ALMATY, Feb 11 (AFP)
Representatives from Afghanistan�s ruling Taliban and opposition forces led by Ahmad Shah Masood have completed their first round of talks in Ashkhabad, diplomatic sources in the Turkmen capital said Thursday.
The two sides reached an agreement on prisoner exchange and cease-fire conditions, Interfax cited unnamed sources as saying. That report could not be immediately confirmed.
Representatives for the Taliban, led by Deputy Foreign Minister Maulvi Abdur Rahman Zahid, arrived in Ashkhabad on Wednesday for the negotiations, Faisal Tirmizi, a diplomat in the Pakistani Embassy in Turkmenistan, told AFP.
Masood�s representatives arrived Tuesday for the peace talks, which were organised by the United Nations� special mission on Afghanistan, Tirmizi said.
Ashkhabad is considered neutral territory by both sides as Turkmenistan has maintained an even-handed policy toward the Taliban and its opponents.
The resource-rich Central Asian republic is keen for Afghanistan�s warring factions to reach a peace agreement so Turkmenistan can begin plans to build a natural gas export pipeline through Afghanistan to Pakistan.
Ruslan BEISOV, Rashid Dyusembayev
ALMATY, February 11
(THE GLOBE)
On Wednesday February 10, the Russian Prime Minister Yevgeniy Primakov met fractions and groups of the Russian Duma. The topic was political agreement between all the power branches. It seems that the agreement will become a reason of restructuring of the state system in Russia. All the fractions, excepting the �Yabloko� and communists, agreed to participate in debating the agreement draft. Yavlinskiy, as usual, was determined, however the Russian nation will hardly appreciate such determination. Zyuganov is ready to enter the discussion provided the interests of the CPRF are taken into consideration. In the course of the session a work group is to be elected to complete the document, Gennadiy Seleznev, Russian Duma speaker, stated. According to him, he materials drafted up by the Security Union and submitted to he Duma this week will serve the foundation of the agreement. Communist number 1 was argued by communist number 2, � No one took anything as foundation�, Zyuganov claimed immediately. He also added that Yevgeniy Primakov considered many ideas of the CPRF to worth attention.
The curiosity is that the idea of the CPRF�s proposals lies in re-distribution of powers between the authority branches and in fact establishment of a parliamentary republic.
The �Our Home Russia� (OHR), which moves towards political sunset, seems to support the idea. As the leader of the OHR fraction Vladimir Ryzhkov stated in the TV program �Hero of the Day� (NTV TV-channel), within the work group, which will finish off the agreement between the authority branches, there may be formed a constitution commission or a group that will be in charge of drafting up amendments to the Russian Constitution. Moreover, Pimakov seems to support Ryzhkov. As the latter said, the Prime recognized there is a number of serious arguments that scale towards amendments to the Constitution.
On Thursday, i.e. yesterday, all the fractions save for the �Yabloko� delegated their representatives for the work group. Yesterday Gennadiy Seleznev proposed made another speech in the conclusion of the Duma Council session stating that the work group should hold the first session on Monday, February 15. Seleznev is not going to participate in the wok personally, however he wills to co-ordinate commission�s activity. As Seleznev believes, the final draft will be ready by early next week.
It is very likely that both Duma and Boris Yeltsin recognized the necessity of such an agreement in order to ensure political stability in the country.
However, no one may notice that the communists and the President will be the main critics of the agreement. These two conflicting parties cannot reject their views and come to a consensus so fast, especially the CPRF.
The communists have been criticizing the President so actively and often that taking into consideration the up-coming elections they cannot risk of the electorate�s opinion. At the same time, President Yeltsin will hardly like the idea of re-distribution of powers and in fact parliamentary government.
Yuriy Luzhkov, in this situation about the agreement, is very careful in cautious. He seems to create a new behavior strategy as his present tactics is based, to put it softly, on appeal to early elections. In the agreement is concluded such strategy will fail. At the moment the Moscow mayor Luzhkov has two ways. He either may criticize the agreement, i.e. all the signors, in Yavlinskiy�s manner or he should try to be initiative and become a devotee of political �reconciliation�.
Translation � INSEL K. N.