Italy, France back Zahir Shah plan

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS, OCT. 17. The Foreign Ministers of Italy and France, Mr. Renato Ruggiero, and Mr. Hubert Vedrine, the highest ranking European officials to have called on Afghanistan's former ruler, Zahir Shah, said the King's plan for creating an alternative government to the Taliban could ``quite quickly'' become a reality. They suggested that Afghan elders could begin meeting in Rome to set up a new administration and draw up a constitution.

The two Ministers held a 40-minute joint meeting on Monday with the former ruler in his villa on the outskirts of Rome. Zahir Shah has been living in exile in Rome since his ouster in a coup d'etat by his cousin, General Daoud in 1973. On Oct. 1, the King signed an agreement with a delegation from the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan on the formation of a broad- based government through the nomination of a Supreme Council.

Mr. Ruggiero said events on the ground in Afghanistan could move quite quickly. ``The political process of moving the country towards peace could also happen quite fast,'' the Minister added.

Mr. Vedrine said the interests of all of Afghanistan's neighbours must be kept in mind while forming a government of national unity. This specifically meant that Pakistan will have a definite say in who will form the post-Taliban government in Kabul. Mr. Vedrine's remarks went in the same direction as those of the U.S. Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, who recognised that Pakistan was a key player in the fate of its neighbour.

On Monday, Zahir Shah's envoys led by Mr. Hedayat Amin Arsala, met Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdul Sattar, in Islamabad on acceptable post-Taliban scenarios in Afghanistan. Pakistan has been plain in expressing its opposition to the formation of a government by the Northern Alliance.

Both Mr. Vedrine and Mr. Ruggiero were careful not to spell out what role the former monarch would play if he returned to Afghanistan. Zahir Shah, who turned 87 on Oct. 15, has announced he is not interested in the revival of the monarchy and that all he wants is to serve his people. He has also appealed to the United Nations to spare his people additional suffering.

The Northern Alliance leaders are reportedly unhappy about the discussions underway between Pakistan and the King's envoy and fear they might be marginalised if a fresh agreement emerges.

Under the agreement they concluded with the King, they would be given 60 of 120 seats on the Supreme Council of Afghan elders which will then convene a Loya Jirga or a meeting of tribal and ethnic chiefs to elect a head of State and a transitional government.

On its side, the royal family is worried that the Northern Alliance might retaliate by launching a precipitous attack on Kabul.

The Tajik element of the Northern Alliance led by Mr. Burhanuddin Rabbani indicated on Tuesday that it would opt out of the tentative agreement with Zahir Sha to convene a Supreme Council, an official in the exiled Afghan Government said.

Mr. Mohajeddin Mehdi, first secretary of the Afghan embassy in the Tajik capital Dushanbe, said his Government still supported forming a ``loya jirga'' but not in the next few years.

The embassy represents the Government of Mr. Rabbani, ousted by the Taliban in 1996. With the Taliban under pressure from U.S.- led air strikes, there have been expectations that the council would meet soon. But Mr. Mehdi said his Government now believed it should be formed in two or three years, ``after the Taliban are completely defeated.''

He also said delegates should be chosen by the Afghan people in a general election, rather than by the leaders of the country's ethnic and political groupings.

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