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American Morning

Several Factions Will Have to Work Out Issues in Afghanistan

Aired November 23, 2001 - 09:36   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Once again, peace talks among Afghan tribal leaders get under way in Bonn, Germany on Monday. CNN Military Analyst Retired General Wesley Clark joins us now live from Little Rock with some insight on those meetings. And General Clark, you might remember, led the military negotiations for the Bosnian peace talks at Dayton. General, good morning to you.

MAJ. GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: What did you learn from 1995, regarding Bosnia, that could be employed in this situation?

CLARK: Well, these kinds of talks, are -- they're difficult, they have to be in be indefinite. Now, in this case, you've got four factions involved that are going to be involved. And they're going to be involved with bringing their own forces, their resources, their percentage of the population, and they're going to be discussing about sharing power.

One of these factions is, actually, in power. That's the Northern Alliance.

But in addition, you have a group supported by the Iranians. These are the Shiites.

You have another group in the south, the Pashtuns supported by Pakistan.

You have Russian influence in this because they're supplying the Northern Alliance, the Tajiks, and the Uzbekis that are there.

You have the Americans, of course, plus you have the Pakistanis, who are going to be very concerned to make sure there's a full Pashtun representation.

So you bring this group together, and they begin to talk about the issues, and what you're looking for is the line of least resistance. Ostensibly, it's about trying to set up arrangement to form a government. Maybe it'll be a council of people who then narrow the issues, let's say 15 people, or maybe it will be a legislative group, of say, 150 who will then form a council to further narrow issues. But in the middle of this discussion of who has what position, you can also expect the issues to be present. That is, who has authority? What about the Taliban? Is there is going to be support for continuing military operations? Who's going to invite international forces and international assistance in, and how's that assistance going to be distributed?

And what you can expect to see are various foreign emissaries, like U.S. Ambassador Jim Dobbins there. They'll be going back and forth between the groups. They'll be sharpening the issues. They'll be looking for compromises. They'll try to get the trades moving so that this meeting can make progress.

HEMMER: You raise -- you raise a whole lot of questions. Want to look at this map right here. If you look at ethnic breakdown in Afghanistan, it looks massively complex. Listening to your answer, there are numerous questions to be answered. Does this appear too daunting or does it appear to you that it's possible at some point?

CLARK: Well, I think it is possible because I think we're coming off a decade of disaster in Afghanistan. And I think for the first time, the outside powers, really want to see some resolution to the issues. Pakistan Iran, Russia, and the United States, and it's for the benefit of the people in Afghanistan, and so I think there is a chance here.

HEMMER: And ultimately on the ground, you have got to make sure people want it.

CLARK: That is exactly right.

HEMMER: Put it in place and keep it there. General, thanks. We'll talk later this morning. General Wesley Clark with us. Back to Leon quickly here.

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