At all levels, Afghans debate future

Sitting on the parched desert floor in the Wakhjan Valley beside a graveyard of wrecked vehicles, an imperfect circle of turbaned Afghan men argue about their future.

Animated and noisy, this gathering of village elders and militia commanders is trying to decide on a new local leader, using a time-honored system of decisionmaking in Afghanistan.

In fact, this dust-blown open-air council meeting is a microcosm of the talks between rival Afghan factions, minus the Taliban, that began in a luxury retreat in Germany yesterday. United Nations and Western diplomats implored the parties to agree on a political road map for Afghanistan's future, in a bid to guarantee regional stability and billions in relief aid.

Opening the conference, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told delegates that there were "clear expectations" for peace. "I urge you all to forge a truly historic compromise that holds out a better future for your torn country and its people," Mr. Fischer said. "The international community is prepared to make this great effort."

UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said that in their first session, the four delegations - representing the Northern Alliance that now controls much of Afghanistan, deposed King Mohammad Zahir Shah, and two other Afghan exile groups - agreed to try to reach consensus within three to five days on an interim administration, with the goal of eventual elections. "Democracy is indeed a very important component for the future of Afghanistan," he said.

But here in Mohamed Agha, it is the local jirga, or assembly, that is coping with the nation's profound new reality, as Afghanistan struggles to emerge from more than two decades of war. What's important, those gathered say, is that they themselves will make the choice.

While the target of the American military campaign in Afghanistan is accused terrorist Osama bin Laden and his Taliban hosts, the result at ground level is political soul-searching and optimism at the chance for a fresh start.

"These difficulties we are facing now are due only to ourselves," booms Ajapkhan Massoud, a former military commander during the 1980s and 90s, to the gathering of ethnic Pashtun elders. The Pashtun-dominated Taliban are gone, replaced by the minority groups of the Northern Alliance.

"We have to forget about who is Pashtun, Tajik, and Uzbek. None are better than the others," says the large, black-turbaned commander Massoud, raising his right hand.

This meeting was convened to appoint a new governor, but quickly turned into a wider political forum. There were complaints that a similar jirga more than a week ago failed to yield results. The final decision yesterday was to choose 14 delegates from local tribes, and meet again today. Regardless of the result, the new political dynamic seems to have blurred past divisions.

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