Petersberg process
As Petersberg Process (also Bonn process , English Bonn Process called), the implementation of the agreed on 5 December 2001 in Bonn Agreement minor steps for the development and democratic conditions in Afghanistan called.
In previous years, the Taliban regime had established an Islamic fundamentalist order in the country and given international terrorism a domicile. After the events of September 11, 2001 , the regime was overthrown by the deployment of US forces at the head of an international coalition . The war in Afghanistan followed in 2001 .
The first Petersberg Afghanistan Conference
The basis of the first Petersberg Afghanistan Conference was a five-point plan for the political transition phase in Afghanistan, which the United Nations Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi , presented to the UN Security Council on November 13, 2001 and which the UN Security Council presented on November 14 confirmed by resolution 1378:
- With the consent of the Northern Alliance, the United Nations is calling an international conference at which the various ethnic groups of Afghanistan are represented. The forces supported by Iran and Pakistan should also be represented there.
- The conference elects a provisional council. He is headed by an Afghan personality who is recognized as a “symbol of national unity and around which all ethnic, religious and regional groups can gather”.
- The Council proposes a two-year transitional government involving all major national and interest groups.
- A meeting of all tribal leaders, the so-called Loya Jirga , sets up the transitional government and instructs them to draft a democratic constitution. In addition, the government should pave the way for the first free elections since 1973.
- A second Loya Jirga puts the constitution into effect and appoints a permanent government for Afghanistan.
The conference was originally planned for November 24, 2001 in Berlin, but has been moved to Petersberg near Bonn for security reasons. It began on November 27, 2001, and the final protocol was signed on December 5, 2001.
Conference attendees
The following four groups were represented at the conference:
- The Northern Alliance provided eleven delegates, the chief negotiator was the Tajik Junus Kanuni . Ever since the Taliban was overthrown by the US-led international coalition, whose ground troops it actually provided, the alliance had been the de facto ruler in Afghanistan, so it played a key role in the distribution of positions of power. She claimed to represent Tajiks , Hazara and Uzbeks in Afghanistan.
- The Pashtun -influenced Rome group was essentially made up of Afghans in exile around the former Afghan King Mohammed Zahir , to whose whereabouts in exile the name Rome Group refers. It also provided eleven delegates. Although the Rome group, rated as pro-Western, only played a spectator role in exile in the redistribution of power in Afghanistan, it was considered the most important faction of the conference alongside the Northern Alliance.
- The Peshawar group, represented by five delegates, was a broad alliance of mostly traditional Pashtuns and also supported the integration of moderate Taliban into a new government. The Pakistan- backed group was led by Sayed Hamed Gailani .
- The Cyprus group, also represented by five delegates, only played a marginal role at the conference. Like the Rome group, it was shaped by politicians in exile, dominated by Hazara with ties to Iran. As with the Peshawar group, its name was derived from the first place of the negotiation. The delegation leader Humajun Jarir is the son-in-law of Gulbuddin Hekmatyār .
The President of the Northern Alliance Burhānuddin Rabbāni , the powerful warlords Abdul Raschid Dostum and Ismail Khan, and official representatives of the Taliban , were not present at the conference .
Content of the Petersberg Agreement
In their final document, the participants of the conference agreed on a step-by-step plan and thus basically followed the five-point plan of the United Nations:
- Transfer of power to an interim administration on December 22, 2001
- Temporary deployment of an international force under a mandate from the United Nations to ensure the security of the interim administration
- Constitution of an extraordinary Loya Jirga , which decides on an interim administration, no later than six months after the establishment of the interim administration, which will then expire
- Constitution of a constituent Loya Jirga no later than 18 months after the meeting of the extraordinary Loya Jirga
- Democratic elections no later than two years after the extraordinary Loya Jirga convened to elect a fully representative government
The office of chairman of the interim administration went to the Pashtun Hamid Karzai . The incumbent President Rabbani, who was considered a favorite by many observers, did not participate in the new government. The Northern Alliance was able to win key positions in the cabinet: Abdullah Abdullah became foreign minister, Junus Ghanuni, the head of the interior was responsible for the interior, and the new defense minister was Mohammed Fahim , a political foster son of Ahmad Shah Massoud . In addition to the Northern Alliance, the cabinet was mainly made up of representatives from the Rome Group. The progress of the democratization process should be assessed at further Afghanistan conferences .
Implementation of the Petersberg Agreement
As a result of the agreement, the United Nations Security Council issued the mandate for an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) with Resolution 1386 , thereby implementing the provisions of the Petersberg Agreement.
The international community wanted to secure a peaceful development in addition to the stationing of military forces in Afghanistan through other forms of assistance. On 21/22 In January 2002 a donor conference for Afghanistan met in Tokyo, which pledged a total of 4.5 billion US dollars in reconstruction aid for Afghanistan.
On June 12, 2002, an extraordinary nationwide Loya Jirga was convened and about 1,500 delegates attended. It met until June 19, 2002 and determined an interim administration including an interim government, which, like Hamid Karzai, was the interim president. The interim administration replaced the previous interim administration.
Again on the Petersberg near Bonn, a second Afghanistan conference took place on December 2, 2002, at which further discussions were held on the reconstruction of the country. There, determinations were made on the structure and size of the Afghan army to be created.
A constituent loya jirga was convened at the end of 2003 and ratified the new Afghan constitution in January 2004. Afghanistan became an Islamic Republic with a centralized presidential system and a two-chamber parliament. The presidential elections that took place on October 9, 2004 confirmed Karzai as the now democratically legitimized president. He was able to unite 55.4% of the votes cast, followed by Junus Kanuni with 16.3%, Mohammed Mohiqiq with 11.6% and Abdul Raschid Dostum with 10% of the vote. The remaining candidates stayed below the 10% mark.
The parliamentary and provincial council elections on September 18, 2005, which constituted the first freely elected Afghan parliament since 1973, marked the end of the democratization process envisaged in the Petersberg Agreement. According to the schedule of the Petersberg Agreement, these elections were to take place in June 2004 at the latest, but had to be postponed several times due to delays in electoral registration.
At the international Afghanistan conference in London in 2006, the successful completion of the Petersberg Process was established. With the adoption of the Afghanistan Compact , a framework was created for the next level of international cooperation. At its core, it focuses on helping the Afghan government, which has now become democratically legitimized, to take on its own responsibility in the country.
sources
- ↑ Brahimi's report to the UN Security Council (PDF; 92 kB)
- ^ Translation of the final document: Agreement on Provisional Regulations in Afghanistan up to the Restoration of Permanent State Institutions (PDF; 38 kB) in the web archive, version of March 16, 2012
- ↑ Cabinet of the Interim Government 2002 (English)
- ^ Results of the 2004 presidential election