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Afghan Talks to Replace Taliban Open in Upbeat Mood
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
(20:13 GMT)
Islam Online & News Agencies

"You must not allow the mistakes of the past to be repeated, particularly those of 1992. To many skeptics, this is what you are about to do. You must prove them wrong," U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, warned.

BONN, Germany
Afghan delegates gathered in Bonn Tuesday under intense pressure to forge a broad-based government to replace the crumbling Taliban regime, but upbeat over turning the page on decades of bloodshed.

As he formally opened the U.N.-sponsored inter-Afghan summit in the suburb of Koenigswinter, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer urged delegates to "seize this historic moment," reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Four Afghan delegations are attending the meeting. The Northern Alliance, the largest party, controls the Afghan capital of Kabul. The Alliance's military victories have largely overtaken the political process in recent weeks, and its commitment to share power is still untested.

Zahir Shah's delegation, the former king, is seen by some as a potential unifying figurehead in a nation of many different ethnic and linguistic groups, according to BBC's online news service.
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Dan