Only Afghan govt reps should attend Bonn meetings: analysts

KABUL): Political analysts say that only Afghan government representatives should attend the second Bonn conference, which will be held in Germany on December 5, 2011.

The first Bonn conference was held soon after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. Led by the US, the international community agreed at the conference to establish a transition government in Kabul.

It approved Afghanistan‘s constitution and supported the 2004 presidential and parliamentary elections.

The Afghanistan Regional Studies Centre arranged a gathering of political analysts in Kabul on Tuesday to discuss the second Bonn conference.

Zubair Shafiqi, the editor of “Wesa” newspaper and a political expert, said that some foreign media outlets were spreading “doubts” about the second Bonn conference. “If civil society and political groups are allowed to attend the meeting, it will create more problems for Afghanistan,” he said.

Shafiqi gave as an example a German civil society organization led by Thomas Ruttig,which he said has an office in Qala Fatahullah and has been engaged in talks with representatives of local civil society organisations regarding the Bonn conference.

He said the group wanted to propose a federal system in Afghanistan at the Bonn conference.

He also cited rumours that the upcoming Bonn conference formulate a policy under which southern Afghanistan would be handed over to the Taliban and northern parts to Tajik and Hazara tribes and a temporary federal system will be set up as a first step toward partition, he said. He called such efforts a conspiracy against Afghanistan.

He said the federal system had been beneficial in some countries, but it would have no positive outcome in Afghanistan.

Parliamentarian Jaffar Mehdodi said at the meeting that the second Bonn conference should deal with issues set out ahead of time by the Afghan government.

“I think the Bonn meeting is an effort to find a chance for an honourable exit of foreign troops from Afghanistan because foreigners do not want further casualties,” he said.

He said he neither prefers nor rejects a federal system for Afghanistan.

Ghulam Jilani Zwak, who heads the Afghanistan Research and Consultation Centre, said that representatives of the Afghan government, opposition and other groups were being invited to the second Bonn meeting.

Without elaborating, he said inviting other groups to the conference would not be in the interests of the country.

He said the conference should have been arranged in Afghanistan, which has an elected government and Parliament. He said only Afghan government representatives should be called to the summit.

President Hamid Karzai has warned that if independent groups were invited to the conference, the government would not attend it.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Janan Musazai, on Wednesday said that only the government representatives would attend the meeting.

He said the opposition and other groups could present their views and proposals for the conference to the Foreign Ministry.

ma/kg

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