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US-Taliban stand-off : Non-attack options

	October 08, 2001

In its stand-off with the ruling Afghan militia, Taliban, the United States has decided to exercise options other than a sweeping and comprehensive attack on Afghanistan even while maintaining the military pressure. The Taliban has taunted the Americans by saying that they have no courage to launch an attack on Afghanistan, but there is no sign yet that the US will unleash its full force on the already devastated country unless all the other diplomatic, psychological and political options to oust the Taliban regime are exhausted.

Washington is deploying a whole range of political, military and diplomatic devices to subvert the regime in Kabul. The steps include backing the rebel Northern Alliance, encouraging defections from the Taliban, urging the Afghan people to overthrew the repressive regime through blandishments in the form of humanitarian aide and launching commando style attacks against specific targets. President Bush over the weekend approved a covert operation aimed at ending the Taliban rule. Besides, aiding the Northern Alliance, moves are also afoot to stir up resistance by the Pushtoon tribes in the south which are not allied with the rulers in Kabul. Although the Taliban is mostly Pushtoon in composition, it is said to be formed almost exclusively of just two Pushtoon tribes from the north.

The US has persuaded the Taliban mentor, Pakistan, to ditch its protege and throw in its lot with Washington. Statements in the last few days indicate Washington has rejected Pakistan’s entreaties to spare its proxy if it hands over Osama bin Laden, in line that was initially endorsed by the Secretary of State, Colin Powell. Pakistan, a reluctant participant in the proposed attack, has now agreed that there is a convincing evidence of involvement of the Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden in the September 11 attacks on the US. Gen. Musharraf has publicly said that if the Taliban does not hand over bin Laden, its days are numbered. Unlike its long-held view that the Taliban should not be treated as an international pariah, Musharraf has for the first time said that the Taliban regime needs to be replaced with a broad-based government. At another level, the United States has helped former King Mohammad Zahir Shah, now living in self-exile in Rome, and the Northern Alliance which controls some 10 per cent of the country, to reach a deal designed to oust the Taliban and establish a moderate government in Kabul. The deal has been facilitated even as US troops continued to build military pressure through the north by supplying weapons to the Northern Alliance and ferrying in huge military equipment arsenal and aircraft in the Central Asian Republics neighbouring Afghanistan like Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

The Taliban, however, continues to remain defiant on the issue of handing over Osama bin Laden. After making many conflicting statements about the whereabouts of the terrorist mastermind, it has now said that he is very much in Afghanistan and is enjoying the security of the Taliban. But, he will not be handed over to the United States.

Sources say the United States decided to pursue the diplomatic and a political course rather than a massive military response to the terrorist attacks after a great deal of thought about the consequences of the attack. It was felt that there were no high value targets to be hit. The Taliban leaders and top functionaries would melt into the large mountainous landscape of the country without being hit. But the air strikes will result in huge civilian casualties and a big and unmanageable exodus of refugees to neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Iran and the Central Asian Republics which are already hardened with hundreds of thousands of refugees to take care. The feedback the US has received in the process of building an international coalition of countries in its campaign against global terrorism is that few Muslim countries have supported it. While Pakistan has refused to allow US to launch a ground attack from the its soil, Saudi Arabia has refused to allow its Prince Sultan airbase for the US aircraft to launch air strikes against Afghanistan. The Saudi Government has made it very clear that it will not allow any attack from its soil on a Muslim country. In these circumstances, it was agreed that whereas the attack would serve no purpose it would have a strong Muslim backlash against the United States at a time when its policy on Iraq and Israel is already coming under fire.



Pak presented with evidence - Musharraf planning coup

Gen. Musharraf was the first to be won over in the US effort to topple the Taliban and gain control of bin Laden without firing a shot. He was provided with evidence of Laden’s involvement in the September 11 attacks, one of the Pakistani conditions to support the US campaign. After going through a 20-page document and an oral presentation, Pakistan said on October 4 that it was an “impressive evidence” of bin Laden’s involvement in the attack. Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said Pakistan would respect the conclusions reached by the US on the basis of the evidence. Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Riaz Khan also said, there is sufficient ground for indictment in terms of “material we have seen and we have studied”. He reused to comment whether the evidence was sufficient to justify a military strike on Afghanistan and bin Laden’s terrorist network there, but said, the evidence presented by the US also included attacks before September 11. He did not elaborate but the US has accused bin Laden of the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and a suicide bombing of USS Cole warship in Yemen.

