Afghan Interim Administration - Negotiations in Bonn

Negotiations in Bonn

Four delegations of anti-Taliban ethnic factions attended the Bonn Conference: the Northern Alliance or United Islamic Front; the "Cypress group," a group of exiles with ties to Iran; the "Rome group," loyal to former King Mohammad Zaher Shah, who lived in exile in Rome and did not attend the meeting; and the "Peshawar group," a group of mostly Pashtun exiles based in Pakistan. At the time of the conference half of Afghanistan was in the hands of the Northern Alliance, including Kabul were Northern Alliance President Burhanuddin Rabbani had taken over the Presidential Palace and said that any talks on the future of Afghanistan should take place inside the country.

There was a lot of debate about who would lead the interim government. Rabbani didn't want the Bonn Conference to decide on names for the interim government but after pressure from the United States and Russia the Northern Alliance delegation headed by younger leader Yunus Qanuni, decided to go on with the talks with or without the support of Rabbani.

At the beginning of the conference it seemed that King Zahir Shah had a lot of support, but the Northern alliance opposed this. By the final days of the conference, it was down to two candidates: Pashtun leader Hamid Karzai, whom the U.S. was promoting as a viable candidate and Abdul Sittar Sirat, whose name was proposed by the Rome group. Because of worries that Afghans Pashtun majority would be alienated by the selection of Uzbek Abdul Sittar Sirat, the Bonn conference agreed that Karzai would head the Interim Administration. The Northern Alliance received about half of the posts in the interim cabinet, and members of the Rome group were named to eight positions.

Subsequently the Interim cabinet is filled with warlords with private militias. Among the most notable members of the interim administration were the trio Yunus Qanuni, Mohammad Fahim and Abdullah Abdullah, three of the most powerful leaders of the Northern Alliance.