Military

DATE=12/01/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=AFGHAN CONFERENCE (L)

NUMBER=2-283756

BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON

DATELINE=KOENIGSWINTER, GERMANY

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: United Nations-sponsored talks in Germany among rival Afghan factions have entered the make-or-break stage as U-N officials and Western diplomats try to press the militarily dominant Northern Alliance into agreeing to an interim government in which they would share power with three other groups. V-O-A correspondent Roger Wilkison reports from Koenigswinter, the conference site the conference site, that the talks hit a snag Friday, when the nominal head of the Northern Alliance insisted that members of the new government be chosen in Afghanistan and not in Germany.

TEXT: Burhanuddin Rabbani, the former president of Afghanistan who is still recognized as head of state by the United Nations, threw up a roadblock to progress in the talks when he said in Kabul that the Northern Alliance's list of people it wants to include in the new government be drawn up there.

The other three delegations at the talks have already drawn up their lists and are waiting to see the one the Northern Alliance submits. The Northern Alliance delegation asked for a 10-day pause in the talks, but that was promptly rejected by the U-N and the other three delegations.

On Saturday, the head of the Northern Alliance delegation, Younus Qanooni, indicated to U-N officials and Western diplomats that he may sign on to the agreement that is emerging at the talks for an interim legislature and executive to run Afghanistan for the next three to six months, no matter what Mr. Rabbani thinks.

Mr. Qanooni is under tremendous pressure from the U-N and the West, which have dangled pledges of billions of dollars of aid for Afghanistan's reconstruction as long as the four parties agree on the composition of the interim government.

U-N spokesman Ahmad Fawzi says it is urgent that the Northern Alliance, also known as the United Front, sign on to the deal while its delegation is here in Germany.

/// FAWZI ACTUALITY ///

We do not want to have an agreement that is not going to be implemented or respected by all four, and especially by the party in Kabul, by the United Front.

/// END ACTUALITY ///

The U-N says it wants the four parties to agree on a list of members of both the executive and legislative entities by the end of the day Saturday. It insists that the delegates nail down an accord while they are on neutral ground.

The three delegations representing exiles have expressed fears about traveling to Kabul as long as the Northern Alliance is in control there, saying their security cannot be guaranteed in such a situation.

U-N spokesman Fawzi says the delegations, especially the Northern Alliance, cannot afford to walk away from an opportunity to put an end to the warfare that has plagued Afghanistan for the past 20 years.

He says it is the responsibility of the delegates meeting at a hilltop hotel near Bonn to come up with an agreement while they have the chance.

/// FAWZI 2nd ACTUALITY ///

This is a great opportunity, but also a great responsibility. It's a great opportunity because we can turn around the suffering of the past couple of decades and take Afghanistan into a new age. But it's a great responsibility for the leaders up there on the hill, because, if they make the wrong decisions, then they will fail their people one more time. And that's what we are trying to avoid.

/// END ACTUALITY ///

U-N officials are now saying the Northern Alliance delegates have promised to come up with a list of names by the end of the day to break the deadlock. (Signed)

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