BACK TO KABOL, RABBANI SAY HE IS NOT SEEKING RENEWED POWER
KABOL 18 Nov. (IPS) Ousted Afghan President Borhaneddin Rabbani returned to
Kabol Saturday, pledging that he does not intend to get the power back and
expressed readiness to form a broad-based government comprising all Afghan
groups, tribes and religions.
"We have not come to Kabol to renew our power. We have come to Kabol for peace. We want to invite all Afghan personalities to a peace council. From here, I inform the world community and the Secretary General of the United Nations that we shall welcome warmly his representative. I inform them that my most sincere desire, that of our great martyr Ahmad Shah Mas’ood and all resistance and jihadi fronts is to see peace and prosperity return to our beloved nation", Mr. Rabbani said in a statement read on his arrival to the Capital.
Mr. Rabbani, who is recognised by the international community as the president of the Islamic Government of Afghanistan congratulated all Northern Alliance commanders, the Defence ministry and the leadership of the Alliance for the victory, adding that this was not "the victory of one ethnic over another or one part of Afghanistan over another".
Mr. Rabbani and his government were booted out of Kabol by the orthodox Muslim Taleban in 1996, weakened and discredited by four years of fratricide war between different jihadi groups backed by Iran or Pakistan, Afghanistan two powerful and rival neighbours.
"This is the victory of real Islam of Mohammad, the victory of light over darkness, the justice over injustice and peace and security for both the region and the world", Mr. Rabbani, a devout Muslim, said, using expressions coined in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
"We are certain that today, the world has learned this reality that the very barefoot children of Afghanistan who yesterday defeat international communism have today victoriously defeated international terrorism", Mr. Rabbani pointed out, speaking in Dari, or Afghan Persian language.
Observing that the world community had "forgot" Afghanistan after the defeat of the Communism, leaving the country open to outside intrigues that led to the flourishing of "nests of terrorism", the murder of Ahmad Shah Mas’ood and the "tragic" events of New York and Washington, Mr. Rabbani warnd that "now, the world is facing another experience".
"Will the world abandon again the innocent people of Afghanistan to foreign predators? Will the world let Kabol and other Afghan cities, valleys and mountains that were destroyed by imposed wars remain in ruines? Will the world let the terrorists who had invaded our country continue their destructive operations? He asked.
He said the Northern Alliance would respect the will of a traditional Loya Jirga, or a Grand Assembly of the Elders, to decide on a future government, stopping short to give the UN any role in deciding the future of the war-torn nation.
Mr. Rabbani returned to Kabol as the first rifts surfaced in relations between different Alliance commanders in the one hand and between them and the United Nations, the United States and its major allies on the other.
"He is in a difficult situation, being squeezed between pressures from Iran, Russia and some Alliance commanders to keep his title of president of the Islamic Government of Afghanistan, that is recognised by the United Nations in the one hand and the UN, US and Britain which would like him to move aside in favour of former Monarch, Mohammad Zaher Shah", commented one Iranian expert of Afghan affairs.
As several top Alliance personalities and commanders, including Dr Abdollah, the coalition’s Foreign Minister and Esma’il Khan, the Governor-Commander of western province of Heart, near Iranian borders, openly questioned the creation of an international peace force for Afghanistan, others expressed "displeasure" with the British over sending a force of 100 soldiers to Bagram Airport, near Kabol, without prior consultation them or informing them.
UN diplomats accuses the Northern Alliance for obstructing progress on urgent talks on a post-Taleban government by insisting they be held in Kabul while Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN Special Envoy for Afghanistan wants the talks held in a neutral location, Turkey, Geneva or the United Arab Emirates.
"The Alliance is concerned at being seen as a foreign puppet, owing its victories over the Taleban to foreign interventions, in this case to American-led bombing of Taleban positions, accusations drummed against them by their enemies both inside Afghanistan and outside, mostly in Pakistan, hence, their opposition to any foreign military presence in Afghanistan", the Iranian expert pointed out
But the fact that both Iran and Pakistan are again advancing their own pawns on the Afghan scene is alarming the population, fearing a repeat of the four bloody years that pitted various jihadi organisations, parties, tribes and ethnics against each other, paving the way for the Taleban rule.
"I sincerely wished we could govern the country and FORM a nation-wide government without the help of international forces, but I’m afraid that after years of fratricide, internal wars against each other, we are not ready to restore peace and prosperity and forming a democratic government together without assistance from international community", Commander Hamed Karzai, told the BBC.
A pro-Zaher Shah Pashtoon warlord, Mr. Karzai who moved to Qandahar region last month to unite Taleban commanders against Mollah Mohammad Omar, the Taleban’s supreme leader. ENDS RABBANI BACK TO KABOL 181101