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UN
Talks on Afghanistan
Following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's briefing at 2 pm Bonn time by Ahmad Fawzi, Spokesman for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi: Good afternoon everyone. This is day four, I'm sure you've all been counting, of the UN talks on Afghanistan, and the talks continue. This morning Mr Brahimi met with smaller groups of the four groups. We had a working meeting with the four group leaders and their immediate aides, two from each group, to take stock of where they stand after three days of talks. We have taken stock and they've all gone away to think about it a little more among themselves, and we will be meeting with them again this evening at 9 p.m. to try and formalize some of these agreements in principle, and see if we can't pin some agreements down. There's going to be a meeting this afternoon at 3.30 with a delegation from the conference of Afghan Civil Society, which is going on near here, and which opened early this morning. A delegation of 10 at 3.30 p.m. this afternoon will meet with all the Afghan groups in their entirety. We'll also have pictures of that for you. The planning and efforts on behalf of the UN system in Afghanistan continue. As you know we have humanitarian aid workers from the UN system and all the NGOs who are doing wonderful work in Afghanistan still delivering aid throughout the country. But yesterday I mentioned Mark Malloch Brown from UNDP would be in Islamabad and Kabul talking about recovery, so the system is already planning, UNDP, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, planning what is going to happen after the Bonn talks and after the political agreement. All this can only happen after there's a political agreement and after there's peace and stability in the country. Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF, was in Kabul today, it's in the briefing notes in the back, but because we've had so many questions about the participation of women. I would like to inform you that Carol Bellamy is also pushing that and her basic message for Afghanistan is that in order to really recover and thrive as a society children and women must be an immediate priority. And now I would be happy to take your questions.
Answer: Haji Qadir is a Pashtun as you quite rightly said, and I believe he left because of some misunderstandings within his own delegation, and also because he was unhappy about the level of Pashtun representation at the conference. We are very sorry to see him go. We hope that he may play a role in some future administration in Afghanistan, but the conference continues and “the show must go on“.
Answer: It's the counting game again. Yes, you're quite right, but you have to give it some structure, and we are hoping to conclude a deal as we agreed with all the parties, and they were very happy to agree to this time limit. We did it with them; we didn't impose anything upon them. If they had said we'd like less time or more time, it would have been entirely up to them. But, to answer your question directly, yes we are working towards concluding an agreement by tomorrow. That doesn't mean the crack of dawn tomorrow, tomorrow is 24 hours, tomorrow ends at midnight tomorrow. But let me just add this: if we find that they're making progress and that they need a few minutes after midnight tomorrow, then we're flexible, there's no reason why we should not stay until Sunday. But then again, let me say, we don't want to impose more than we have to on our German hosts. They have been extremely generous and this is just one example of their generosity: this kind of press centre is an enormous effort in labour and in cost, and what's going on up there on the hill in Petersberg is also quite remarkable. The facilities that have been put at the disposal of this conference are quite remarkable and we thank the German government for them and we do not want to impose more than we have to, but if we need an extra day, we'll get an extra day.
Answer: I have been trying and you must understand that he's very busy. It might happen, you never know. I'm working on it. But to give you a flavour, yes, I'd be very happy to do so. When we reach a successful conclusion, I have no doubts that Mr Brahimi would like to announce it himself. How does he work? As you know, from day one, right after the opening ceremony, his preference was to leave it informal. Informal with occasional structure, there's a loose structure. He has left the groups to their own devices, they meet, they each have separate meeting rooms, so there's the Peshawar room, the Rome room, the Cyprus room, and the United Front room. They meet in their rooms, and whenever they need to consult with their friends in any of the other groups they meet with them in the other groups. They can also come together in as a group in a larger conference room that is in the vicinity of those four rooms, that have been set aside in Petersberg. This goes on for a few hours every day. Then, one or two of them would want to consult with Mr Brahimi or someone on Mr Brahimi's team, on Mr Brahimi's team there are experts on Afghanistan, United Nations officials who have dealt with this problem for a long time, and they come in to see Mr Brahimi or any one of his team, and then they go back and continue consultations. At least once every 24 hours Mr Brahimi gets them all together and takes stock of where they stand so that the United Nations team can evaluate how much progress, if any, is being made, and if necessary, provide some advice or guidance in order to nudge them in the right direction.
Answer: No, sorry.
Answer: We haven't seen the lists yet, but they have been encouraged by us and by other parties - you know they met a European women's delegation yesterday - to include as many women as possible in those lists.
Answer: I'm sorry, I don't know whether we are going to launch an investigation, I don't have that information for you. I'd be happy to check it and let you know during the briefing tomorrow. Or if you'd like to call me later, but it's a situation throughout the country that's very troubling, because the lack of security is also hindering the distribution of humanitarian aid in many places in Afghanistan. Journalists interrupts: “… (inaudible) prisoners of war“. Answer: I'm changing the subject here. I said I would get back to you, and I'd like to address the issue of security, which is obstructing humanitarian aid in some of the corridors that we can't get through, hence the importance of making some provision for security in the Bonn agreement.
