Assembly urges end to destructive conflict.

• Position: Afghanistan

The General Assembly on 19 December urged the leaders of all Afghan parties to "renounce the use of force and settle their political differences by peaceful means".

In adopting without a vote resolution 50/88, the world forum also called upon all States to "respect Afghanistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity", refrain from interfering in its internal affairs, and "stop the flow of arms and equipment related to arms production to all parties".

The international community was called upon to respond to the UN interagency consolidated appeal for $124 million emergency humanitarian and rehabilitation assistance for Afghanistan, launched by the Secretary-General for the period from 1 October 1995 to 30 September 1996, "bearing in mind the availability also of the Afghanistan Emergency Trust Fund".

`Yearning for peace'

The Afghan people, who remained "strongly opposed to foreign interference" in their country's internal affairs, had given "every indication of wishing to see" that peace became a "permanent condition", Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali reported (A/50/737 and Add.1) on 8 November. Moreover, many of them believed that, if all interested parties worked with the UN to "try to ensure that such interference ceases", they could "resolve their differences and achieve a lasting settlement and durable peace", he stated.

Indeed, "their yearning for lasting peace and stability, which have been denied them for too long, deserves the active support of the international community", the Secretary-General stressed.

There was a "significant common point"--the establishment of a "representative preparatory body to initiate a political process leading towards a lasting settlement"--in various peace plans that had been put forward, he went on. Although differences remained on the modalities, there seemed to be a "general consensus that such a preparatory mechanism is necessary if Afghanistan is to take the first crucial step out of the current impasse", Mr. Boutros-Ghali observed.

Afghanistan was "effectively controlled by three major military powers": President Burhanuddin Rabbani and his Commander, Ahmad Shah Massoud, together with their ally, Governor Ismael Khan of Herat province; General Rashid Dostum, mainly in the northern part of the country; and the Taliban in the south and south-eastern provinces. However, the Secretary-General reported, the general view of the Afghan people was that President Rabbani, whose mandate had expired...