UN urged to intervene in Afghanistan

[Guest guest]

UN urged to intervene in Afghanistan

 

ISLAMABAD: A senior moderate Afghan leader has called for immediate

UN intervention in Afghanistan to avert anarchy after a possible

collapse of the Taliban regime.

 

"The United Nations should become active in Afghanistan and bring all

Afghans under its umbrella to consider a transitional government,"

Ishaq Gilani, a member of Afghanistan's exiled royal family, said.

 

He said uncertainty was prevailing in Afghanistan as the Taliban

appeared to be losing its grip on power.

 

Militia officials were taking to the countryside and their fighters

were preparing for a guerrilla war, he warned, adding that Afghans

had to quickly establish an interim arrangement.

 

"If they fail to move quickly, I am afraid they will face the same

tragic situation witnessed in Kabul when former president Najibullah

surrendered power."

 

Mohammad Najibullah, a pro-communist president, was installed by the

Soviets before they withdrew in 1989. He ruled until 1992 before

being ousted by the mujahideen.

 

Mujahideen leaders then fought among themselves laying waste to Kabul

in the process. After the Taliban took power in 1996, Najibullah was

taken from a United Nations refuge and hanged from a corner lamp post.

 

Gilani, echoed recent sentiments saying a traditional gathering of

tribesmen -- or Loya Jirga -- was one avenue for establishing a

transitional government.

 

But any future Afghan government should not include fundamentalist

mujahideen leaders or Afghan warlords who are fighting in the anti-

Taliban Northern Alliance.

 

"It will be a shame if people like ethnic Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid

Dostam and extremist leaders like Rasool Sayyaf and Gulbuddin

Hekmatyar were included in the future set-up," he said.

 

He said there were too many bitter memories about Dostam, Sayyaf,

Hekmatyar and the slain opposition leader Ahmad Shah Masood engaged

in bloody brawling that followed the ousting of Najibullah in the

early and mid 1990s.

 

"The exchange of rockets between Masood and Hekmatyar forces ruined

Kabul and I have seen Sayyaf's men engaged in an orgy of killing."

 

He also dismissed any role for the hardline Taliban.

 

"Their role is finished. They were not nice. Mullahs who studied in

Pakistani seminaries were running government affairs, they were part

of the dreaded religious police. I don't see any chance for them."

 

Gilani, 48, met with UN special envoy for Afghanistan Francesc

Vendrell in June, and has formed the Afghan Solidarity Movement (ASM)

which includes 45 leaders of political and non-political Afghan

groups.

 

Each group is backing a Loya Jirga under the former monarch, Mohammed

Zahir Shah, who has lived in Rome since his ousting in a coup in 1973.

 

Gilani also hailed Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's invitation

to the former king to send an emissary for talks in Islamabad but he

also urged Pakistan to allow the ASM freedom of movement.

 

ASM intends to shift its base from Rome to Peshawar in north west

Pakistan which served as the base of Islamic resistance against the

1979-89 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan."

( AFP )