Global Policy Forum

By Michael Gordon

The United Nations envoy for Afghanistan said today that he had received assurances from some rival factions that they would comply with the agreement to form a new government and would carry out the transfer of power on Dec. 22.

The promises elicited by the envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, are an important step in establishing a temporary administration and ending the civil strife that has plagued Afghanistan for more than 20 years.

Several Afghan leaders, including Gen. Rashid Dostum, the Uzbek warlord, had complained that they were not granted sufficient power under the accord, which was reached last month in Bonn. Mr. Brahimi's mission was aimed at ensuring that the Afghans' objections would be handled peacefully and would not derail the new government.

Now the United Nations Security Council is expected to authorize an international security force to maintain stability in Kabul as the new administration assumes power. The force, to be led by Britain, is expected to be several thousand strong. Its first elements could arrive within a week.

But even as Mr. Brahimi wound up a hectic day of meetings with rival politicians and warlords, there were signs that there are still difficulties ahead in building a broad government.

Gen. Muhammad Fahim, the Northern Alliance military leader and the defense minister in the new government, questioned the alliance's willingness to comply with a key provision of the agreement that calls for Afghan factions to withdraw their troops from the capital.

The agreement requires factions to "withdraw all military units from Kabul and other urban centers or other areas in which the U.N.-mandated force is deployed."

General Fahim said the Northern Alliance had 1,000 soldiers in 12 police districts throughout the city but insisted they were exempt from the agreement because they were carrying out police duties.

"They are excluded and are not covered by this agreement," General Fahim told reporters here. "There are not any military units of the Northern Alliance here, only soldiers that are here to establish security for the people."

General Fahim also said that the international security force should not number more than 1,000 and that the troops should be limited to guarding government buildings and protecting the Loya Jirga, a national assembly that is to shape a transitional government.

If General Fahim's proposal were to be put into effect, the foreign force would not outnumber the 1,000 Northern Alliance soldiers he insists should remain. This would preserve the alliance's influence as a new administration takes hold, exactly the opposite of what the accord intends.

Despite General Fahim's challenge, Mr. Brahimi said he did not discuss the size of the international force, which nations would contribute, its geographic scope or its projected missions. "I was not in a position to discuss numbers or operational issues," Mr. Brahimi said.

The task of negotiating with Afghans over the force will be left to the British after the Security Council authorizes the force and Britain is officially anointed as the leader.

"The international force will have to be negotiated in and there will also have to be discussions about the withdrawal of Northern Alliance forces," a Western diplomat said.

In negotiating the force, the British will not be dealing with the Northern Alliance but with the transitional administration, led by Hamid Karzai, which is to supplant the Northern Alliance as the power in Kabul. Some Pashtun and Hazara leaders who are members of the governing coalition favor the deployment of a substantial international force as a way to check the power of the Northern Alliance, which is dominated by ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks. That may make the new authorities in Kabul more receptive to a substantial international force.

Hussain Anwari, a Hazara leader and the minister for agriculture in the future government, said today, for example, that foreign troops were needed in Kabul and in provinces outside the capital to prevent a new round of infighting among the victors. "If the U.N. force does not come to Afghanistan, fighting will start again," he said in an interview.

Mr. Brahimi's trip began on a positive note. As he prepared to fly to Kabul from Islamabad, Pakistan, he received an envoy from General Dostum, who assured him that the Uzbek leader would support the Bonn agreement despite his unhappiness about not being named foreign minister.

Here in Kabul Mr. Brahimi met with Burhanuddin Rabbani, the departing president, who was effectively eased out of power by the accord. Mr. Rabbani repeated his criticisms of the agreement but promised to hand over power to an administration led by Mr. Karzai.

Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a Pashtun military commander, had a different concern in his discussions with Mr. Brahimi. Mr. Sayyaf is an adherent of Wahhabism, a strict form of Islam, and a member of the Northern Alliance, whose forces were blamed for rights abuses in earlier wars.

He did not object to removing his troops from Kabul but he wants the forces to leave with honor — and with their weapons. That suggests that he may not want to subordinate his militia to the new administration and eventually merge it into a national army, as the accord requires.

Mr. Brahimi was unable to meet Mr. Karzai today because the new leader was busy trying to work out a power-sharing arrangement among feuding tribes in Kandahar. "As you know, he's a little bit busy," Mr. Brahimi said.

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