Kazakistan calls for UNSC session on Afghanistan
Frontier Post
ISLAMABAD (SANA): Kazakhstan has reiterated its call for convening a special meeting of the United Nations Security Council to exclusively review the current political and humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and its impact on the Central and South Asian regions."We consider the convening of a special meeting of the Security Council on the situation in Afghanistan as a preliminary step that will lead to the beginning of a process in which the international community will take a number of comprehensive political, economic and humanitarian measures for resolution of the conflict and reconstruction of war-battered country," the peace plan, a copy of which was obtained by this news agency, said.

The peace proposal that stipulates a long and lengthy process was discussed during the last week's meeting between the Kazakh charge d' Affaires Shamil Sultangoshin, the Afghan envoy to Pakistan Mulla Abdul Salaam Zaeef and deputy head of the Afghan mission Sohail Shaheen.

"We will study the Kazakh proposal and see if they fulfill the preconditions we have set for entering negotiations," Shaheen told SANA.

The plan said, "Experience shows that imposition of tougher sanctions against the Taliban adversely affect the negotiating process and complicate the prospects for Intra-Afghan dialogue under the UN auspices," the plan elaborated.

Taliban militia controlling most of the country boycotted the UN sponsored peace process after the 15-member Security Council approved additional economic sanctions and arms embargo against Kabul on the instigation of the United States and Russia.

The offer maintains that such a meeting would enable the countries concerned to take a new look at the Afghan problem.

This would also highlight the defects and shortcomings of what was done in the past in connection with peacefully resolving the imbroglio.

Almaty fully supports the UN secretary General's position with regard to Afghanistan that the incursions in 1999 and 2000 by Islamic fighters into the territory of Central Asian countries once again underscores the danger of the spread of a possible conflict and the need for "a comprehensive" rather than "a piecemeal approach" to settling the Afghan crisis," Kazakhstan said in its new plan.

Accordingly the peace plan also envisages a role for six plus two countries namely China, Iran, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan plus the United States and Russian Federation in resolving the conflict strictly adhering to the principles set forth in the Tashkent Declaration in and out the Security Council's proposed meeting.

The plan calls for active participation of Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Sweden from Europe, Japan, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia and India from Asia, Saudi Arabia and Egypt from the Arab World in the proposed peace process.

The plan underlines the need for using the mechanisms of the Rome, Bonn and Cyprus peace groups and other Afghan public organisations abroad in order to unify the database on Afghanistan.

The proposal welcomes overall the idea of holding in Afghanistan a meeting of the Loya Jirga, (the Council of elders of Afghan tribes) which played an important role in the life of Afghan society.

Kazakhstan is firmly convinced that all international efforts to resolve the long-standing issue must be conducted under the UN auspices, the issue that would be opposed by the Taliban authorities.

Today's realities require the international community to find new approaches to the assessment of military and political situation and the geo-political situation in the Central and South Asian regions and develop an essentially new concept of Afghan settlement, the plan advocates.

The peace process must reflect the main causes of the conflict in Afghanistan, identify the internal and external forces supporting the warring parties and consider the possible consequences of the confrontation on a regional and international scale.

Such a concept must include a programme, forms and mechanisms for international intervention and the mobilization of financial and material resources.