December 7, 2001	Friday	Ramazan 21, 1422

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WASHINGTON, Dec 6: A note of caution marks the reaction here to the Bonn agreement among Afghan factions, with both legislators and officials worried about the political and security environment in Afghanistan in the coming weeks.

The powerful foreign relations committee of the US Senate held a full committee hearing on Thursday on the future of Afghanistan when Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina Rocca said the most politically viable scenario seemed to be a central authority in Kabul having control over specific issues of national concern, complemented by a decentralized administrative system that delegated some decision-making authority to regional centres.

In her testimony before the committee, Ms Rocca said this would be the most likely solution in a country marked by regional and ethnic tensions.

She underlined the important role of Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries in helping the peace process and in backing the transition arrangements. In this context, she referred to Pakistan’s “crucial role” in support of the Afghanistan campaign, and said: “One should not underestimate the serious political risks President Musharraf is taking to do this. His bold position at such a critical juncture in international history will be remembered and recognized for a long time to come.”

Also testifying before the Senate committee was ambassador Richard Haass, director of policy planning at the State Department, who qualified US expectations of the international community’s role in Afghanistan by stressing that such a role must remain limited. “This is not East Timor,” Mr Haass said. “Afghanistan is not to be a UN or international trusteeship. Indeed, many of the details of a future Afghan society, economy and political system must be devised and implemented by Afghans themselves. They will have the principal and final say about how to blend the traditional and the modern, the central and the local, the national and the tribal.”

In his remarks opening Thursday’s hearing, the chairman of the Senate committee, Democratic Senator Joseph R. Biden, came out strongly in support of an international security force in Afghanistan. He said there would be little prospect of meeting the demands of the next stage of stability and reconstruction without a security force on the ground. “Only in a security environment can we make progress towards reconstruction,” the senator added. He said security was also essential to put Afghanistan’s neighbours at ease.

Senator Biden said the news out of Bonn had exceeded his expectations, and it stretched his faith to believe that the agreement reached in Germany would actually be implemented on the ground.

The ranking Republican member of the committee, the crusty Senator Jesse Helms, said the Bush administration had knocked heads to force the Afghan factions to agree in Germany. “But how are we going to make them continue to agree? Who’s going to do it?” he asked.

He mentioned the example of Somalia to warn against a US peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, adding: “Anti-Taliban warlords are already fighting each other for control in liberated areas of Afghanistan. The Russians wasted no time landing a contingent in Kabul; the Iranians, as usual, will be up to no good; and the Pakistanis have interests that may not necessarily coincide with ours ... how can we enfranchise the Afghans and disenfranchise the busybodies in the region who have made such a mess in the place?”

But Ms Rocca had made it a point in her testimony to mention Iran’s help in the US campaign in Afghanistan. She said Iran had been helpful by allowing the use of its Bandar Abbas port for transshipment of wheat to Turkmenistan, Uzebekistan and Tajikistan for onward delivery to Afghanistan.

She also expressed appreciation of India’s help, saying: “India has also suffered from Taliban-inspired terrorism and we recognize not only its offers of support to the coalition, but also their generous plans to provide humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people.”