Bonn agreement met with cautious optimism by Afghans

Afghan factions meeting near the German city of Bonn have agreed on the first steps towards future governance of their war-torn country. Following news of a plan for the formation of an interim government and elections within two years, some Afghan experts were cautiously optimistic that the move signalled the beginning of the end of the Afghan conflict. Professor in law at the Afghan University in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Tahir Borgai, told IRIN that he hoped the agreement meant the end of twenty years of bloodshed, displacement, disease and misery. "This time, the international community is eager to achieve an intra-Afghan consensus to ensure that the country returns to stability," he said, explaining that political negotiations in the past had been thrust upon Afghans by outside interests and had lacked broad international support. Borgai did not consider ethnic differences or differing views on representation in a future authority to undermine the agreement. "Past foreign interference has fuelled ethnic, linguistic and sectarian differences. But these are not deep rooted [among Afghans]," he said, adding that Afghan groups had lived together for centuries in relative harmony. The Bonn agreement concluded that former deputy foreign minister and Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai would lead the 29 member interim executive council. Karzai was expected to assume his responsibilities when the caretaker authority became effective on 22 December. In parallel, a 21-person special commission would convene an Emergency Loya Jirga [grand tribal assembly] to meet in six months time. This assembly would be tasked with selecting the next interim Afghan government which would draft a constitution and lead the country to elections within two years. Crucially, the agreement also called for the deployment of a multinational security force to secure the Afghan capital, Kabul, under a UN Security Council mandate. In addition, all Afghan military factions would come under the control of the interim authority once it assumed responsibility. A former member of the Afghan parliament, Alhaj Nang Yousafzai, maintained that the multi-national force, which should not include forces from Afghanistan's neighbouring countries or Turkey, had to be immediately deployed to Kabul to avoid a power vacuum. Afghan military elements should also be disarmed and formed into a national security force, he added.