November 20, 2001	Tuesday	Ramazan 4, 1422

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PESHAWAR, Nov 19: “We trusted the Americans but terrorists are still in Afghanistan and the Northern Alliance has entered Kabul,” says Syed Ishaq Gailani, summing up the bitterness of Afghan royalists excluded from a role in the post-Taliban Afghanistan.

Exiled royalists in Peshawar are perhaps the only faction that has not yet rushed back to Afghanistan to try to fill the vacuum left by the departure of the Taliban.

Indeed, the division of territory taking shape in recent days has not left them any room.

In the north, the Northern Alliance of Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara factions is consolidating its power, while local chiefs are pushing to fill the void left by the Taliban in the south and east.

The exiles, who favour the return of former king Zahir Shah, politely but firmly tell anyone who will listen that Afghanistan is teetering on a new precipice.

They recall the international community’s promise of a “broad- based, multi-ethnic government” representative of all Afghanistan.

“I won’t be going back tomorrow or after tomorrow,” said Mr Gailani, a nephew of the royalist movement leader Pir Gailani.

“To see what? The same faces that were in power in 1992?. The battles that were fought? What I see doesn’t give me reason to be optimistic.” Ishaq Gailani does not hide his aversion of the Northern Alliance.

“The world shouldn’t trust them any more. They don’t keep their promises, they have lost credibility” since their 1992-96 reign under Prof Burhanuddin Rabbani that was marked by bloodshed and corruption.

Ishaq Gailani also doesn’t mince his words about the Americans.

“They made a big mistake. They bombed the front line and cleared the way to Kabul for the Northern Alliance and Rabbani. We want the UN to disarm the groups, or we’ll face another civil war, another tragedy.

“I don’t know why the international community is not listening to Afghans. Why do they support (Uzbek general Abdul Rashid ) Dostam, who is a killer, who has looted half of the country?”

It was Gen Dostam wholed the Northern Alliance forces when, backed by US air strikes, they retook Mazar-i-Sharif 10 days ago.

More diplomatic, but no less critical, is another royalist, Abdul Karim Khurram.

“Many Afghans fear a repeat of the Gulf War scenario where the Americans left without solving the problems.

“I hope this doesn’t happen here as well and that the international community has understood that to leave Afghanistan in chaos will be dangerous for the world,” he said.

“We have heard several times (US Secretary of State Colin) Powell and (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair say Afghanistan will not be forgotten,” Karim Khurram said.

“The Northern Alliance has given an assurance that it will not monopolize power. We hope they keep their promises,” he said at his house here, while in an adjoining room dozens of exiled Afghans mulled over their next moves.

Each day, exiled leaders, envoys and representatives of various groups descend on Gailani’s house to plot Afghanistan’s future. No-one questions the first step: the quick convocation of a Loya Jirga.

They maintain this is the only way of constituting a government acceptable to all Afghans — and the only person capable of bringing this assembly together is former king Zahir Shah, now exiled in Rome.

But for now, the return of the king as urged by many in the international community remains uncertain.

“He hasn’t contacted us yet about that,” Karim Khurram said.

“On his own, Zahir Shah can do nothing. He must surround himself with people who will back him up and not people who haven’t seen Afghanistan for a quarter of a century.”—AFP