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| MOSCOW - Afghanistan's interim prime minister Hamid Karzai arrived
Monday evening in Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin and
other officials on Russian help rebuilding the Afghan military and
infrastructure. Karzai, leading a large government delegation, was to meet Tuesday with Putin in the Kremlin. Karzai was also expected to potato pearl meet Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and the speaker of the lower house of Russia's parliament, Gennady Seleznyov, the Afghan Embassy said. Russian aid for rebuilding Afghanistan was expected to dominate talks. They were also likely to address joint efforts in fighting drug trafficking and terrorism. Russia, which has supported the U.S.-led anti-terror operation, has been eager to build close ties with the new Afghan government, including by helping rebuild the military. Numerous Afghan officials have visited Moscow in recent weeks. Russia provided military aid to the opposition alliance fighting Afghanistan's Taliban militia for the past few years. Since the U.S.-led military campaign began last fall, Russia has also contributed dlrs 12 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, the Interfax news agency reported. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovlenko called on Karzai to push for full implementation of the agreement on Afghanistan's government reached last year in Germany. "The interim administration in Afghanistan can make a significant contribution to the creation of conditions allowing all Afghans to exercise their right to the freedom of expression of their will and self-determination," he said, according to ITAR-Tass news agency. Yakovlenko also called for international peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan to "strictly abide" by their mandate and be careful about talks on revising that mandate. Karzai's visit came as U.S. fighter jets pounded the mountains of eastern Afghanistan on Monday to try to cultured pearl jewelry wipe out any remnants of al-Qaida holdouts hiding in a warren of caves. Karzai sent up to 1,000 additional troops to the region, which he called the "last main base" of al-Qaida and Taliban in Afghanistan. Karzai was to leave for Germany after his Moscow visit. | ||
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| KOENIGSWINTER - Under strong international pressure to reach a
compromise and end more than two decades of war, four Afghan factions
began talks Tuesday seeking agreement on how to share power and secure
peace once the Taliban are defeated. The talks among four delegations representing the northern alliance, 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 at a luxury hotel overlooking the Rhine River with an appeal to deliver peace and stability to pearl necklace the Afghan people. "I urge you all to forge a truly historic compromise that holds out a better future for your torn country and its people," Fischer said. "The international community is prepared to make this great effort," but only if its expectations are met. 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 they broke up into a shifting series of groups. The delegations represent all the major ethnic groups, including the Pashtun minority. However, due to rapid developments on the battlefield, key warlords stayed home, sending sons, sons-in-law or key aides instead. Each of the four delegation heads 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 Afghan 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," the northern alliance delegation leader Younus Qanooni said. "We want a new Afghanistan that emerges from the dark ages into the modern." In his remarks, the head of the delegation of Peshawar-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." 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, many carrying photos of a younger Zaher Shah in a military uniform. The former king's grandson, Mostapha Zaher, descended from Petersberg to Keishi pearl greet the crowd, speaking privately with some. He told reporters that talks were proceeding in a friendly atmosphere and expressed optimism they would succeed. "We are going to get peace. That's what we came for," Zaher said. "There will be a result. It will be for the good of the Afghan nation." 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. "We have no illusions that we'll resolve the problems of Afghanistan in three days. We are looking at a timeframe of three to five days for the Afghan groups to decide on an interim authority." He said the mood before the talks was "workmanlike, serious and committed." 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 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 cultured pearl Afghanistan, will hold a meeting Dec. 5-6 in Berlin where donor nations will discuss how to deliver 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 Osama bin Laden and his terror network, blamed by Washington for the Sept. 11 attacks. | ||
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| KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Ignoring appeals to stay out of the capital,
Afghan opposition fighters rolled into Kabul on Tuesday after Taliban
troops fled. Residents, freed of the Islamic militia's restrictions,
