06.12.2001
Bonn stitch-up
After more than a week of sometimes gruelling talks, the imperialist-sponsored negotiations in Bonn over the shape and composition of a future Afghan administration have finally come to an end - an agreement has been reached. According to Francesc Vendrell, the deputy UN envoy to Afghanistan, we have witnessed "a historic day".
The talks, held under the very watchful eye of United States envoy James Dobbins, were originally due to end last Saturday. But the failure of the Northern Alliance and the other three delegations to give the United Nations a list of proposed candidates for the interim government brought the talks to a halt. However, by Tuesday evening the UN team had a list of 150 names, so it spent the night whittling down this list to the 30 who will serve on the interim council.
Then on Wednesday the deal was finally brokered. The council is to be headed by Hamid Karzai, a 'moderate' Pashtun leader and official representative of the ex-king, the 87-year-old Zahir Shah. He will take office on December 22. Besides Karzai, there will be five deputy ministers, plus 24 cabinet ministers. Two women are among those named - with one of them, Sima Samar, to be made a deputy minister. You can be sure that the US insisted on this, as it wants to project the image of a progressive, 'politically correct' imperialism at work. Look - women's rights! You never had that under the Taliban or the previous mujahedin regime. You see, imperialism is nice after all.
Under the Bonn deal, this 30-member interim council will govern for six months until a loya jirga (grand assembly) meets in the spring - possibly as early as March. The loya jirga will then appoint a transitional government which will operate for a further two years when elections are planned. Another assembly will be set up to adopt a constitution within 18 months of the creation of the transitional authority (a sort of supreme court). Additionally, an imperialist 'peacekeeping' force under the auspices of the UN would be brought in to offer reassurances to the parties who fear the power of the Northern Alliance - which already has de facto control of Kabul and other cities. Eventually the delegates, including the Northern Alliance, agreed that the interim council should have 'generous' representation for parties representing the Pashtuns - the largest ethnic group (some 40%).
Obviously, the key political question has always revolved around how the ministries would be distributed. Unsurprisingly the Northern Alliance retained the upper hand. It will hold 17 of the 30 cabinet posts, including the plum - strategic - posts of defence, foreign affairs and the interior, which it already has by virtue of its control of Kabul. The delegations representing the four parties at Bonn - the NA, supporters of the former king, a Pakistan-backed group from Peshawar and the Cyprus-based group supported by Iran - issued a press statement announcing the interim agreement.
There is one 'group' which is notable by its absence at Bonn "¦ the Afghan masses. They have no voice or democratic input. Self-determination? Forget it. The thieves' kitchen at Bonn will continue to carve up Afghanistan - but this time at the diplomatic table instead of the battle front. And, of course, any warlord who feels that he has not got his just rewards can always pick up his weapon whenever he feels like it. The Afghan masses are meant to be passive spectators to this not so grand game of political-diplomatic manoeuvring.
Communists reject the Bonn charade, which is a monstrous denial of democracy.
As proof look at how the progressive - secular Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan - now renamed the PVAP - was firmly kept out of the talks from day one. Also, the Alliance for Democracy in Afghanistan, based around the Socialist Democratic Party of Afghanistan was similarly excluded. As for the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan, they were also kept well clear. Only counterrevolutionary gangsters and thugs were invited.
As history proves, deals and settlements brokered or imposed by imperialism - whether wearing the 'civilising' UN hat or not - are no guarantee against bloody disaster and tragedy for the masses: Palestine/Israel, Cyprus, Korea, the Congo "¦ and now Afghanistan?
At Bonn NA chief negotiator Younis Qanuni promised: "We want to lead Afghanistan out of the middle ages" - and the other warlords all nodded in solemn agreement. Yes, maybe, out of "the middle ages" "¦ and then to where exactly?
What now for Afghanistan and the new embryonic regime? The two-year transitional government will discuss in detail a new constitution that - according to the UN - would "incorporate" respect for human rights and equal rights for all ethnic groups, equal rights for women (sure) and introduce "some form" of democracy.
Afterwards, the former Afghan prime minister and butcher Gulbuddin Hekmatyar denounced the Bonn meeting as a US ploy to further its influence in Afghanistan, fulminating: "Only groups fitting US requirements and interests have been invited to the Bonn conference. Afghanistan's problems cannot be resolved by a government set up by America, Russia and their puppets."
Of course, Hekmatyar is quite right on one level. Yet we all know the true content of Hekmatyar's 'anti-imperialism' - more warlordism, butchery and tyranny.
Communists demand a democratic, secular solution - with genuine rights for women, equal rights for all national/ethnic groups, equality of language, the right to form trade unions and political associations/parties, etc. That can only come from below. The urban Afghan working class must win the rural poor to its banner and take the lead in making those demands a reality. Not something likely to put a smile on the face of the Bonn imperialists.
Eddie Ford