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CNN Live Sunday

Afghan Delegates Hammer Out Details for Post-Taliban Government

Aired December 02, 2001 - 16:40   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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: After six days of intense discussion, rival Afghan factions are now studying a proposal for a post-Taliban government.

The U.N. draft document was presented to delegates meeting near Bonn, Germany earlier today. It calls for a temporary administration of 29 members, a Supreme Court, and a special independent commission, which would convene a traditional tribal council. The four Afghan delegations are now haggling over who gets what job in post-Taliban Kabul.

Another part of that U.N. plan calls for what's known as a loya jerga, or tribal council, and its members will be responsible for establishing a transitional authority to govern for about two years.

CNN's Ben Wedeman says that many Afghans believe that the council is the solution to the nation's problems.

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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sometimes, you have to go behind the woodshed for wisdom. Olan Malihan (ph) never got an education, but he knows a thing or two about his country, about what works and what doesn't.

He and his friends have had it with fanatical rulers and power- mad war lords who have reduced their country to a wasteland.

"The hell with wars and battles," Olan (ph) says. "The most important thing is that we stop fighting."

Here, they say, the best way to cure what ails Afghanistan is a loya jerga, a grand assembly bringing together all the countries leaders to debate their problems and come up with practical solutions.

The loya jerga tradition goes back 2,000 years, and though some ended in acrimony rather than agreement, over the years the loya jerga has become the preferred means to address the nation's problems.

The last loya jerga took place in 1987 under the Soviet-backed regime of Mohammed Najibullah. A rubber-stamp affair, it seemed more suited to Moscow than Kabul, but it represented a significant nod to tradition by an embattled leader desperate for legitimacy. Mohammed Manwan (ph) was a deputy commerce minister under Najibullah and attended the 1987 meeting.

MOHAMMED MANWAN, FORMER DEPUTY COMMERCE MINISTER: For the solution of the problem of Afghanistan, there is no way but to get (UNINTELLIGIBLE), especially if it is in the form of loya jerga.

WEDEMAN: In recent months, Afghan refugees in Pakistan have held a series of such meetings to debate the country's future. And even among Afghanistan's feuding factions, including those meeting in Bonn, Germany, there is rare consensus that a loya jerga must be held in the months ahead.

A loya jerga could provide the final stamp of approval to a post- war government in Afghanistan. If, that is, the war ever comes to an end.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Kabul.

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