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CNN Live At Daybreak

Afghan Leaders Gather in Pakistan to Consider Post-Taliban Government

Aired October 25, 2001 - 06:15   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: As the attacks resume in Afghanistan, a conference of Afghan community leaders is meeting for a second day in neighboring Pakistan.

Our Nic Robertson is in Islamabad with more on this conference, and what they are trying to achieve.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Daryn. Perhaps just the first note from our staff in Kandahar. They reported two overnight bombing raids. One raid, they said, seemed to be centered on a fuel depot. They thought they could see secondary explosions from this depot.

The other attack, they said, hit a civilian bus at 4:00 o'clock in the morning. They say that they went to see this bus, and it was damaged, and that two people had been killed in it. Now, this bus apparently was preparing to leave Kandahar for about a 16-hour drive north to Kabul.

But, as you say, that meeting in Pashawar of some 700 to 800 tribal religious and former military commanders from Afghanistan. That has just concluded in the last hour or so.

Now, what those leaders have called for is, No. 1, they would like to see Osama bin Laden and all of his followers leave Afghanistan. They would also like to see a formation of a new government inside Afghanistan very quickly. They want to see this replace the Taliban. They would also like, they say, like to see the United States and the allied bombing campaign stop over Afghanistan.

Now, what they want to achieve is they'd like to achieve what's known as a Loya Jirga, and this is a huge council across the whole of Afghanistan of all tribal religious leaders, political leaders that would help formulate the new political dispensation for Afghanistan. And what they want to see is the new government to be headed for an interim period by the exiled king, Zahir Shah.

And they're also calling for that new government to be made up of moderate Taliban elements, as well as have a new Islamic constitution. And perhaps one of the fundamental things they're also calling for from the international community is a U.N. presence to help administer Afghanistan in a post-Taliban period. But they do say that that should be made up of contributing countries, but those contributing countries, they say, would have to be Muslim countries -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Nic Robertson in northern Afghanistan -- thank you very much.

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