Reports say, Musharraf fell in line after the US Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin briefed him on the American investigation into the attacks on October 2. Political observers say, although NATO and Western countries have issued similar statements, Pakistan’s declaration is sufficient because no other Muslim country has taken such an unequivocal stand on the issue of bin Laden’s possible role in the attack. For years, Pakistan which has been bin Laden’s chief cheer leader has been in agreement with Afghanistan’s contention that there was not sufficient evidence against bin Laden. As one political observer put it, the US has moved to make the Taliban’s protector into its prosecutor.

Musharraf dropped its long time ally when he told an international television channel on October 1 that the days of the Taliban militia appeared numbered. Musharraf who said this in a BBC interview, again declared on CNN that he saw the “danger of damage” coming to the Taliban as it continued to defy world opinion for the handover of Osama bin Laden. He was at pains to emphasize that Pakistan had done its best to avoid a confrontation but there was no hope of any reconciliation as was evident from the hard hitting statements of Mullah Omar daring the Americans to launch an attack on Afghanistan. It may be recalled that Musharraf sent at least two delegations to Kabul and Kandahar in order to persuade Mullah Omar to give up bin Laden if the US attack is to be avoided. The delegation also emphasized that Pakistan had very limited options on the issue of continuing its support to the Taliban if it did not accept the advice.

Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar appeared unmoved by the signals of Pakistan’s shift from over five years of support. He said, his regime was not created by Pakistan and that he had been elected by powerful Mujahideen commanders to lead the Taliban Islamic Movement. As a proof that the Taliban was an indigenous movement, he said he had been to Pakistan only for once that too for medical treatment for the injuries he sustained during the “holy war” against Soviet troops.

Refusing to pay heed to the advice to give up, bin Laden, hiding at a place which only the Taliban leadership knows, as said, he has no difficulty in finding a safer hideout anywhere from Indonesia to Algeria, Chechnya to Kashmir and Bosnia to Sudan. In an interview with a Pakistan Urdu weekly, Takbeer, he said, he was not afraid and was committed to kissing martyrdom. This means that he will prefer to die fighting rather than surrendering like a coward.

Although Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Riaz Muhammad Khan told a news conference on October 4 that his country is for conciliation and a broad-based Government, highly placed sources in neighbouring Iran said Pakistan is trying to organise a coup in Afghanistan which will either kill or depose Mullah Omar and allow moderates to take control of the movement. The moderates would then be expected to join talks with the Northern Alliance on forming a coalition government for Afghanistan. After years of civil war this would return the country to a milder form of Islam in place of the Taliban’s fierce repression and the exclusion of women from work and girls from school.

There are reports that Musharraf has paid hefty sums of money to several religious leaders to keep a low-profile on street demonstrations against the military government’s decision to support American action. According to well-placed sources, Musharraf met three important Islamic leaders separately on September 23 and 24 and struck a deal with them to this effect. The Mullahs, sources said, were bought over with a hefty some of money. They agreed to stop all street demonstrations and speeches against Pakistani support to the American’s as a result of this, there has been a marked decrees in anti-Government street demonstrations in Pakistani cities like, Peshawar and Quetta since September 25.

Putting further pressure on the Taliban from the Pakistan side, Islamabad has allowed the US to set up intelligence gathering bases in the country to facilitate the Americans to gather real-time and point-specific intelligence about the exact location of Osama bin Laden who is believed to be constantly shifting his hideouts in remote mountains of Afghanistan. The American intelligence gathering bases, the work on which has already started, are at secret locations in and around Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Chaman and FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas), well-placed sources said. This decision was taken at military-level talks between the US and Pakistan which concluded in Islamabad last week. The Pakistani decision is at once crucial and sensitive from the political and diplomatic points of view. Politically, it is bound to trigger off an avalanche of protests from the jehadi and fundamentalist outfits based in Pakistan. Diplomatically, it may complicate Pakistan’s relations with its close ally, China, though it is highly unlikely that Islamabad would have granted this concession to Washington without taking Beijing into confidence.

