Posted on 11/27/2001 6:09:42 PM PST by HAL9000
KOENIGSWINTER, Germany, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- Delegates at the U.N. conference on Afghanistan's political future agreed to accept ex-King Mohammed Zahir Shah as the country's interim leader for a transitional period, James Dobbins, the U.S. special envoy to the meeting, said Tuesday.Mohammed Shah, 87, was ousted in a 1973 coup while he and his family were out of the country, and now lives in a secluded villa in Rome.
Dobbins said the former monarch would be the figurehead leader of an interim administration in Kabul while Afghan ethnic groups fashioned a broad-based coalition government.
"Everybody sees the ex-king as a rallying point and hopes that he will be willing and able to play that role as they elaborate a new structure," Dobbins told reporters.
Acceptance of the ex-king was the main development on the opening day of the conference, which is expected to last from three to five days. It brings together 38 Afghan delegates from four main groups. The Northern Alliance, a composite of minority groups which now holds most of Afghanistan including the capital Kabul, has the largest delegation with 17 members.
The other groups are the royalists -- representatives from the so-called Cyprus process consisting of exiles and intellectuals said to be Iran-backed -- and the Peshawar group from Pakistan, which is close to the Pakistani government.
No group favors restoration of the monarchy, but Zahir Shah is seen as a potential unifying figurehead in a nation of many different ethnic and linguistic groups. The special U.N. envoy on Afghanistan, Lakhar Brahimi, has said he hopes Zahir Shah can "grandfather" the country's emergence from the dark age of the fundamentalist Taliban regime.
The U.N. sponsored conference is hosted by Germany because it holds the chair of the U.N. Afghanistan Support Group. It is being held under strict security in a palatial government guesthouse overlooking the Rhine River in Koenigswinter, a suburb of Bonn, the former West German capital.
Thousands of police and army troops have been deployed around the scenic village. Special commando units have being combing the densely wooded mountainside,liaising with airborne assault troops using thermal imaging equipment on helicopters to ensure the maximum security level possible.
"There won't be a mouse in the area without our permission" said an army spokesman.
The town itself is virtually deserted, with special police units carrying machine guns on constant patrol. All roads in and out of the area as far back as Bonn are being monitored and a 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) exclusion zone has been set up to ensure that only those with a genuine reason to be there are allowed in.
Airports as far away as Dusseldorf, Cologne and Frankfurt have gone on high alert and an air exclusion zone has been set up around the town.
The delegates have set themselves two main objectives: to agree on the shape of an interim administration, and to come to a decision on a multinational force for Afghanistan, according to a U.N. spokesman at the meeting.
One of the few women delegates is Rona Mansuri --daughter of former Afghan Prime Minister Mohammed Yousaf -- who served under the late President Saddar Mohammed Daoud Khan from 1963 to 1964.
Another delegate is Haji Abdul Qadir, the elder brother of Abdul Haq, the ethnic Pashtun leader who was executed by the Taliban after the U.S. strikes began on Oct 7.
Afghan sources at the conference talk of a three-stage transition to democracy, starting with an "interim supreme council" to administer the country for the first three months, followed by a broader interim government. The ultimate aim is a loya jirga -- council of elders -- which will draft a constitution and hold elections.
A delegate told reporters Tuesday that the atmosphere at the meeting was very upbeat. But questions persist about how representative the conference is. Afghanistan's largest ethnic group is the Pashtuns, who inhabit the southeast of the country closest to Pakistan. Most of the Taliban are Pashtuns, but so is the ex-king.
The Pashtun delegates at the conference, however, are from outside the country. Observers point out that the Pashtuns from Afghanistan itself are not represented at the conference, raising the further question of how acceptable its decisions will be to the group that totals about half the population.
A parallel effort to organize the massive relief Afghanistan needs got underway earlier this month in Washington. Further talks on relief will be held in Berlin in early December.
(Roland Flamini in Washington and Mike Gallagher in Bonn contributed to this article.)
Copyright 2001 by United Press International.
Aren't we all? (grin)
Shah was a decent king in the 50s and 60s and presided over the most prosperous and free time Afghanistan saw in the past century.
He was ousted not by a popular rebellion, but by a resentful fundamentalist nephew. Within three years the nephew was assassinated, the country destabilized and the Soviets began their invasion designs.
I say give the guy a chance.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.