KABUL, Nov 17: Former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani returned to Kabul on Saturday but insisted his Northern Alliance would not monopolize power after the downfall of the Taliban.
“We will try to form a broad-based government as soon as possible, it depends on the seriousness of the Afghan people and the United Nations,” Prof Rabbani told a press conference hours after his arrival from his base in the north of Afghanistan.
Prof Rabbani was forced out of Kabul by the Taliban in 1996 but has remained the UN-recognized head of state.
He pledged to speed the government process and dismissed suggestions that the alliance was dragging its feet over the future administration.
“If there is a delay because of the United Nations we should not be blamed,” he said. “I supported UN proposals in the past and we will support it (now) in the interests of peace.”
Prof Rabbani reiterated that the alliance had invited all Afghan leaders to Kabul for talks on a future government. But the United Nations has said a conference should be held in a neutral venue.
UN special envoy to Afghanistan Lakdhar Brahimi said on Friday he wanted a UN-backed conference of Afghan factions to go ahead next week. “The more time is wasted, more problems may crop up and make progress that much more difficult,” Mr Brahimi said in New York.
The Northern Alliance returned victoriously to Kabul on Tuesday after the Taliban retreated, rejecting US pleas to stay out until political arrangements could be finalized.
The loose coalition of ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks from northern Afghanistan has since started forming an interim administration that it has said Prof Rabbani will head.
But Prof Rabbani insisted: “We did not come to Kabul to extend our government, we came as a reaction.”
HE ADDED: “The presence of resistance fighters and Mujahideen in Kabul reflects a reality not anything else. It will pave the way for a Loya Jirga.
“The victory does not belong to one ethnic group but all Afghan people.”
Prof Rabbani said: “We will try to form a broad government. We have always supported the traditional process of the Loya Jirga and it will elect the country’s leaders.”
The future government is just one cause of mistrust between the alliance and the international community.
The United Nations has also given backing to ex-king Mohammad Zahir Shah, who lives in exile in Rome, as a possible leader of a transitional government that could unite all of rival factions.
Supporters of Zahir Shah, a Pakhtoon like most of the Taliban, have launched their own contacts in Afghanistan on forming a new government.
When asked about the former monarch heading a transitional government, Prof Rabbani said: “We will expect a decision of the people.
“It is up to the Loya Jirga to decide who will lead a transitional government. We still have good relations with the Rome process.”
Alliance defence minister Gen Mohammad Qasim Fahim said on Saturday that, if the United Nations insisted, “preliminary” talks could be held outside Kabul, but the full conference must be held in the Afghan capital.—AFP