Sources said the latest intelligence gathering gadgetry installed by the US in Pakistan would enable the American officials to intercept wireless communications between Pakistan-based terrorist and fundamentalist networks and establish their links with Osama bin Laden and his outfit Al-Qaida.

However, Musharraf’s attempt to drape himself in the anti-terrorism fatigues seems to have hit a bump with US media revealing his role in sabotaging a US plot to capture or kill Osama bin Laden two years ago.



Musharraf aborted 1999 operation

The expose which hit the stands in the Washington Post under the by-line of Bob Woodward of Watergate fame and Thomas E Ricks, reveals that Musharraf put an end to the operation that the Clinton Administration had arranged with the then Pakistan Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif. The Post reveals, quoting official sources, that the CIA secretly trained and equipped approximately 60 commandos from the Pakistani intelligence agency to enter Afghanistan for capturing or killing bin Laden. This was part of a deal struck between the Sharif Government and his Chief of Intelligence with the Clinton Administration which, the leading US daily reports, “promised to lift sanctions on Pakistan and provide an economic aid package”. The clandestine was part of the plan, set in motion less than 12 months after the US Cruise missile struck against bin Laden’s training camps in Afghanistan. It, however, had to be aborted when Sharif was ousted in military coup. The Pakistani commando team was up and running and ready to strike by October 1999. The operation was aborted on October 12, 1999, when Sharif was overthrown in a military coup led by Gen. Musharraf, who refused to continue the operation despite substantial efforts by the Clinton Administration to revive it, reports the US daily.

The disclosures have added to the doubts in the US about the quality of support that it may get from Pakistan for the offensive against the Taliban. That Pakistan, with its deep connection with the Taliban, can be of assistance is doubted by few. Nonetheless, there is growing skepticism about its ability and desire to do so. Sounding a note of caution, Woodward and Ricks say “Musharraf, now Pakistan’s President, has emerged as a key ally in the Bush Administration’s efforts to track down bin Laden and destroy his terrorist network. The record of CIA’s aborted relationship with Pakistan two years ago illustrates the value - and the pitfalls - of such an alliance in targeting bin Laden”.

While the Bush Administration is busy co-opting Islamabad’s military regime for its war against terrorism, a US Congressional delegation has accused Pakistan of fomenting terrorism across the world and held it responsible for attacks against Americans. Separately, it is now emerging that some of the money trail associated with the terrorist carnage in America leads to Pakistan. In a distinct sign that the Administration’s coddling of Pakistan does not have an across-the-board backing, a prominent lawmaker blamed Islamabad for attacks against Americans and said it should be kept out of any US action in the region. “Pakistan created the Taliban and kept it in power. Pakistan is responsible for the lion’s share of the slaughter of American citizens,” Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, was quoted as saying in Rome following a meeting of a 10-member US Congressional delegation with the exiled Afghan monarch Zahir Shah.



Mohammad Atta’s Pak connection

It wasn’t immediately clear if the Congressman was blaming Pakistan for the September 11 carnage, but already there are misgivings outside the Administration about Pakistan’s role. CNN, quoting law enforcing authorities, revealed that as much as $100,000 was wired in the past year from Pakistan to Mohammad Atta, the suspected leader of the terrorist hijackings. The wire transfers from Pakistan were sent to Atta through two banks in Florida, the cable network said. Then, Atta allegedly would obtain money orders - a few thousand dollars at a time - to distribute to others involved in the plot in the months before the hijackings. The network also reported a return money trail to Pakistan. Atta and two other men wired more than $15,000 back to the UAE just before the attacks - what may have been leftover cash from the terrorism funds. The money went to a man who flew out of Dubai for Karachi, Pakistan, on September 11 - the day of the attack.



