April 10, 1998

Richardson to Visit Afghanistan to Support Talks

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    By BARBARA CROSSETTE

    UNITED NATIONS -- Bill Richardson, the U.S. representative here, said Thursday that he will go Afghanistan next week in an effort to demonstrate U.S. support for talks involving the Taliban and other Afghan factions.

    Richardson, who will be the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the country in 20 years, will meet not only with leaders of the Taliban, the radical Islamic movement that controls two-thirds of Afghanistan, but also with representatives of the coalition of Islamic armies that the Taliban pushed out of Kabul, the capital, in 1996.

    The displaced mujahedeen alliance, now fractured and plagued by infighting, still controls an area in the north of the country.

    A U.N. official, Lakhdar Brahimi of Algeria, is preparing the groundwork for talks among the Afghan factions. A cease-fire and agreement to form a broad-based coalition government would open the way to foreign assistance in rebuilding the devastated country -- a message Richardson will be taking to both sides.

    The United States, which technically has not recognized either Afghan government, has closed the Afghan embassy in Washington. But it has not argued in favor of vacating Afghanistan's U.N. seat, which is still held by the mujahedeen alliance.

    Richardson will also visit neighboring Pakistan, which has supported the Taliban movement, as has Saudi Arabia, which is considered the Taliban's major financial backer. Administration officials say they have also approached the Saudis through diplomatic channels.

    "There is no country in the region that is more affected by the continuing conflict in Afghanistan than is Pakistan," a senior administration official told reporters Thursday at a briefing about the trip. "And there is no country in the region that we believe can have more influence in trying to bring that conflict to an end than Pakistan."

    Administration officials are also supporting a broader peace initiative involving the other neighbors of Afghanistan: Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and China.

    Brahimi has recently visited most of those countries to urge them to assist in disarming the Afghan factions, which get varying degrees of support from outside Afghanistan.

    The United States wants peace in the region for commercial reasons as well. Unocal, the U.S. oil company, is interested in building a pipeline from Central Asia through Afghanistan, but has been advised not to sign contracts until there is a recognized government in Kabul.

    Human rights issues will also be raised with Afghans on both sides of the continuing civil war, U.S. officials said. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called the Taliban's treatment of women "despicable" on a visit to Pakistan last year, and the epithet still rankles in Kabul.

    Richardson's trip, which will begin with a visit to Bahrain and the U.S. aircraft carrier Independence in the Persian Gulf, will in some measure lay the groundwork for a visit to the area by President Clinton, tentatively scheduled for the fall. No U.S. president has visited the region since Jimmy Carter went to India in 1978.

    On his 10-day trip through the region, Richardson also expects to visit Bangladesh and India, where he will be the first U.S. official to meet with the new government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, as well as Sri Lanka, which is celebrating its 50th year of independence.

    After his visit to South Asia, Richardson plans to attend a meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, of Southeast Asian and other nations that have joined to form a working group known as the friends of Cambodia. This informal group is monitoring events leading up to a Cambodian election July 26.

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