HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------Afghan Warlord Threatens Boycott of New Government
Tribal Leader Also Critical
Reuters
KABUL (Dec. 6) - Two powerful anti-Taliban leaders spoke out on Thursday against the landmark power-sharing agreement reached in Germany this week, with one saying he would boycott the new Afghan government.
Ethnic Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum, whose forces dominate a swathe of northern territory including the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, told Reuters that his mainly Uzbek Junbish-i-Milli faction was not fairly represented under the accord signed in Bonn on Wednesday.
''We are very sad,'' Dostum said by satellite phone from the north. ''We announce our boycott of this government and will not go to Kabul until there is a proper government in place.''
Ethnic Pashtun spiritual leader Sayed Ahmad Gailani said the Bonn accord was ''unjust.''
''Injustices have been committed in the distribution of ministries,'' he told a news conference in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. ''Those who had an important role in the jihad (against Soviet occupation) have not been represented.''
Gailani did not specify which groups or individuals he had in mind.
''Although the new setup is not so balanced, I still hope the United Nations will form a committee on getting people together for a Loya Jirga (traditional assembly) so that in later steps things are settled,'' he said.
Gailani, who leads the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan and is a supporter of deposed King Zahir Shah, was represented at the nine-day conference in Bonn by his son Hamed Gailani.
Dostum, who could play a spoiling role that might deflate the initial euphoria over the Bonn accord, said he had demanded that the foreign ministry be allocated to his faction, which is part of the militarily dominant Northern Alliance.
Instead it got the portfolios of agriculture and mining and industry.
''This is a humiliation for us,'' he declared, adding that he would deny officials of the new government access to the north, where Afghanistan's oil and gas resources are located.
He said the reason for his boycott was not that Uzbeks had been denied key posts but that his party, which includes other ethnic groups, should be better represented because it had played a crucial role in ousting the Taliban from the north.
''My refusal is not intended to say that Uzbeks have not been represented,'' he said. ''There are intellectual people in Junbish without whose struggle and sacrifices the Americans could not have defeated the Taliban and terrorism. We actually caused the demise of the Taliban.''
He said the boycott did not mean that he was against the peace process.
''By no means should this be understood as meaning that we are opposing the U.N. or other peace processes. Like us, there are other friends such as (Shi'ite Hazara leader Karim) Khalili who also have their objections to this government,'' he said.
The deal which emerged from nine days of grueling negotiations created an interim administration in which the militarily dominant Northern Alliance will share power with exile groups.
It is due to take office in the shattered Afghan capital of Kabul on December 22.
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