Agence France-Presse
November 18
fghanistan's Northern Alliance will not use its new military dominance to dictate to
other factions the shape of the future government there, the Alliance's foreign minister said on Sunday.
Speaking in the capital of Uzbekistan, Abdullah Abdullah said ethnic Pashtuns, who are not represented in the Northern Alliance, could "play a role" in rebuilding Afghanistan.
He said the Northern Alliance was ready to take part in a United Nations-sponsored conference, involving all Afghanistan's factions, as early as this week. Venues being considered for the talks are Austria, Germany or Switzerland, he said.
"The recent victories of the (Northern Alliance) by no means suggest that we want to impose our own solution on the region," said Abdullah after talks in Tashkent with James Dobbins, the US envoy to the Northern Alliance.
"Our recent victories and the liberation of areas by Northern Alliance forces in no way affect our commitment to a fully broad- based government," he told a news conference.
"In fact, it will encourage us to speed up our cooperation with our national and international partners."
The Northern Alliance has routed the Taliban and now controls most of Afghanistan. But it is unacceptable to Pashtuns and other tribes because it is made up mainly of ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks.
Abdullah stressed that Northern Alliance forces had entered the Afghan capital, Kabul, this week not to make a grab for power but to restore order after Taliban forces withdrew unexpectedly, leaving a power vacuum.
Pre-Taliban Afghan leader Burhanuddin Rabbani has been named president by the Northern Alliance but Abdullah said that does not affect his faction's commitment to a fully representative coalition government.
Abdullah added: "I do think there are several Pashtun leaders who could play a role in the different phases in Afghanistan's reconstruction... There should be a fair chance for everybody to play a role."
Dobbins, who arrived in Tashkent after a visit to Pakistan, told the press conference he had impressed on Abdullah the US view that holding the pan-Afghan conference was a matter of urgency.
He said he hoped Francesc Vendrell, the UN deputy special envoy to Afghanistan who is in Kabul to negotiate the terms of the conference, will have secured an agreement by Monday.
The conference is intended by the United Nations as the first step in a two-year transition to a coalition government and a new constitution in Afghanistan.
A coalition government is seen as crucial to achieving a lasting peace in Afghanistan, which has been blighted by war for the past twenty years.
The last time the Northern Alliance was in control in Kabul, in the early 1990's, they were brought down by squabbling with other factions and by Pashtuns angry at being excluded from power.