Envoy Says U.S. Will Back New Afghan Union

U.S. forces are hunting Taliban stragglers, and international troops have brought a fragile peace to this capital. But ultimately, Afghans will have to unite if they can ever hope to be truly secure, President Bush’s special envoy said Tuesday.

A gathering next week of Afghan political leaders will be a vital step toward creating that self-reliance, he said.

In a cautious assessment of Afghanistan’s progress through more than five months of U.N.-brokered interim government, U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad assured his former countrymen here that Washington will be respectful and supportive of whichever leader is chosen at the loya jirga, or grand council, that is scheduled to convene Monday.

The Afghan-born envoy’s arm’s-length praise for interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai appeared aimed at dispelling the widespread impression here that the West--with the U.S. first and foremost--is trying to impose its political will on this country’s future. Although the international community has lavished attention and aid on Karzai, making no secret of its hopes that he emerges from the loya jirga as head of state, support among Afghans for the charismatic 44-year-old ethnic Pushtun is far less certain.

“If he is elected, we will be with him. We will respect him and honor him and assist him in the way we have dealt with him before. But if it’s another choice, we will do the same. It’s an Afghan choice,” said Khalilzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen who has served Republican administrations since 1985.

“The United States does not have a strategic interest in whether Ahmad is the minister of health or Mahmoud is the minister of education,” he said, referring to common Afghan names. “That’s not our game. We’re interested in people who can do their job and who have the confidence of their own people.

“Individuals are not an issue of strategic value to the United States,” he added.

The envoy’s distancing of U.S. policy from the outcome of the loya jirga could serve two objectives. First, it might weaken the argument of Karzai’s opponents that he is being installed by meddling foreign powers. Second, it might protect the Bush administration from accusations of fumbling in the unlikely event that Karzai is sidelined by a rejection of U.S. influence.

United Nations observers who have watched the selection of loya jirga delegates have uncovered rampant corruption, intimidation and vote-buying. Eight men vying for the right to represent their districts were slain, and a special commission overseeing the assembly had to intervene in 20 instances when threats and violence marred the procedures. Some figures with dubious loyalties have chosen to attend the gathering, though they might be regarded as dangerously unsuitable to help select a leader with Afghanistan’s best interests at heart.

Echoing the views of other foreign dignitaries and military commanders, Khalilzad said that Taliban and Al Qaeda forces are on the run but remain a danger to the fragile stability and recovery of this country.

“They’re a threat. I suspect they’re not happy about what’s happening in Afghanistan,” Khalilzad said of the terrorist remnants, many now believed to be hiding in the lawless tribal areas of neighboring Pakistan.

Noting that Al Qaeda is known to be seeking weapons of mass destruction, Khalilzad said the possibility of future attacks by the network cannot be ruled out.

The terrorist forces blamed for orchestrating the Sept. 11 attacks no longer find reliable refuge in Afghanistan or operate in armed formations, Khalilzad said, describing the U.S.-led battle here as in “a manhunt phase.”

Still, the loya jirga site--a giant Oktoberfest beer tent lent by Germany and erected on the soccer field of a bombed-out college--spreads below towering mountains that encircle the battered city and could provide vantage for any disgruntled ragtag fighter with a rocket launcher.

On Monday, Interior Minister Younis Qanooni said that ousted Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is alive and known to return from refuge in Pakistan.

“He comes and goes to his hide-outs in mountainous areas along the border,” Qanooni told journalists. Asked why Afghan or U.S. forces don’t arrest him, Qanooni replied that “unfortunately, those areas are out of our access.”

Last month, a pan-Arab newspaper quoted Omar as vowing war against both the U.S. and Afghanistan’s new leaders. “The future of America in Afghanistan is fire, hell and certain loss,” the paper quoted the fugitive leader as saying during an interview.

U.N. officials and foreign diplomats also worry about provocations from regional warlords who have refused to accept the three-stage process for restoring civilized rule to this country--a process that a diverse gathering of Afghans mapped out near Bonn in December. The interim authority headed by Karzai will be replaced by a transitional administration to be decided upon by the loya jirga, and that will give way to a popularly elected leadership in 2004.

Some warlords, such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, have vowed to disrupt the U.N.-brokered procedures. Others have refrained from open threats but are thought to be awaiting the results of the loya jirga before deciding whether to align with the transitional government or wage fresh warfare.

Fears that attackers will try to disrupt the weeklong loya jirga have confronted the international community with another awkward task: beefing up security while avoiding what might be viewed as further interference. The 18-nation International Security Assistance Force has swelled to 5,000 strong as it prepares to transfer command from Britain to Turkey this month, but it has pointedly left the inside-the-tent work to Afghan police and a fledgling national guard unit.

Heeding the deep fractures separating Afghans by region, politics, religion and ethnicity, Khalilzad said the loya jirga will have to strike a delicate compromise between “continuity” with the interim government and respect for the needs and interests of the country’s diverse regions.

“This country’s fragmented. What’s needed is for a state to be built that is a balance between the powers of the center, the government that’s being built and the regions,” he said. “What that exact balance will be is for the Afghans to decide.”