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CNN Live Sunday

Ethnic Pashtuns Worry About Being Excluded From Post-Taliban Government

Aired November 25, 2001 - 17:44   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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: We've been talking about the upcoming meeting in Bonn, Germany, where the political future of Afghanistan is the focus. Various delegations attending Tuesday's meeting will be sharing their views about how the country should be run in the future, and by whom. Among the ethnic Pashtuns, who make up a majority of the country, some are voicing concern that they may be marginalized as a new regime is mapped out. CNN's Jim Clancy records from Quetta, Pakistan.

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JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By most estimates, they're the unknown and many would say unimportant local leaders of southern Afghanistan, but a former Kabul commander reminded us they are the very mortar that will hold any future government together. They are the Pashtun.

If the Taliban represented Pashtun authority two weeks ago, these are local tribesmen in search of a new leadership, and it isn't easy.

IZATULLAH WASIFI, PASHTUN LEADER: Other Pashtun leaders were either killed or they were forced to leave this country.

CLANCY: What the Pashtun and other ethnic tribal elders do have in abundance is concern for their future, concern that the Northern Alliance will seize power in a new government and leave them out in the cold, concern that even now all of the food and reconstruction aid is going to northern Afghanistan, and none of it to the Pashtun- speaking regions still under Taliban control.

Concerned too that while King Zahir Shah is an ethnic Pashtun, his image has all but faded from the history books. Against this backdrop, the ethnic Pashtun and others are preparing to send representatives to Germany for groundbreaking talks on their country's future. And despite Taliban denials they insist talks are still in progress, negotiating a handover of power in Kandahar, the Taliban's last remaining stronghold.

HAJI ABDUL GHAFOOR, PASHTUN LEADER (through translator): They should go to their areas, to their tribes. They should hand over the control to the local Shurrahs (ph) of Afghanistan.

CLANCY: But to whom? Northern Alliance President Burhanuddin Rabbani said Taliban figures who switch sides could be incorporated in a new government. This statement was viewed with some suspicion. If President Rabbani makes the decision from Kabul, how will their own local interest be represented?

Some aren't waiting for negotiations. Report from CNN sources inside Taliban territory in Afghanistan say fighters believed allied to the former governor of Kandahar had cut the road between Kandahar and the Pakistani border.

Combined with continues U.S. air strikes, the pressure on the Taliban is increasing. Increasing too, the likelihood of a negotiated deal for the Taliban to hand over power.

(on camera): A senior Taliban commander who has now defected said he once tried to convince his leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, to cut ties with Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda fighters, but, in his words, Mullah Omar was too enthralled with bin Laden.

For ethnic Pasthun leaders, the question now is whether Mullah Omar can see far enough into the future and seed power to them, thus strengthening their hand in a new government that now appears inevitable.

Jim Clancy, CNN, Quetta, Pakistan.

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