Tony Blair’s visit

British Prime Minister Tony Blair paid short visits to Islamabad and New Delhi on October 5 and 6 to discuss the Afghanistan issue. He was in the Pakistani capital reportedly to convince Musharraf of the “powerful and incontrovertible” evidence of Osama bin Laden’s complicity in the terrorist attacks in the US. He later travelled to New Delhi and exchanged notes with Vajpayee on a possible US attack on the Taliban regime. In his ten-minute telephone chat with Vajpayee on October 3, Blair had agreed that the fight against terrorism cannot be in compartments. Blair who has emerged as the leading campaigner for the US in its fight again international terrorism, put the Taliban on notice either hand over the Saudi dissident or be prepared to face the consequences which could include the demise of the militia. Talking to newsmen after a 90-minute meeting with President Musharraf, he said, the Taliban has a choice: either it yields on the demand of Osama or becomes part of the people shielding Osama. In such a case, the Taliban would be our legitimate enemy. Musharraf echoed the sentiments of Blair on the evidence leading to the involvement of Osama in the September 11 strikes but maintained that Pakistan would not stand in judgment on the details. Earlier in London, Blair said on October 2 that the deadline for the Taliban government to hand over Osama bin Laden was fast approaching and it should now brace itself for the consequences.

In New Delhi, the 35-minute meeting between Blair and Vajpayee served as an opportunity for India to pronounce its unequivocal opposition to States that sponsor terrorism and its will to counter them. Vajpayee emphasised that terrorism could not be tackled selectively. “We are fighting a global war against terrorism and there has to be a global solution to it”, he said. In an obvious reference to Pakistan, Vajpayee said countries should not be allowed to pursue their terrorist agenda under the cover of this action. The Prime Minister, who indicated that the 1999 hijack of the Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar “may have linkages” with the four aircraft which created havoc in the US, said, condoning a terrorist act in one place may lay the foundation for a more virulent attack elsewhere. Both India and Britain agreed that Afghanistan needed a broad-based government, representing all ethnic groups which did not export extremism or terrorism.

Appearing with Vajpayee later, Blair told newsmen, that he agreed with Vajpayee that terrorism should be fought in all its forms by the emerging international coalition. But, as of now, the clear and present target remains Osama bin Laden, his terrorist network and camps and, of course, the Taliban regime which harbours him.

While in public Blair avoided naming Pakistan for encouraging terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, British officials accompanying him privately emphasised that the perpetrators of violent acts in Kashmir were “indeed terrorists”. Once the objective of seizing bin Laden and replacing the Taliban regime with a broad-based government in Kabul was achieved, they said, the international community “will address issues relating to terrorist training camps elsewhere in the region.

Analysts are bracketing Blair’s visit to India and Pakistan with that of US Defence Secretary Rumsfeld’s trip to Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt and Uzbekistan. Both the visits are seen in political circles are a final effort by the two countries to ensure that the frontline of the coalition against terrorism is adequately prepared.



Bush approves covert plan

President Bush has approved a covert effort to strengthen a diverse array of groups fighting the Taliban, Administration officials said. Separately, Bush has authorized $ 100 million in new relief aid to Afghan refugees, as part of an effort to quell resentment in Pakistan as thousands pour over the border each day. The Administration’s programme of covert support for anti-Taliban groups has emerged as a key element of its plan to oust a government that Washington has accused of sheltering Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network. The aid is not only intended to help the Northern Alliance, the rebel group that operates from bases in northern Afghanistan. It is also aimed at stirring up resistance to the Taliban among Pashtun tribal groups in the south. “The purpose is to enhance their ability to their move against the Taliban”, a senior official said. “It is not limited to political support”. Administration officials indicated that the assistance included financing, but they declined to say how much money would be spent or to provide details of the effort. The money could enable the rebels to buy weapons, to recruit new fighters, to bribe Taliban commanders to switch sides or to undertake other efforts to weaken the regime.

American officials have previously suggested that if fighting broke out, the rebels could provide intelligence data and serve as a proxy fighters in a US-led effort to track bin Laden and target the Taliban. Encouraging defections in the ranks of the Taliban is also a prime goal. In the 19 days since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, one Administration official said that the US has been in contact with “people who are loosely affiliated with the Taliban and have separated from them” or are likely to switch sides if they believe the regime’s days are numbered.



