Afghan Talks Collapse Over Blockade Issue
May 4, 1998 - 0:0
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan After hitting an impasse over blockades of trade routes, peace talks between warring Afghan factions broke down on Sunday. They have been suspended indefinitely, said James Ngobe, the United Nations representative at the troubled talks. After barely two hours the northern-based opposition walked out of the talks when the Taleban's lone negotiator refused to negotiate the lifting of road blockades and prisoner exchanges.
Instead Hakim Mujahed, the Taleban negotiator, repeated the Taleban's earlier demand that a governing commission of religious scholars be established quickly to open trade routes and arrange prisoner exchanges. The breakthrough agreement to form the commission was brokered last Wednesday. It wasn't immediately clear whether the establishment of the commission was in jeopardy as a result of the breakdown in talks.
The governing commission is considered by many to be Afghanistan's best chance at peace in two decades. When talks opened earlier Sunday after a two-day recess only one of the original five Taleban negotiators was at the table. The Taleban army sent only its envoy to Pakistan Mujahed to neighboring Pakistan, where talks were being sponsored by the UN and the Organization of Islamic Conference. I have the full authority to negotiate, said Mujahed as he arrived at the Punjab house to represent the army's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. The opposition called on the UN to force the Taleban to open roads particularly to food-strapped areas of central Afghanistan. The UN should put the pressure on the Taleban to lift the roadblocks, said a spokesman for military chief Ahmed Shah Masood, who is known only as Abdullah. Contacted by satellite telephone in Afghanistan's rugged Panjshir Valley, Abdullah accused the Taleban of violating an earlier agreement to put everything on the negotiation table including opening trade routes throughout the war-ravaged country.
The Taleban army wants the proposed governing commission to lift the road blockades and arrange prisoner exchanges. But the Taleban's northern-based opposition wants these issues to be negotiated during the talks. The Taleban also wants the commission established quickly to begin the monumental task of steering the country toward peace and reconstruction. For reasons as yet unexplained, the opposition is resisting.
Earlier Sunday, a spokesman for the anti-Taleban alliance, Rasul Talib, said the opposition wants the Taleban to lift a blockade of central Afghanistan, where the United Nations says at least 100 people have died of starvation and tens of thousands more are in danger of dying. (AP)
Instead Hakim Mujahed, the Taleban negotiator, repeated the Taleban's earlier demand that a governing commission of religious scholars be established quickly to open trade routes and arrange prisoner exchanges. The breakthrough agreement to form the commission was brokered last Wednesday. It wasn't immediately clear whether the establishment of the commission was in jeopardy as a result of the breakdown in talks.
The governing commission is considered by many to be Afghanistan's best chance at peace in two decades. When talks opened earlier Sunday after a two-day recess only one of the original five Taleban negotiators was at the table. The Taleban army sent only its envoy to Pakistan Mujahed to neighboring Pakistan, where talks were being sponsored by the UN and the Organization of Islamic Conference. I have the full authority to negotiate, said Mujahed as he arrived at the Punjab house to represent the army's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. The opposition called on the UN to force the Taleban to open roads particularly to food-strapped areas of central Afghanistan. The UN should put the pressure on the Taleban to lift the roadblocks, said a spokesman for military chief Ahmed Shah Masood, who is known only as Abdullah. Contacted by satellite telephone in Afghanistan's rugged Panjshir Valley, Abdullah accused the Taleban of violating an earlier agreement to put everything on the negotiation table including opening trade routes throughout the war-ravaged country.
The Taleban army wants the proposed governing commission to lift the road blockades and arrange prisoner exchanges. But the Taleban's northern-based opposition wants these issues to be negotiated during the talks. The Taleban also wants the commission established quickly to begin the monumental task of steering the country toward peace and reconstruction. For reasons as yet unexplained, the opposition is resisting.
Earlier Sunday, a spokesman for the anti-Taleban alliance, Rasul Talib, said the opposition wants the Taleban to lift a blockade of central Afghanistan, where the United Nations says at least 100 people have died of starvation and tens of thousands more are in danger of dying. (AP)