Afghanistan: government of national unity urged.

• Position: Includes related articles on restrictions on women and opium production in Afghanistan

The Security Council on 22 October called upon all Afghan parties "immediately to cease all armed hostilities, to renounce the use of force, to put aside their differences and to engage in a political dialogue aimed at achieving national reconciliation and a lasting political settlement of the conflict and establishing a fully representative and broad-based transitional government of national unity".

By unanimously adopting resolution 1076 (1996), the Council also stressed that the main responsibility for finding a political solution to the conflict lay with the Afghan parties. It called upon all States to "refrain from any outside interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan, including the involvement of foreign military personnel", and also "immediately to end the supply of arms and ammunition to all parties to the conflict".

All Afghan parties were called upon to cooperate with the United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan, and fulfil their commitments regarding the safety of United Nations and other international personnel in the country, "not hamper the flow of humanitarian assistance", and cooperate fully with the United Nations and other organizations and agencies in their efforts to "respond to the humanitarian needs of the people of Afghanistan".

The Council denounced the "discrimination against girls and women" and other violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Afghanistan, and noted with deep concern "possible repercussions on international relief and reconstruction programmes".

'Open aggression'

Continued silence by the Security Council in the face of "open and naked aggression" against Afghanistan would constitute a "blow to the essence of the United Nations", Afghanistan's Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Rahim Ghafoorzai told the Council on 16 October, as 27 speakers took part in a day-long orientation debate on the situation in that country.

When the Taliban movement had invaded Kabul on 27 September, it had been "accompanied by Pakistani military officers and militias", he went on.

Since the invasion of Kabul, women had been forced to leave their jobs, girls had been turned out of schools, and some 250,000 refugees had fled to northern Afghanistan, Mr. Ghafoorzai stated.

Sahibzada Muhammad Nazeer Sultan of Pakistan said the present conflict in Afghanistan dated from the refusal of President Burhanuddin Rabbani to step down at the end of his term in June 1994, thus triggering "widespread...