Answer: Yes, we will consider putting together an international security presence, both military and civilian police in Kabul and wherever else it's needed throughout Afghanistan, once the Afghans themselves ask us to do so. We are not going to do anything without the permission of the Afghans, but it is an issue on the agenda, both the security of Kabul and its immediate environment and elsewhere in Afghanistan. But the most important thing for us is to have the agreement of all the Afghan parties on the composition and mandate of such a force.
Answer: The focus so far has been on the creation of the Interim Authority. There have been discussions about the importance of security, but I believe that the focus has been mostly on the structure, the composition, and the formation of the Interim Authorities, both the Interim Supreme Council and the Interim Administration. The question of security, while being recognised as being of paramount importance, has still not been discussed in any great details, and, as you know, the devil is in the details. Finding the right people to sit on these councils and run the country in an Interim Administration has not been an easy task; finding the right person to be a Head of State, if you will, or to head the Supreme Council, again, is a question of finding agreement between the parties. There's unanimity on a few things, like the need to create a new government to take over in Kabul, which is a little more representative of the people of Afghanistan, in order to go through this interim period into a transitional period which will eventually lead to a much broader-based multi-ethnic government, but there still isn't consensus on who these people should be. And that's what we're working on at the moment, with all the parties. The issue of security has not gone away, it's still there, it is of paramount importance and we have to resolve it in one shape or form, while we're here in Bonn.
Answer: Well let me be frank with you. We don't sit in on their discussions. We as the UN don't sit in while they are having their heated discussions about who should do what in which administration. They are coming up with criteria for the selection of their representatives. And these criteria must be based on geographical and ethnic and regional considerations. So the question in its broad sense is a part of the negotiation for an agreement but whether it's one of the devils in the detail, I don't know.
Answer: The assessment on the hill. Do you know, I really don't feel that his departure is going to affect the talks one way or another. We're sorry he's gone because he could have made a valuable contribution to the talks at the moment as part of the United Front delegation, and as I said earlier, I do hope that he will agree to join a future administration as part of a broader-based multi-ethnic administration. But I don't see any major setback as a result of his departure. People are not talking about it all day. He's gone, and we have work to do. Do you want to follow up on that?
Answer: You know I don't follow them all around all the time. I don't follow them all around any time. But I heard about his departure last night. I was told that he was leaving and it must have been about 7 o'clock in the evening. But I don't know if he left at that time, or if he got up in the morning and left. I'm sorry I don't have details on the leaving.
Answer: I don't know if his name is on the list, but nice try. I haven't seen the list, Jim; none of us have seen the lists. They are still under lock and key. If the names are available at the end of this conference, they will be available to all.
Answer: I haven't had a chance to discuss it with Haji Qadir but I'd certainly hope that he does respect what comes out of Bonn because his leaders are saying so back in Kabul, that they will respect anything that comes out of Bonn.
Answer: Well, we would be very happy to see elections anytime in Afghanistan, but I'm not sure that two months is realistic. Of course in principle it's a wonderful idea. On the question of peacekeepers, the numbers haven't been discussed yet, they haven't discussed how many they feel they need and we haven't made any proposals so we haven't discussed any figures yet.
Answer: Yes, I can confirm to you without any doubt that the four parties have agreed in principle that there should be a new authority in Kabul. Both the Interim Supreme Council and the Interim Administration.
Answer: We have Mr Rabbani's word that he will respect whatever comes out of the Bonn talks and once the Bonn agreement is concluded, we have been assured by the head of the delegation here, Mr Qanooni, that he will take it home to Kabul and implement it. We can only take their word for it.
Answer: We are talking about the structure of these entities. We are talking about the Supreme Council, we are talking about numbers on each entity, how many in the Supreme Council, how many in the Administration, how they should move forward on deciding what role each body should have. We are talking about the need for security and we are at a stage now where we are waiting for them to get approval on their lists of names. The language that is being spoken when Mr Brahimi is in the room is a mixture of English, Persian, and Pashtun and we have simultaneous interpreters.
Answer: He speaks English, and Arabic occasionally.
Answer: Well it's an important issue from the start that we have a multi-ethnic broad-based government, so it is one of the items that has to be taken into consideration when the choice of delegates is being made, when the choice of members of these two councils is being made. Question: Clearly Ahmad there has been a sea change in the positive nature of these talks in the last 24 hours, could you try and identify the one or more reasons for that? What has happened up there that has made the whole atmosphere so different in the last 24 hours? Answer: I think
it is the nature of any political negotiations. You start off with
a euphoric note, they get together in the opening ceremony and make
lovely speeches, there's a lot of polite talk and civilised backslapping,
and then they get down to the nitty-gritty. And we've been in the
nitty-gritty for three days; it doesn't mean that there are major
obstacles that we are trying to break down. But we are trying to reconcile
differing positions on some of the issues.
Answer: I am going to have to find a few more lines! It probably sounds like the stuff I said the day before yesterday, too. I think that the sides have come closer to an agreement, but how much closer remains the issue. We are inching forward here, inch by inch, towards an acceptable agreement. Towards an agreement that is acceptable to all four. And 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. 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 is what we are trying to avoid. Thank you.
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