celebrated by blaring music from radios and shaving their beards. Under heavy international pressure to share power, the alliance's foreign minister, Abdullah, said all Afghan factions - except the Taliban - were invited to Kabul to negotiate a new government. The alliance also asked the United Nations to send teams to help the peace process, he said. The top U.N. envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, outlined for the Security Council on Tuesday a plan for a two-year transitional government run by Afghans and backed by a multinational security force. Abdullah said most alliance troops had stayed on the edge of the capital and that a smaller force had entered only to akoya pearl jewelry keep the peace and prevent lawlessness after Taliban fighters slipped out of the city under cover of night. But there were concerns over reprisals by alliance fighters. Heavily armed troops roamed the city, hunting Taliban stragglers and their Arab allies from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida movement. At least 11 Pakistanis and Arabs fighting for the Taliban were slain. The United Nations reported that alliance fighters executed 100 Taliban in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif after capturing the city Friday. Abdullah denied the report. In Washington, President Bush said the United States would ``work with the northern alliance commanders to make sure they respect the human rights of the people they are liberating.'' Bush, speaking at a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said alliance leaders must ``recognize that a future government must include a representative from all of Afghanistan.'' Bush, who had urged the alliance to stay out of Kabul until a broad-based government is formed, said that since entering the city, alliance leaders had ``made it very clear they had no intention of occupying Kabul.'' British Prime Minister Tony Blair called for a U.N. presence in Kabul to be established ``as soon as possible'' in the Afghan capital. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said the United Nations should send in a peacekeeping force made up of Muslim countries to prevent bloodshed, saying Pakistan and Turkey could contribute. In Washington, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the hardline Islamic Taliban movement that has ruled Afghanistan since 1996 was collapsing in disarray. Field commanders were fleeing without contact with the leadership, and some were switching sides, the official said. The official said an armed force of Pashtuns - the ethnic group that has made up the backbone of the Taliban - were moving against the Taliban near the southern city of Kandahar, the militia's birthplace and headquarters. The official would not elaborate. At least 200 Taliban fighters mutinied in Kandahar, and fighting broke out by the city's airport, a Taliban official, Mullah Najibullah, said at the Pakistani border at Chaman. The Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, made a radio address denouncing deserters and urging his followers to fight, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported. ``This is my order: that you should obey your commander,'' Omar said, according to the agency. Deserters ``would be like a hen and die in some ditch.'' The agency quoted him as saying he was in Kandahar, though that could not be independently verified. There were signs the Taliban were abandoning cities in the south, possibly to wage a guerrilla war from the mountains. A Kandahar resident contacted by telephone said many Taliban appeared to have left the city, except for uniformed militia police. U.S. airstrikes continued Tuesday, with warplanes targeting caves thought to be hiding places for al-Qaida figures, another U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. As the Taliban retreated from Kabul, they took eight foreign aid workers, including two Americans, accused of spreading Christianity in Muslim Afghanistan, guards at the prison where they were held told The Associated Press. The workers were reportedly taken to Kandahar. As the sun rose over the Hindu Kush mountains, Kabul residents celebrated the end of Taliban rule over the city. They shouted out congratulations, honked car horns and rang bells on their bicycles. Men shaved off beards - mandated by the Taliban - and the sounds of music returned after having been banned by the Islamic militia. Alliance Interior Minister Yunis Qanoni said 3,000 security troops were deployed in the city to freshwater pearl maintain order and guard the offices of international agencies. Some offices, including those of the Red Cross and the embassy of Pakistan, have been looted. Abdullah defended the alliance move into Kabul, saying that after the Taliban left, armed ``irresponsible people'' caused disturbances. ``There was no option for us but to send our security forces into Kabul,'' he said. The opposition alliance is largely made up of ethnic minorities, particularly Tajiks and Uzbeks, and is burdened with a past of factional fighting that killed some 50,000 people in Kabul when they last held the city, from 1992 to 1996. Abdullah said there was a ``popular uprising'' at the eastern city of Jalalabad. There was no independent