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CNN Live Saturday

Who Will Lead Post-Taliban Afghanistan?

Aired November 24, 2001 - 18:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JONATHAN MANN, CNN ANCHOR: Who will lead Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban? That's a topic of an upcoming conference between the United Nations and Afghan faction leaders. Delegates are preparing to meet in Bonn, Germany Tuesday. Some are already there, and informal discussions may be under way. The conference was supposed to start Monday, but was postponed because of travel problems for some of the participants.

The Afghan factions we just talked about are illustrated on the map of the country that we have for you. You can see that the largest percentage of the population is Pashtun, followed by the Tajik people. Other groups constitute about 10 percent of the Afghan population.

Let's talk more about life after the Taliban with a spokesman for the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance Haron Amin. Thanks so much for being with us. Let me ask you first of all about this meeting on Tuesday. What is the best case? What's the goal that you would hope they walk away with?

HARON AMIN, NORTHERN ALLIANCE SPOKESMAN: The goal that we hope they walk away with would be to represent -- to establish some sort of mechanism for a transfer of power and/or a post-Taliban administration that would proportionally take into consideration the realities on the ground, the ethnic groups of -- all of Afghanistan's ethnic groups, the role of woman, for one thing, and also sort of tracking out some sort of format based on principles of what the government is going to be like in the future.

Is it going to be a pro-democratic government they're going to follow, or is it going to be basically a different kind of format? Is it going to be decentralized government, or is it going to be a centralized federalism, centripetal or centrifugal? These are the things that they're going to be talking about.

MANN: Now, the Northern Alliance will be there. I am told that there will be four different groups represented, but from the little information that we're getting it doesn't seem like most of the men who actually control the ground and control the guns will be there. Is that a big liability to try to reach an agreement that will stick?

AMIN: Remember, we have said that we may on the ground control some 80 percent of the land. Our objective is not to hoard or monopolize power. Our objective is peace. That was the wish -- the dying wish of our slain leader Ahmed Shah Massoud. That is our wish today. Afghan people have suffered for 23 years.

So the king's people who are going to predominantly represent the Pashtuns, along with us who represent other ethnic groups of Afghanistan, are going to be there together with the cypress (ph) process, which basically is a -- is a process that was initially started by the Iranians and in the Peshawar Convention by the Pakistanis to make sure that Afghanistan's neighbors would be taken into consideration. But more importantly, that the Afghan population, the ethnic groups, these would be taken into consideration.

MANN: What's at risk in these conversations? I don't have to tell you your country has been at war and frequently quite terrible civil war for more than two decades. If these don't work, will there be the chaos? Will there be the terrible civil war all over again?

AMIN: I think that right now there are key elements in place. You've got the internationalization of Afghanistan. You have the United Nations heavily involved. You have the European Union and other international or regional organizations that are involved behind such a process.

I think what's important is also that interference by Pakistan has ceased to exist and that they're on board with this international coalition, and other countries who would trigger to play some sort of a role out of reaction, that they also have been checked -- they have also been checked.

So the fact of the matter is that you've got the genuine Afghan dialogue under the aegis of the United Nations, with the blessing of the international community. I think this is what's important. I think some of these are going to work out. It might take more than one trial, but ultimately it might be just a first step in this whole process of trying to establish a post-Taliban administration in Afghanistan.

MANN: If the Taliban comes forward, now it says that it, too, wants a role. It holds some ground, it commands some people's respect still. If it wants a role in a peaceful government, what's your answer?

AMIN: Our answer is I think that the people of Afghanistan have seen brutality that the Taliban have perpetuated over the years. They have persecuted Afghans, reign of terror was a daily routine, and -- by the Taliban in Afghanistan. I don't think the people of Afghanistan would want the Taliban to play any sort of role in that -- in that administration.

First, the cities have to be liberated, but in a couple of year's time when the government -- when this whole process is going to somehow give way to pro-democratic elections in Afghanistan, if the Taliban wants to manifest itself as an entity engaging in elections, then it might want to form a political party and be part of a political platform in Afghanistan, part of the political landscape.

MANN: On that note, Haron Amin of the Northern Alliance. Thank you so much for talking with us. AMIN: Thank you.

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