Author: Jack Redden
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: December 10, 2001
Islamabad, December 9: Several officials
of the defeated Taliban, including their envoy to the United Nations, surfaced
on Sunday to announce the formation of a new political party to help bring
peace to Afghanistan.
Although the Khudamul Furqan Jamiat
(KFJ) - Servants Society of Furqan (Koran) - is headed by Amad Amin Mujadidi,
a spiritual figure widely respected in Afghanistan, all six of the other
party officials at the news conference here had previously held posts with
the Taliban.
''There is no doubt the doors of
this political party are open for all those members of the Taliban movement
and all those followers who are inside or outside of the party,'' Mujadidi
said.
Mujadidi's answers in Pashto were
translated into English by Abdul-Hakim Mujahid, who had been the Taliban
representative at the UN. Others at the meeting had posts such as deputy
ministers.
Mujahid had been under US pressure
to cease all diplomatic activities before the September 11 attacks on Washington
and New York made his continued presence impossible and he returned to
Pakistan where he had a house.
Mujadidi noted that most of the
Taliban officials around him had also served in the earlier governments
of Burhanuddin Rabbani, head of the Northern Alliance that defeated the
Taliban over the last month. He said 80 per cent of the Taliban had roots
in earlier incarnations of the KFJ and added that other officials of the
Taliban were in contact with his party.
But Mujadidi and others at the news
conference would not say whether they thought Taliban leader Mullah Omar
was a criminal although he was no longer the ''emir'' since the movement
did not exist. Mujadidi was among the religious leaders who told the Taliban
to ask Osama bin Laden to leave Afghanistan.
The party officials were vague on
why they had not split with the hardline Islamic movement earlier, criticising
its failure to take advice on bin Laden but saying it had produced positive
results in securing internal peace in Afghanistan and eliminating most
opium poppy production.
Mujadidi said his party would cooperate
with the new interim government headed by Hamid Karzai, who had called
him from Afghanistan, despite describing the country as returning to the
lawless state that existed before the Taliban came to power.
''There is chaos and anarchy in
the country but Karzai, if he collects several political parties and ethnic
groups and gets the advice of those personalities, we hope that he will
overcome the problem in the future,'' Mujadidi said.
But he criticised the Bonn conference
that led to Karzai's selection as leader, saying the minority ethnic groups
of the victorious Northern Alliance were over-represented in the new administration.
''The UN must not repeat the mistake
it made in the Bonn conference by ignoring significant tribes and political
parties and bestowing a great portion of slots on the minority group of
the country,'' said a formal statement from the party.
The KFJ focus appears to be on gaining
influence through the future selection of an interim government to rule
for two years that is supposed to be agreed at a Loya Jirga - an Assembly
of Afghan elders - in six months. ''The KFJ declares its support to the
UN process of Loya Jirga provided it is impartial and inclusive in its
efforts in holding the Grand Council,'' the party said.
''The KFJ is determined to save
the nation and the country from the current crisis by rendering all kinds
of sacrifices and spending all its means and resources in this regard,''
it said. (Reuters)
