Word: northerners
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...ouster of the Taliban is prompting a growing power struggle among its enemies, north and south. Although they're committed to negotiating a broad-based inclusive government, the Northern Alliance have taken control of the capital, and are looking to set the terms of political negotiations. The Alliance has invited all groups except the Taliban for talks in Kabul, a slap down of Pakistan's suggestion that "moderate Taliban" elements have a role in a future government. (The Alliance believes "moderate Taliban" is an oxymoron, and is hostile to any Pakistani influence in Kabul.) And while the U.S. had hoped...
...Kabul, post-Taliban freedom appeared to be something of a mixed blessing. There was music on the streets again, women could shed their burkas and even return to work, and men could finally shave off their beards. But control of the capital by the Tajik forces of the Northern Alliance was being questioned, both by traditional Pashtun rivals and an international community concerned to ensure a broad-based government in Afghanistan, and even by some of their Northern Alliance partners - some 1,000 Hazari troops from the Alliance marched on the capital Thursday, to ensure a share of power...
...More ominously, though, former President Burnharuddin Rabbani had planned to return to Kabul Wednesday to take political charge of areas liberated by the Northern Alliance - although Rabbani desires reinstatement as the president of Afghanistan, he would be fiercely opposed by most Pashtun (the largest ethnic group). Even his Uzbek and Hazari allies in the Northern Alliance are not keen to see the Tajik Rabbani back in charge. Most Kabul residents remember his tenure as a nightmare of infighting between rival factions during which tens of thousands of Afghanis were killed. Alliance forces have already divided the capital into separate zones...
...Northern Alliance are the de facto rulers in Kabul right now, and that may be more than a little alarming, not only to the Pashtun but also to Pakistan, erstwhile patron of the Taliban and now Washington's key regional ally. Pakistan wants a friendly (and predominantly Pashtun) government in Kabul, while the Northern Alliance is antagonistic to Islamabad. And even as local, regional and global powers scramble to arrange a power-sharing formula for a new regime in Kabul, it's worth remembering that the Taliban are bloodied but not yet beaten - they've surrendered most of their territory...
...competing interests of its key allies in the Afghan theater. On the one hand, Washington is concerned to accommodate the interests of Pakistan's General Musharraf, who took a massive political risk in supporting the U.S. war effort. On the other, it can't afford to alienate the Northern Alliance forces that have served as its infantry in the war to unseat the Taliban. And there are clearly volatile conflicts both within the Alliance and among the anti-Taliban Pashtun warlords in the south...