The United Nations-sponsored talks on Afghanistan started in Bonn Tuesday, bringing factions of the war-torn land to negotiate political and security structures in the post-Taliban era.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, UN Special Envoy on Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi, diplomats from a dozen countries, as well as more than 30 Afghan representatives of different factions attended the opening ceremony at the Petersberg hotel.
The ensuing talks among the Afghans are held inside Germany's former state guesthouse on top of the Petersburg hill on the outskirts of Bonn to keep the participants from being disturbed, German officials said.
The Afghan representatives have come from four main polls former King Zahir Shah, the Cyprus Group made up of other in-exile Afghans as well as the so-called Peshawar convention, a Pakistan-based political organization.
UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said earlier this week that the representatives will negotiate on the basis of a five-point plan presented by Brahimi, which includes the formation of a transitional government to fulfill the political vacuum left over by the defeat of the Taliban regime as well as the possibility of stationing a multi-national force in Afghanistan.
Fawzi called on Afghan factions to seize "the golden opportunity" the country faces now as the world attention is focused on it and to reach agreement on the political and security issues as soon as possible.
(Xinhua News Agency November 27, 2001)