King-Northern Alliance accord

Whereas, Pakistan has been persuaded to ditch its protege, Taliban, on the other side of the Afghanistan border, the US has facilitated an agreement between the self-exiled King Zahir Shah and the Northern Alliance, designed to oust the ruling militia and establish a moderate government in Kabul. Under the terms of the ground breaking accord reached in Rome, where the King has been living ever since his ouster more than twenty years ago, on October 1, the two parties have established a Supreme Council for National Unity. The Council would shortly convene a traditional Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly) of Afghan leaders. The Loya Jirga of group elders, tribal chiefs and spiritual and religious leaders, would elect a new Head of State and establish a transitional government ahead of free elections. The Supreme Council will gather before the end of the month and will act as de facto government of Afghanistan ahead of the Loya Jirga, the party said. Supporters of the 86-year-old former King which said the Taliban would not be barred from the Assembly made it clear that the expected hardline Afghan regime would soon be ousted. The Ex-King’s representative Abdul Sattar Sirat said, within one or two months of its inception the council will be the only legitimate body to take decisions related to Afghanistan. The leader of the Northern Alliance delegation to the talks, Yunus Kanoni, expressed the hope that the agreement will start a new era in Afghanistan.

King Zahir Shah received promises of support from a visiting delegation of US Congressmen who met him in Rome last week-end. The new agreement could lead to the holding of an “emergency Loya Jirga for the first time in 37 years and is considered by experts to be a turning point in the present impasse in which the country finds itself. “It was decided that a “supreme council” or a Shoora should start functioning as soon as possible to prepare for the emergency Loya Jirga. After a period of transition which might last eighteen months to two years, another, normal, traditional or non-emergency Loya Jirga will be convened in order to ratify the constitution and take other necessary measures,” Gen. Wali said. The location of the Shoora would be in Afghanistan whenever that became possible and would include “all the ethnic communities in Afghanistan.”

But despite international support, the logistics of holding a Loya Jirga appear to be insurmountable at this point in time, given the Taliban’s control of 90 per cent of the territory.

Both Pakistan and the Taliban militia appeared convinced that the agreement between Northern Alliance and the ex-King for convening a Grand Council to explore the possibility of the formation of a new government will not go far. While the Taliban denounced the agreement outright and said it was doomed to fail, Islamabad was a little circumspect. Without directly referring to it, Pakistan sought to remind the world that the two-year rule of the Northern Alliance from 1992 neither provided stability nor brought peace to Afghanistan. The Taliban said, the US-backed attempt to change their role was doomed to fall. The Taliban’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Maulvi Abdul Rahman Zahid, said, the Rome decision had been taken under US instructions and therefore would have no positive result. Mullah Omar advised King Zahir Shah to forget Afghanistan and live the rest of his days in peace. In a broadcast, he said America is trying to use the ex-King to kill Muslims.

Even as the militia’s supreme leader warned the former King against returning to Afghanistan, pressure was mounted on Pakistan to help replace the Taliban with an alternate government. A report said, Secretary of State, Colin Powell, telephoned President Musharraf on September 30 to discuss the issue of replacing the Taliban. He also offered friendship, helicopters and other equipment for increased vigilance along the Pak-Afghan border.



Laden under Taliban control

The Taliban for its part has acknowledged that Osama bin Laden is under their control and they were willing to negotiate with the US if evidence of his involvement in the September 11 terrorist strike was provided, a condition immediately rejected by Washington. Taliban Ambassador to Pakistn Mullah Abdul Zaeef, told reporters on September 30, that bin Laden was under the control of the Taliban and only security people know where he is. He vowed that the militia will not hand him over. In an interview with Al-Khaleej Mullah Zaeef said, the Taliban will not hand over Osama bin Laden even if there was evidence to implicate him in last month’s attack on the US. He said his government would thoroughly check US documents on bin Laden’s involvement in terrorist attacks before putting him on trial in an Islamic Sharia court. But he will not be given to the US even if evidence implicating him was furnished.

Zaeef’s comments were the first indication by the Taliban that they will not hand over bin Laden under any circumstances.



War preparations

In the meanwhile, not to take any chances the US continues to mobilize its forces around Afghanistan to mount a retaliatory strike if the other options fail and the Taliban remains adamant on the issue of surrendering bin Laden. The outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Henry Shelton claimed in an ABC interview that more than 100 nations have thrown their support behind the US in its campaign to fight terrorism. The US has amassed a military force of 28,000 sailors, airmen and troops, more than 300 warplanes and two dozen warships spread over thousands of mile across a military theatre with Iraq and Afghanistan at its heart.

