than later," perhaps within three to six months.

Brahimi also said that warlord Rashid Dostum, who controls northern Afghanistan's principal city of Mazar-e-Sharif, had sent him a letter promising to cooperate with the new government, although he wants more negotiations over the division of power.

Dostum has "assured me in very, very clear, strong terms of his commitment" to implement the accord setting up the new administration, the envoy said.

Meanwhile, veteran U.S. diplomat James Dobbins, who helped steer the Afghan parties to an agreement in Bonn last week, will fly to Kabul this weekend to reopen the U.S. Embassy.

State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said in Washington that a team of about 10 administrative and security personnel are in Kabul to assess U.S. facilities there.

With no U.S. diplomatic presence in Afghanistan for 12 years, Reeker said the U.S. chancery compound has been considerably damaged.

"We do expect to establish a full-time diplomatic presence there soon," Reeker said.


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