Exhausted Afghan rivals finally signed a landmark accord yesterday to form a post-Taliban government that hopes to rebuild the shattered country with billions of dollars of international aid.
After negotiating through the night, the four delegation heads initialled the deal at the secluded Petersberg Hotel outside Bonn that has hosted the talks, just hours before a major Berlin aid conference was due to start.
The four seated rivals, all wearing dark Western suits, passed the agreement for signing along a polished table to applause from German Chancellor Gerhard Schroe-der, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and other dignitaries.
The rest of the group of about 20 remaining delegates, including two women and one representative in a traditional turban and khaki military jacket, then signed the document in turn, with UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi going last.
The deal, reached before dawn on the ninth gruelling day of talks, creates an interim administration in which the militarily dominant Northern Alliance shares power with exile groups. It is scheduled to take power in the Afghan capital on Dec. 22.
The signatories in Bonn were the Northern Alliance, drawn largely from the Tajik, Hazara and Uzbek minorities, and three exile factions.
The accord also invites the UN Security Council to mandate international peacekeepers to guarantee security in Kabul.
It sets out a symbolic role for former king Zahir Shah in calling a Loya Jirga, or traditional grand council, in six months to approve a more permanent government ahead of the drafting of a constitution and elections two years from now.
"The eyes of the world will be on you and you carry a huge responsibility," Brahimi told delegates after the signing, dark rings under his eyes from long nights of negotiating.
"You must live up to your commitment to promote national reconciliation, protect human rights, [and] encourage relations with your neighbors. You must serve your people in a democratic and transparent manner," said the former Algerian foreign minister.
Brahimi said the world had often ignored the suffering of the people of Afghanistan and it was vital to maintain the support of the international community as the country starts to rebuild after 23 years of war.
The four factions hammered out the agreement in a last marathon session through the night. It was not clear if they had managed to choose all 30 Cabinet members in time for the signing ceremony, but Pashtun chief Hamid Karzai, now fighting the Taliban in the Kandahar region, will lead the government.
The new government includes a deputy chairwoman, marking a return of women to public office in stark contrast to the repression they suffered at the hands of the Taliban, who banned them from work and study and made them wear head-to-toe veils.
"A new chapter opens for the people of Afghanistan," Schroeder said, adding Germany and the inter-national community would throw its weight behind the nation. "We will make a real contribution so that the women and men of Afghanistan can live in freedom, dignity and with economic prospects."
Karzai, a sort of interim prime minister, is a royalist Pashtun chief now fighting the Taliban in the Kandahar region.
The Pashtuns are Afghanistan's largest tribe and provided the greatest support for the Taliban.
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