[PBB sepatutnya mengutuk Amerika dan bukannya datang selepas semuanya rosak dan binasa. Dengan membiarkan AS bertindak seikut suka, PBB sudah gagal untuk menjamin keamanan dunia dan kedaulatan negara. - Editor]

New York Times
24 Oktober, 2001.

PBB bertegas Agar Afghan menubuhkan kerajaan pilihan mereka

(U.N. Insisting Afghans Get a Government They Want)

Oleh: Sergei Shememann

Dengan meledaknya pengeboman Amerika menghujani Kabul, para pegawai PBB di Washington, dan di ibu negara lain sedang berlumba mencari satu jalan penyelesaian untuk menyelamatkan ibu negara Afghanistan itu seandainya Taliban berundur dari situ.

Wakil khas PBB di Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, berkata bahawa mahu berada di wilayah itu untuk berunding dengan beberapa fraksi Afghan dan kerajaan yang berjiran, mahukan satu penyelesaian untuk negara itu agar rakyat Afghan turut bersetuju merasakan pentadbiran milik mereka bersama.

'Jika tidak, tidak ada harapan lagi,' katanya.

Mr. Brahimi dan para diplomat yang telah ditemuinya secara sidang tertutup di Majlis Keselamatan PBB berkata bahawa belum ada agenda tertentu yang dibincangkan kerana semua pilihan dibiarkan terus terbuka. Untuk waktu ini, kata mereka, yang jelas ialah Kabul sebagai bandaraya negara Afghanistan dan negara itu seterusnya tidak seharusnya jatuh ke tangan satu arti tertentu ataupun satu pakatan parti yang tidak lengkap keanggotaannya, seperti Pakatan Utara, yang memang ghairah mahu memasukki Kabul menyerang Taliban.

Bilakah impian itu dapat tercapai adalah satu tandatanya lagi. Keputusan Pentagon untuk memulakan serangan mengganyang Taliban dianggap sebagai satu pertanda usaha membebaskan Kabul. Namun tidak ada sebarang kepastian apakah Pakatan Utara, yang bertahan hanya 35 batu daripada Kabul, mampu menyerang dan mengepong bandaraya itu walaupun Amerika menggandakan serangan mengganyang Taliban. Dataran Kabul dan persekitarannya mengandungi parit peperangan yang bersilang-seli yang dipertahankan oleh satu pasukan kuat Taliban yang disokong oleh pasukan Al Qaeda dan sukarelawan Pakistan.

Pegawai Amerika berkata bahawa Pakatan Utara telah berikrar untuk memasukki Kabul hanya selepas menerima arahan Washington. Namun, kemungkinan Kabul akan jatuh dalam masa beberapa minggu memberikan ruang mendesak agar pelbagai peraturan baru dirangka untuk menjamin kewujudan keselamatan dan keamanan di bandaraya itu.

'Saya akan terus mendengar dan berbincang untuk mencari jalan siapakah yang mampu melakukan sesuatu ataupun memberikan cadangan yang bernas kepada saya,' kata Mr. Brahimi.

'Tetapi saya selalu menegaskan, dengan menyerahkan kerja berat ini kepada PBB, tidak bererti PBB mampu melakukan kerja ajaib laksana seorang pakar silap mata.'

Ada satu cadangan yang kerap dikemukakan untuk menghantar satu pasukan pengaman tajaan PBB di Afghanistan. Tetapi, Mr.Brahimi bertegas bahawa keadaan di Afghanistan belum sesuai untuk melaksanakannya.

'Pasukan aman bererti perlunya keamanan yang dikekalkan,' katanya. Ini bererti keadaan sekarang belum sesuai lagi. Untuk merencana keamanan, anda perlukan persetujuan semua pihak melibatkan diri, dan kalau ini tidak dapat diusahakan, kita perlu beri nama lain kepada pasukan seperti itu.'

Mr. Brahimi, pernah bertugas sepagai duta PBB ke Afghanistan daripada 1997 hingga 1999, telah lama sedar betapa Afghan memang mempunyai sejarah membenci penaklukan tentera asing di bumi mereka. Pegawai PBB juga berpendpat, tidak ada sebarang pasukan negara yang sudah bersedia memainkan peranan operasi seperti itu.

Satu alternatif lain ialah satu pasukan tentera mengandungi negara Eropah, termasuk Kanada ataupun Australia dan mungkin juga Amerika Syarikat. Itupun akan berjaya kalau orang Afghan bersetuju.

Cara yang paling berkesan, mengikut pendapat para diplomat, ialah penubuhan satu pasukan Afghan secara keseluruhannya daripada semua fraksi yang ada dan dengan sokongan dan tajaan PBB.

'Mereka tidak perlukan keizinan sesiapa, dan ini akan mencetuskan persepakatan semua orang Afghan,' kata Brahimi lagi. 'Adalah diharapkan kalau orang Afghan bersetuju dengan penubuhan pasukan begitu, tentu mereka bersetuju melihatkan pasukan itu berfungsi.'