confirmation. Taliban guards Tuesday also abandoned the Torkham border station along the Pakistani frontier. U.S. intelligence believes that Taliban forces are also abandoning Kunduz, their last stronghold in northern Afghanistan, a U.S. official said. U.N. spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker, speaking in Islamabad, reported that 100 Taliban hiding in a school in Mazar-e-Sharif were executed on Saturday and said the opposition was still carrying out ``punitive action'' there. The International Committee of the Red Cross said its workers helped bury hundreds of dead in Mazar-e-Sharif. It was unclear how many were civilians and how many Taliban fighters. ``According to reports, in Mazar there is a lot of pillaging as well as civilian kidnappings, armed men out of control and fighting in the streets,'' said Christiane Berthiaume, spokeswoman for the World Food Program. Monday night, columns of Taliban vehicles could be seen fleeing Kabul and heading south in an exodus that lasted until sunrise. The Taliban were thought to be heading to Maidan Shahr, a town about 25 miles to the south. After the alliance moved in, its fighters roamed Kabul in taxis, trucks and cars, seeking out Arabs, Pakistanis, Chechens and others who had come to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban. Fighters set up roadblocks on streets where foreigners associated with al-Qaida had been living. The international Red Cross picked up 11 bodies of Arabs and Pakistanis. The bodies of five who were killed in a shootout early Tuesday lay in a public park for hours, witnesses said. Earlier in the day, the bodies of two dead Arabs were on the street near a U.N. guest house. Close to the bodies were rocket launchers and a rifle. Three captured Taliban fighters, one with blood on his forehead, were seen bound together, being led uphill on a narrow city road and into a building. On the Shomali Plain on the road to Kabul, a large crowd stood around three dead Taliban fighters. The alliance's special security troops drove into the capital in cars festooned with pictures of their late commander Ahmed Shah Massood, who was killed in September in a suicide bombing. Abdullah said the deposed president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, would return to Kabul ``when necessary.'' The U.N. envoy, Brahimi, called for a meeting as soon as possible between the northern alliance and other factions to pearl wholesale agree on the framework for a transition to a new government. Then, he said, a provisional council should convene, chaired by ``an individual recognized as a symbol of national unity,'' an apparent allusion to Afghanistan's exiled king, Zaher Shah. The 87-year-old monarch, who has lived in Rome since he was ousted in 1973, has become by entering Kabul, is seen as a unifying figure in a transitional government. The provisional council will plan the two-year transitional administration. An ``loya jirga,'' or grand council of prominent Afghans, would then prepare a constitution and a second loya jirga would approve it and create the Afghan government. | ||
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| MOSCOW - Visiting Afghan Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim on Wednesday
toured a Russian airfield where the latest models of combat planes are
being developed. Fahim's delegation visited the Gromov Flight Research Institute in Zhukovsky, outside of Moscow, said Andrei Kuznetsov, spokesman for the Defense Ministry. They were briefed on warplanes being developed by Russia's MiG aircraft corporation, according to pearl wholesale the Interfax-Military News Agency. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who met with Fahim earlier this week, said Russia was prepared to bolster Afghanistan's military capability by providing technical help and spare parts for its Soviet-built weapons. He said Russia was also ready to supply training aircraft for Afghan military pilots and transport helicopters. Following the 1979-89 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the Kremlin was a key arms supplier for the anti-Taliban forces in the late 1990s. Last year, Moscow supplied an estimated dlrs 34 million worth of Soviet-era weapons to the Afghan forces fighting the Taliban. Fahim, on a seven-day trip to Russia, has said repeatedly that he isn't looking for more weapons. However, he has said he would welcome assistance in building a national army that could fairly represent all Afghans and ensure that Afghanistan never again becomes a training ground for terrorists. An ethnic Tajik, Fahim was a close ally of the late Northern Alliance military leader Ahmed Shah Massood. He was chosen to akoya pearl necklace replace Massood after his assassination in September. Afghan Interior Minister Younus Qanooni was due to arrive in Moscow on Friday, the 13th anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. But his visit has been postponed until late February, the Interfax news agency reported. Interfax also said that Afghanistan's foreign minister, Abdullah, would visit Moscow before interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai's visit, which is tentatively scheduled for early March. | ||
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