The US sent B-52 and B-1 bombers to the region and Navy F-14’s and F-18s about nearby carriers. Two huge US aircraft carrier battle groups are just 240 Kilometres south-west of Karachi. The battle group comprise two aircraft carriers, USS Enterprise and USS Carl Vinson and their supporting ships including Destroyers, Cruisers and sub-marines. Another US carrier Kitty Hawk, is also on its way to join them from its home port near Tokyo. The carriers may have more than 100 planes, including F-14 Tomcat, usually for air defence and F-18 Hornet. Some ships too may be able to fire the Tomahawks.

The US intelligence agencies have identified 23 militant bases in Afghanistan as well as some Taliban military forces as targets. Sources say, small teams of American commandos and Russian troops have already sneaked into Northern Afghanistan. Reports from Moscow say, in recent days, the Russian 201st Motorised Rifle Regiment, based on the 1,200 kilometre border between Afghanistan and the former Soviet Republic of Tajikistan have thrown pontoon bridges across the Pyandza river and established positions inside Afghanistan. Russian specialists are openly training Northern Alliance forces and unmarked Russian fighter bombers have been cited attacking Taliban positions in recent days.

At the same time, a small team of CIA operatives and American commandos have slipped into northern Afghanistan and established a semi-permanent base there to track down Osama bin Laden even as the US is reported to be considering providing Pakistan helicopter gunships, intelligence equipment and blast-proof doors for nuclear facilities to Pakistan to guard against any sabotage.

US commandos aided by the Russian intelligence are gearing up to mount a major joint assault on Afghanistan’s Pamir mountain range, previously used as nuclear base by erstwhile Soviet Union following reports that bin Laden is hiding there along with a core group of his well armed associates. The place is considered highly strategic as it has exit route to three countries, Tajikistan, Pakistan and China.

US and Russian forces have launched a joint operation to track down Osama bin Laden and his followers and have crossed into the Afghan territory to reach Pamir mountain ranges. British forces are also planning to launch anti-Taliban operations from southern Afghanistan.

A one thousand strong US elite force is moving towards Uzbekistan in the first major deployment of US ground forces before a possible strike against Afghanistan, while the crack light infantry division is flying to Uzbekistan from Fort drum, New York. Its mission includes protecting US troops in Uzbekistan. An indication to this effect was given by US officials accompanying Defence Secretary Rumsfeld to Uzbekistan. Mr. Rumsfeld had discussions with Uzbek President Islam Karimov in Tashkent on Oct. 5 over payment for using Uzbekistan’s facilities and security guarantees for the country in case of a backlash from the Taliban. The Uzbek President also sought American help in forcing Tajikistan, which has tense relations with Uzbekistan, to close down the military camps of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan [IMU] on its territory. The Taliban-backed IMU is committed to overgrowing the secular regime of Uzbekistan and replacing it with a fundamentalist caliphate.

Russians had pointed at the suspected hideouts and provided route maps to some sites which were used for storing the nuclear-tipped missiles by the former USSR. The Russian troops taking part in the operation to close in on Pamir are fluent in Pusho, while many have working knowledge of Dari.

In addition to the Russia, America’s allies in Europe, NATO have responded positively to the Bush Administration’s proposal to form a global alliance against international terrorism. They have offered to invoke an article of the NATO alliance which says that an attack on a member country will be considered an attack on other NATO countries. The US has however, not yet reacted to the suggestion and told NATO that it will approach them when there is a need for it.

The US and Britain are also trying to thaw eyes with Libya and Iran. The British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was sent to Teheran to win its support for military action against Afghanistan, which is very crucial given Iran’s proximity to Afghanistan and its being a leader of Shia Muslims. The US and British envoys have also met Libya’s Ambassador to Britain in an effort to persuade Tripoli to admit involvement in an airliner bombing over Scotland in 1988, paving the way for the removal of largely symbolic UN sanctions.

The United Nations has appointed Lashkar Brahimi, a former Algerian Foreign Minister as the chief United Nations envoy for Afghanistan, incharge of political affairs as well as the relief operations. Among his duties will be to facilitate the establishment of a fully representative multi-ethnic and broad-based government.