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CNN Live At Daybreak

World Body Scrambling to Put Together Meeting to Discuss Interim Post-Taliban Government

Aired November 13, 2001 - 07:40   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: In Afghanistan, a dramatic shift in control of the capital city. Forces opposed to the ruling Taliban have marched into Kabul. They are being met by huge crowds and virtually no resistance. U.S. and Pakistan had hoped the Northern Alliance would hold off seizing Kabul until a coalition government could be formed, but the alliance did not stop its advance.

Taliban forces are reportedly withdrawing to the south toward Kandahar. Anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan are moving into the capital of Kabul faster than the United Nations would like and now the world body is scrambling to put together an important meeting to discuss an interim post Taliban government.

Here to talk about that is Richard Butler of the Council on Foreign Relations, our ambassador and resident. Good morning.

AMBASSADOR RICHARD BUTLER, COUNCIL OF FOREIGN RELATIONS: Good morning Paula.

ZAHN: How quickly can this process be moved along? When will there be an interim government?

BUTLER: We don't know, but I agree with Secretary Albright, it has to be very, very fast. Paula, there is a model for this. It was Cambodia seven or eight years ago, which also had a regime like the Taliban regime called the Cameroon (ph), brutal and horrible. We can't (INAUDIBLE).

What we did at the U.N. is we put together an interim government headed by the King -- King Zahir just as there is an Afghan King. He didn't necessarily have the power, but he held defections together and then U.N. peacekeepers went in to keep order and then ...

(CROSSTALK)

BUTLER: ... and then they had elections. Maybe that's a model that this six plus two group at the U.N. should be looking at, but we need some kind of government fast so that the Northern Alliance doesn't kind of corner everything for itself in Kabul leading to tribal strike. That would be very bad.

We need peace, but there has to be a peace to be kept so its interim government, peacekeepers and then final government, of the government that would represent all Afghans.

ZAHN: If you use that as a model, how likely would it be that the community there would accept this King on an interim basis as the leader with no power.

BUTLER: Well as chairman of the Board, I think the answer to that is that if each of the tribes or factions felt they had fair representation, no one had unclear advantage and that's why the Northern Alliance shouldn't go crazy in Kabul. Then it probably would work, at least for a while, under such an arrangement (INAUDIBLE) down for the longer haul.

ZAHN: Do you believe the foreign minister of the Northern Alliance when he says he wants to keep Kabul as a neutral city and I guess we read between the lines indicating then perhaps making it right for the U.N. to come in or whoever for peacekeeping (INAUDIBLE).

BUTLER: Well we sure - we definitely have to hope he means it because we - there was a tragic past in Afghanistan where there was terrible tribal fighting there and in a way that partly led to the arrival of the Taliban. So let's hope he means it. There has to be order if Afghanistan is to have a new start. We need to have that new start not only because of the terrorists, but because of the drugs.

Did you know, Paula, that 75 percent of the world's heroine comes from Afghanistan. Maybe we should talk about that in the future, but it's something that we've also got to get out of their lives and the Taliban and al Qaeda manipulated this opium and heroine. That's where they got a lot of their money. So we've got some big stakes of issue here in addition to terrorism.

ZAHN: In the meantime what you have to deal with, though, is the Taliban and retreat and this turning into ...

BUTLER: Right.

ZAHN: Guerrilla warfare like the world has witnessed in the past.

BUTLER: That's right and of course I think the Taliban would like to draw in Northern Alliance and (INAUDIBLE) into such a battle. We have to be very careful of that.

ZAHN: See you same time, same place tomorrow morning ...

BUTLER: OK.

ZAHN: ... as always.

BUTLER: Thanks Paula.

ZAHN: Thanks for your insights our Ambassador and resident Richard Butler.

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