Backroom diplomacy and street violence

While the streets of Peshawar are wracked by virulent anti-US protests, the Pakistani city is playing host to scores of secret meetings that are likely to determine the shape of the future government in Kabul, reports Khaled Dawoud
Since the former Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the Pakistani border city of Peshawar has been the city most affected by developments taking place in its war-torn neighbour. Out of the more than 2.5 million Afghan refugees who fled to Pakistan over the past two decades, over one million have settled in Peshawar, which, at an hour's drive from the border, is the major Pakistani city closest to the Afghan capital, Kabul.
This city of five million people, which has a strong rural character, was also the last transit stop for thousands of young Arab and Muslim militants from throughout the world before they entered Afghanistan to take part in the US-funded war against the former Soviet Union.
Accordingly, extremist Islamist parties and groups in Pakistan wield considerable influence in Peshawar, and the city has witnessed some of the most violent anti-US protests since the US initiated its military campaign against Afghanistan nearly two weeks ago. Armoured vehicles and trucks carrying Pakistani army soldiers have established a foreboding presence on the main streets of the overcrowded and largely impoverished city. Pakistani forces are taking stringent security measures to quell anti-US violence in the city of Quetta in Baluchistan province, also bordering Afghanistan and the closest Pakistani urban centre to the Taliban's headquarters in Kandahar.
Pashtun tribes -- of the same ethnic origin as the ruling Taliban and half of Afghanistan's population, and living along the border near Peshawar -- have also been staging heated protests in which they brandished their weapons and announced the recruitment of thousands of young men to join the war alongside the Taliban against the United States. The "tribal area" is untouched by Pakistani law and governed only by tribal codes of honour, under which the most important rule is to provide unconditional support to members of the same tribe.
Yet, extremely tight security measures were also in evidence outside the luxurious villa of Commander Abdel-Haq, a former Afghan warlord who took part in the war against the Russians, but later disagreed with the Taliban and fled to Peshawar.
When Al-Ahram Weekly tried to meet Abdel-Haq in Peshawar, his assistant, Abdel- Rehim Zalmai, who speaks fluent English, apologised, saying that Abdel-Haq had meetings with "dozens of people who came from Afghanistan to see him." Added to this startling revelation, Zalmai said Abdel-Haq's appointment agenda included "meetings with Japan's ambassador and French diplomats." He added that since it became clear to exiled anti- Taliban Afghan groups that the days of the extremist regime were numbered, many similar meetings have been taking place.
According to informed Pakistani sources, intensive secret contacts that enjoy the backing of President Pervez Musharraf's government are being conducted by the former Pashtun commander to determine the nature of a post- Taliban government in Afghanistan.
Abdel-Haq is a key figure in the Assembly for Peace and National Unity of Afghanistan (APNUA). The leader of this group, Pir Syed Ahmed Gillani, is a powerful religious leader. He left on Saturday for Rome to hold talks with former Afghan King Zaher Shah.
The United States, the United Nations and Pakistan have circulated the 86-year-old monarch's name as the possible leader of a post-Taliban government. Pakistani sources said, however, that Shah is not foreseen as the actual future ruler of Afghanistan, but more as a symbol that could help unite the various Afghan factions. King Zaher Shah's Pashtun ethnicity is a key requirement for Pakistan to give its approval for any future leader of a government in Kabul. Other Afghan anti-Taliban groups fear that the king would not last for long due to his age, and that his son and family members would seek to restore the monarchy, which was toppled in 1973.
Before his departure for Rome to meet the former king, APNUA leader Gillani renewed an appeal for unity among exiled Afghan groups. "We are inviting all Afghans, whoever they are and wherever they may be, to come and discuss the ongoing crisis and find ways to restore peace in their war-torn country." He added that he includes members of the ruling Taliban in his call, "but only those committed to ending the violence that has left our country in ruins." Gillani said that "there are those Taliban who find that their personal, spiritual and national duty is to stand with, not against, the majority of the Afghan people."
The Afghan exiles, Gillani said, were planning to organise a "summit" in Peshawar on 21 October "as the first step toward unifying the anti- Taliban movement. More than 1,000 delegates are expected." These would include Afghan religious leaders, tribal chiefs and elders, able to form what is known in Afghanistan as "Loya Jirga," a traditional mechanism by which decisions on crucial matters are made by prominent figures. "We will meet for days or for weeks to agree on forming a broad-based government," Gillani said.
At the busy market in Peshawar, meanwhile, Afghan exiles and Pakistanis who see their future as depending on what happens in Afghanistan appeared divided when asked about the support Taliban enjoys in their city.
Sufi Mohamed Jamil, a Pakistani merchant, said, "Osama Bin Laden should turn himself over for trial because one man should not cause all the suffering currently taking place in Afghanistan." But he believes that this court "should not be in the United States, but in an Islamic country." Jamil dislikes the Taliban, saying they are "very extreme and do not represent true Islam."
However, Bashir Ahmed, who owns the shop next to Jamil, has a totally different view. "What America is doing in Afghanistan is terrorism," he said angrily. "The Taliban do not have any military power, and the Afghan people have been poor and hungry for over 20 years. America should stop bombing the Afghan people."
However, the views expressed by Ahmed Gari, an Afghan refugee who left Kabul two weeks ago, were the most startling for this reporter who, like all the journalists who poured into Pakistan after the 11 September attacks, has been amazed by the scores of pro-Taliban protests. "Of course Bin Laden is a terrorist," Gari said. "America has the right to target Bin Laden, but not Afghanistan, since his spokesman admitted that he was responsible for the attacks in New York and Washington, saying the 'storm of airplanes' will not stop," he added. Gari was referring to a statement made by Suleiman Abu Geith, spokesman of Bin Laden's Al-Qa'ida [The Base] group, on Saturday. He added that "most people in Afghanistan hate Bin Laden, and do not understand why poor Afghans should die in order to protect him."
Only the coming days will show which trend will win in Peshawar: those holding secret meetings to prepare to topple the extremist Taliban, or supporters of Islamist parties who have pledged to recruit thousands of their followers to fight against the United States.
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