Replacing the Taleban

Step by step, the United States has secured the support -- or at least neutrality -- of Afghanistan's neighbors for its attempt to catch suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11.

Not so clear, however, is whether the U.S. has been successful in building a consensus on what the ultimate aim of its military campaign should be.

The U.S. is said to have enlisted the Afghan opposition Northern Alliance to topple the Taleban regime. Washington is also apparently trying to help the exiled 86-year-old Afghan monarch King Zahir Shah to return to power by encouraging the Northern Alliance to rally behind him.

There has been little news on how this plan has been received by Afghanistan's neighbors, including China, and the former Soviet republics such as Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. Understandably, these countries want peace to return to Afghanistan, but an even more critical issue for them is whether the country's eventual rulers will be supportive of Muslim separatists or fundamentalists active in their own backyards.

For peace to prevail in Afghanistan, it is important that it does not become a battleground of rival groups sponsored by different foreign forces.

The destiny of a country should be determined by its own people. The principle of self-determination is one that no one opposes. But as Mao Zedong said, power is born out of the barrel of a gun. It is tragic that the Taleban, after beating its opponents in a bloody civil war, has failed to deliver good government.

Hopefully, the aging king might succeed in uniting rival armed groups in his former kingdom, just as King Norodom Sihanouk did in Cambodia. With King Zahir Shah presiding over Afghanistan, some kind of bipartisan administration could perhaps be formed under the auspices of the United Nations to bring peace and stability to the war-torn country.

The sufferings of the Afghan people will not end without foreign intervention to help form a credible government accountable to the people.

-- South China Morning Post, Hong Kong