NA FORMED ITS LIST FOR THE TROUBLED COUNCIL FOR NATIONAL UNITY
By an IPS Correspondent
PESHAWAR (PAKISTAN) 7 Nov. (IPS) The anti-Taleban Northern Alliance confirmed it has completed its list of nominees for the membership in the Supreme Council for National Unity (SCNU), entrusted with the task of forming the transitory government to fill the vacuum developed after the collapse of the Taleban regime.
The creation of the SCNU was decided last month in Rome during meetings
between representatives from the Northern Alliance, the former Afghan king Mohammad
Zaher Shah and independent anti-Taleban personalities, aimed at convening,
possibly inside Afghanistan, an extraordinary Loya Jirga, the Afghan
traditional Grand Assembly of the Elders.
Delegations at the Rome negotiations had agreed to submit the list of their 60 nominees to the Council within two weeks, but Mr. Yunes Qanooni, a spokesman for the Alliance explained that the delays were due to the difficulties in bringing together people fighting in different fronts and places against the Taleban.
All Afghan ethnic, linguistic and political groups in addition to the religious minority groups i.e. the Sikhs and the Hindus, and for the first time, Afghan women, would be represented "as proportionally as possible" in both assemblies, sources said.
Rejecting allegations that differences had erupted between the NA with the Monarch’s side, Mr. Qanooni said he hopes that the first meeting between nominees of the Rome Agreement would be held in Turkey "very soon".
"The list of our members to the SCNU has been sent to Zaher Shah and we hope that the Council would meet the soonest possible, probably in Turkey", he told the Persian service of Radio France Internationale (RFI), but the Peshawar-based daily "Frontier Post", quoting a NA unidentified but "reliable source" said the list was subject to some last minute change.
According to this newspapeer Alliance’s nominees are drawn from the ex-Jehadic Leadership Council (Shoura-ye-Qeyadi); the Shi’ite Hezb-e-Wahdat; Harakat-e-Eslami, Jam’iat-e-Islami; Jumbesh-e-Melli; Ettehad-e-Islami; Harakat-e-Enqelab; etc.
The "Rome Peace Process", representing supporters of Zaher Shah is to send an equal number of nominees to this 120-member Council.
Informed sources told Iran Press Service that though the formation of the SCNU and the subsequent Loya Jirga is backed by major parties involved in the ongoing Afghan conflict, including the United States, the United Nations and the European Union but the Agreement had caused rift in the ranks and file of both the Alliance and the royalist camp.
One major stumbling obstacle is about who would be sitting in the next Loya Jirga.
Zaher Shah, who belongs to the Pashtoon that forms the majority among Afghanistan’s various ethnic groups is insisting that so-called "moderate Taleban" must also be represented, the Northern Alliance, suspecting that Pakistan is behind the proposal, adamantly against the idea, saying there isn’t "anything like moderate Taleban".
For its part, the Islamic Republic of Iran, a major player in the conflict, is reluctant to see the former Afghan Monarch becoming the likely peacemaker in the war-torn nation, fearing that his success would encourage both Iranian monarchists and other dissidents fighting for a Western-type parliamentary regime.
The 87 years-old Zaher Shah has assured that not only he is not looking to restore Monarchy but also would go back to his Roman residence once the Loya Jirga has named a Prime Minister.
While Northern Alliance political personalities such as Younus Qanooni and Dr. Abdullah, the acting Foreign Minister had no problem in accepting the former king as the head of the interim setup, the military strongman General Fahim rallies around Borhaneddin Rabbani, the ousted President of the Islamic Government of Afghanistan, who is also backed by neighbouring Iran but opposed by Pakistan, the main player in the Afghan imbroglio. ENDS AFQANESTAN SCNU DILEMNA 71101