UNITED NATIONS, Nov 20: A United Nations official said on Tuesday that so far the world body has not been contacted about mediating a surrender by the Taliban militia in Kunduz despite reports that the besieged forces have expressed willingness to surrender in the UN presence.
“The secretary-general, (who) is very concerned about the situation, has been in touch with the coalition forces, which have the capacity to deal with the situation,” UN spokesman said in New York.
Afghan Taliban commanders have said they are willing to surrender to the United Nations but will not give up the city to the Northern Alliance.
The Alliance, who halted their assault on Kunduz on Monday, says it will guarantee the safety of Afghan fighters if they surrender, but not the foreign guerrillas fighting with them.
“The UN should intervene,” the Taliban’s ambassador to Pakistan, Mulla Abdul Salam Zaeef, told Reuters on Monday.
The spokesman noted that the secretary-general’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, had discussed the matter with the International Committee for the Red Cross, “which said it was in touch with its people on the ground, and is in touch on this issue with (Deputy Special Representative Francesc) Vendrell, who is raising this question with his interlocutors in Kabul.
“Mr Vendrell is in the Afghan capital conducting a series of meetings aimed at discussing a plan for Afghanistan’s future presented by Mr Brahimi to the Security Council last week. Among other contacts, the deputy special representative held meetings on Sunday with Burhanuddin Rabbani, leader of the Northern Alliance, at the former residence of the Taliban Interior Minister.
Mr Vendrell had previously met Mr Rabbani on several occasions, most recently some 10 days earlier in Dushanbe.
Meanwhile, the secretary-general, who was in Canada over the weekend meeting the country’s leaders as well as international financial officials, repeated his call for a broad-based government in Afghanistan, warning of the complications that would ensue if a single faction sought to assert power.
“We are trying to get all the Afghan parties together,” the secretary-general said in Ottawa where he was attending a meeting. “Obviously we hope all Afghan parties and leaders will understand the need to form a broad-based government and set up an administration in Kabul that will be acceptable by all.”
“If they do not do that and one group tries to control power and assert itself, it is going to create problems down the line,” said Mr Annan, who made his comments in response to a question on the role of Burhanuddin Rabbani.
“I would hope that Mr Rabbani also is aware of this since he knows intimately the history of his own country,” Annan added.
“We will be pressing ahead trying to get them to discuss a broad-based government in which power will be shared by all the groups and I would hope everyone will cooperate,” he said.