EXTRAORDINARY LOYA JIRGA SEEN AS LAST HOPE FOR AFGHANISTAN
By Ahmad Ra'fat
ROME 13TH March (IPS) Efforts undertaken by former Afghan King Mohammad Zaher Shah to end 22 years of fratricide war that has ruined Afghanistan are entering a new, "executive" phase, according to Afghan sources that attended the last meeting of the Extraordinary Loya Jirgah (ELJ) held in the Italian capital on 11 and 12 March.
The last Rome meeting was itself the result of another one held here in November 1999 with the participation of more than 200 representative from various Afghan political and religious personalities, parties and ethnic minorities who decided the creation of the Extraordinary Loya Jirgah, a form of traditional consultative assembly.
The formation of this assembly that for the first time would include some women was backed by the European Union as well as neighbouring countries like Iran and Pakistan, with the United States remaining undecided.
This indecision by Washington encouraged some groups to oppose the creation of the ELJ, without significant success though. "Experience has proved that efforts by foreign nations, including influential neighbours, that have not their roots inside Afghanistan are bound to fail", Dr Fazeli, one prominent of the Extraordinary Loya Jirgah told Iran Press Service.
Hence the meeting organised some weeks ago in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, by the 54 members Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to bring together representatives from the warring Taleban that controls more than 80 per cent of the Afghan territory, the ousted President Borhaneddine Rabbani and the Northern Alliance led by Ahmad Shah Mas'oud.
"As far as we know, the OIC's meeting ended without any result, the same as another conference organised in Cyprus under the auspices of Iran. In out view, only moves by Afghan parties and personalities, or proposals like the formation of the Loya Jirgah could help heel Afghan wounds and put a possible end to the internal war", Dr Fazeli noted.
Although the Taleban nor the former government have not established any direct contact with the ELJ, yet sources close to the former King claims representatives from the Northern Alliance have already talked to members of the Rome-based Loya Jirgah and that the Taleban is likely to do so in case Pakistan stops opposing the project.
However, participants at this last meeting expressed scepticism concerning the real aims deployed by neighbouring countries, namely both Iran and Pakistan in ending the Afghan war. "What they are after is not the end to the Afghan pains, but replacing one controlling power with another", one participant pointed out.
"The Afghan people have been absent from the political scene of there nation for many years. In my opinion, any effort to bring peace in our country would fail unless it gives sovereignty to the people", Dr Fazeli added.
To some Afghan observers, the project approved last year in Rome and aimed at the creation of the Extraordinary Loya Jirgah is the only one that, because it comprises some kind of pluralism, could be of any help to the Afghan people.
According to the proposal, the ELJ would, in a first phase, establish a central Head Quarters in Rome, where lives King Zaher Shah and open offices in north of Afghanistan, in Islamabad and Tehran as well as in some European capitals like Moscow, Paris, Berlin and London plus Washington and Tokyo before trying to convene the first meeting of the assembly in Afghanistan itself with representatives of all warring factions.
It is interesting to note that Japan is the last nation that, giving full backing to the ELJ project, is organising a conference of its own, hoping to bring to the same table envoys from both the Taleban and opposition. AFQAN LOYA JIRGA 13300