Afghan leader tells U.S. Congressman of peace plan .
Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL 1996-08-27
Afghan government military chief Ahmad Shah Masood briefed visiting U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher on Tuesday on a peace plan for his wartorn country .
A spokesman for Masood said he had told the California Republican at a meeting in northern Kabul that President Burhanuddin Rabbani 's government favoured talks with all Afghan factions to set up an interim government .
The factions should agree to appoint a transitional leader , draft a new constitution , collect heavy weapons , create a national army and hold free elections in which the transitional leader would be barred from standing , he added .
Rohrabacher flew into Bagram military airbase north of Kabul in a Red Cross plane on Tuesday after meeting northern opposition militia leader General Abdul Rashid Dostum .
Masood 's spokesman Amrollah ( one name ) said Rohrabacher had recently visited Italy , Saudi Arabia and Pakistan as part of a mission to promote peace in Afghanistan .
" We are certainly serious more than before to find a solution to the Afghan problem and support every U.N. plan , " Amrollah quoted Rohrabacher as saying .
However , a spokesman for Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar , a long-time rival of Masood , expressed concern at signs of renewed U.S. interest in Afghanistan .
" America wants to block the establishment of a strong Islamic government in Afghanistan and the U.S. intends to neutralise the Afghan peace process initiated by the Afghans themselves , " said the spokesman , Hamid Ibrahimi .
" A great game has been started in Afghanistan as America feels that Tehran and Moscow have got stronger in the Afghan picture -- something Washington wants to change , " he said .
Rohrabacher was expected to visit neutral faction leaders in the eastern city of Jalalabad and meet leaders of the rebel Islamic Taleban militia in the southern city of Kandahar .
Afghan guerrilla factions have been locked in a bloody power struggle since the fall of the communist government in April 1992 .
Hekmatyar , once Rabbani 's main rival , made a peace pact with him and rejoined the government as prime minister in June .