Tetapi bagaimana pasukan itu boleh berfungsi masih samar-samar lagi seperti dengan penubuhan sebuah kerajaan campuran. Pakatan Utara, umpamanya sudahpun bertegas ia tidak mahu terlibat seandainya Pakistan turut terlibat, kerana menganggap Pakistan sebagai sebahagaian pasukan Taliban. Sebaliknya pula, Pakistan telah menolak sebarang penyelesaian yang akan membabitkan Pakatan Utara.

Implikasi penyelesaian ini dan kesannya di rantau itu akan merupakan sebahagian peranan utama Mr. Brahimi, demikian pendapat para diplomat. Sebagai contoh, Iran mempunyai hubungan yagn akrab dengan Pakatan Utara dan mungkin memainkan peranan menghalang kebangkitannya untuk menakluki wilayah yang ada.

Mr. Brahimi ialah bekas menteri luar Algeria dan telah melepaskan jawatannya di Afghanistan itu pada 1999 kerana rimas dengan keadaan perundingan. Yang berlaku perubahannya sekarang ialah tahap sokongan antarabangsa dan minat kerap mengulangi amarannya, bahwa penyelesaian bukannya mudah dicapai dan segala usaha mewujudkannya mesti dihasilkan oleh orang tempatan.

'Semua resolusi PBBB menyebut bahawa orang Afghan adalah satu bangsa yang merdeka, dan negara itu mesti terus bersatu, tanpa ada sebarang campurtangan luar dalam urusan mereka,' katanya.

Tamat.

Terjemahan: SPAR

Asal:

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/24/
international/24NATI.html

October 24, 2001

POSTWAR PLANS

U.N. Insisting Afghans Get a Government They Want

By SERGE SCHMEMANN

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 23 - With American bombs now softening the way to Kabul, officials at the United Nations, in Washington and in other capitals are racing to find at least an interim way to secure the city if the Taliban abandon it.

The United Nations special representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, said today that he was leaving this weekend for the region to consult with various Afghan factions and with neighboring governments, stressing that his search was for a political dispensation for the country for which the Afghans could "feel ownership."

"Otherwise, it has no future," he said.

Mr. Brahimi and diplomats with whom he met in a closed meeting of the Security Council today said that no concrete plan was under discussion and that all options remained open. For now, they said, all that was clear was that the capital city of Kabul, and later Afghanistan, should not fall to a single party or an incomplete alliance, like the Northern Alliance, which is poised to start moving against the Taliban.

When that might happen remained unclear. The decision by the Pentagon to start bombing Taliban and allied forces on their northern front last weekend was generally viewed as the start of the drive on Kabul. But there was no certainty that the Northern Alliance, though only 35 miles from Kabul, could quickly reach or encircle the capital even after more American bombing. The plain that separates them from Kabul is crisscrossed with trenches and defended by a large Taliban force buttressed by Al Qaeda and Pakistani volunteers.

American officials also said the Northern Alliance had pledged that it would not enter Kabul until it got Washington's approval. Nonetheless, the real possibility that Kabul will fall within weeks gave new urgency to discussions on various ways to establish order and security in the city.

"I will definitely be listening and talking and seeking who if any can do something about it, and perhaps even suggesting ideas myself," Mr. Brahimi said. "But I always underline that by asking the United Nations to take charge of this problem does not necessarily mean the United Nations can produce miracles out of a hat."

One suggestion frequently made has been to dispatch a United Nations peacekeeping force to Afghanistan. But Mr. Brahimi has argued that the situation is not appropriate.

"Peacekeeping means there is a peace to keep," he said. "So by definition this is a situation which is not ready for that. For peacekeeping you need the agreement of all the parties on the ground, and if you do not have that, you need to call it something else."

Mr. Brahimi, who earlier served as special envoy to Afghanistan from 1997 to 1999, has also noted that the Afghans have a history of successfully resisting foreign troops on their soil. United Nations officials said that in any case no national contingents were immediately ready for such an operation.

Another alternative that has been mooted is a force composed of European nations, along with Canada or Australia, and possibly even the United States. That would work only if the Afghans agreed to it.

The most desirable solution, diplomats said, would be for an all-Afghan force, drawn from all factions and supported by the United Nations.

"They don't need the permission of anyone, and the beauty would be that this is the result of an agreement among Afghans," Mr. Brahimi said. "One hopes that if the Afghans decided to set up a force, they will hopefully allow it to function."

But how it would work remained as unclear as the hazy prospect of a coalition government. The Northern Alliance, for example, has made clear that it would not take part if Pakistan, which it regards as the main force behind the Taliban, is involved. Pakistan, for its part, has resisted any solution that would include only the Northern Alliance.

The regional implications of any solution will be a major part of Mr. Brahimi's mission, diplomats said. Iran, for example, has close contacts with the Northern Alliance and could be instrumental in restraining it once it begins conquering territory.

Mr. Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister, resigned the Afghan job in 1999 out of frustration with lack of support or progress. What has changed, he said today, is the level of international support and interest.

But he has cautioned repeatedly that a solution will not be easy and, to work, must be "home-grown."

"All the resolutions of the United Nations say that the Afghans are independent, that the country must remain united, that there should be no interference in their affairs," he said.