Integrity Score 380
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Peace is important
Good
...
Good
“Peace-Building”
No peace for terrorists
Progress and Pitfalls of “Peace-Building”
in Afghanistan
continues....
Of the four groups represented at Bonn, the Northern Alliance had
emerged as the dominant force with no fewer than 17 seats. These
included three key portfolios: Defence (Mohammed Fahim, Tajik);
Foreign Affairs (Dr Abdullah Abdullah, Tajik); and Interior (Younis
Qanooni, Tajik).
The most powerful faction after the Northern Alliance
was the Rome Group, which held 8 seats including the key portfolios of
IA Chairman (Hamid Karzai, Pashtun) and Finance (Hedayat Amin
Arsala, Pashtun). Supporters of former King Muhammad Zahir Shah, this
group enjoys widespread support amongst the powerful ethnic Pashtun
community. Two smaller factions, the Cyprus Group (backed by Iran)
and the Peshawar Group (backed by Pakistan) are also represented in the
Interim Administration with the minor portfolios of irrigation and
transport respectively.
In a move clearly designed to broaden the gender, as well as ethnic
base of post-Taleban Afghanistan, two women were included in the IA.
They were Sima Simar, a Hazara member of the Rome Group who has
been given the portfolio for Women’s Affairs, and Suhaila Seddiqi, a
widely respected but unaffiliated Tajik surgeon, who holds the portfolio
for Public Health.
However the composition of the Interim
Administration was widely criticized by some on grounds that the newly
appointed interim government endorsed by the US was hardly
representative. The top posts in the government, defence, interior and
foreign affairs went to ethnic Tajiks from Panjsher who were also members
of the Northern Alliance.
The primary aim of the United Nations Assistance Mission in
Afghanistan (UNAMA) established by the Security Council Resolution
1401 of 28 March 2002, was to help the Afghan parties implement the
provisions of the Bonn Agreement. The Bonn Agreement can be regarded
as only a preliminary step towards a post-war order. Most of the decisions
regarding power sharing in the political and military arena, and principles
for reconstruction in the social and economic sectors, have to be taken as
parts of the transitional and peace-building process. Due to the
conflicting interests of the Afghan parties and the international actors
involved, it is quite likely that the peace-building process is to confront difficulties.
To be continued.....