Afghans at Talks Sitting on Names

Frustrated by a protracted standoff over who should govern Afghanistan, U.N. mediators of the negotiations here on the country’s future Sunday presented a draft of their own design that envisions a Cabinet, a ceremonial role for the ousted king and eventual peacekeeping and judicial systems.

But a week after arriving for the talks initially expected to take only two or three days, the delegates from four Afghan factions had yet to begin negotiating on specific candidates to fill posts within the “interim authority,” said U.N. spokesman Ahmed Fawzi.

The delegations--representing the dominant Northern Alliance, the former king and exiles based in Pakistan and Iran--have vaguely agreed that the interim administrative body should have 25 to 30 posts and that a separate 21-member council should prepare a spring meeting of tribal elders to make long-term leadership decisions.

But in the two-steps-forward, one-step-back nature of negotiations, the fine-tuning of the seven-page text of the draft agreement was occupying the delegates at the expense of their making hard decisions on personalities for the power-sharing.

“The missing link is the list of names,” said Fawzi, noting that all four groups were “sitting on their lists.”

Each of the delegations has been asked by U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi to name 15 candidates for the de facto Cabinet. The 60 nominees will then be debated and reduced by half--an exercise that could take several more days.

The U.S. representative on Afghanistan, James Dobbins, said the negotiations had taken “an important step forward” Sunday in that the delegations received the text of the draft agreement and none raised any immediate objections.

But Dobbins repeated his view that “we haven’t got to the hard part yet,” in that no specific nominations had been put forward by any of the groups. Though U.N. officials continued to forecast an agreement as early as today, Dobbins said that Wednesday was “optimistic but realistic.” A German diplomat privy to the inner workings of the conference likewise predicted that a final deal was several days off.

“They should stay here until they have a government that can go to Kabul,” a senior U.S. diplomat said, reflecting the consensus among U.N. brokers and diplomatic observers from 18 countries monitoring the talks.

The draft agreement contains a provision ruling out any amnesty for Afghan warlords accused of war crimes or human rights violations, Fawzi reported. That clause could prove problematic for some Northern Alliance factions that have been accused of atrocities in their battles against the Taliban remnants.

Fawzi said the text omits any specific mention of the multinational peacekeeping force being demanded by all delegations except the Northern Alliance. But it alludes to the need to enhance security in Kabul, the capital, and elsewhere, he said. That appears to put off any endorsement of foreign peacekeepers until the Cabinet sets to work.

On Saturday, the delegates scaled back their expectations for the talks here, deciding to put off until the meeting of tribal elders the job of naming a parliamentary body to draft a constitution and choose a head of state. The gathering of elders is expected in March at the earliest and, under the draft agreement circulating here, would be organized and chaired by the former king, 87-year-old Mohammad Zaher Shah.

Billions of dollars in reconstruction aid hang in the balance at these talks. Until a functioning government returns to Kabul, there will be no flow of assistance to Afghanistan, a country that is a shambles after nearly 23 years of civil war.

A Western diplomat here said the delay in proposing Cabinet members was caused by the Northern Alliance’s United Front delegation, which represents seven diverse political parties and militias. The United Front is the only delegation that has to consult with leaders of its various constituencies on every detail of the draft agreement and individual candidates, the diplomat said.