Bonn Conference Participants Discuss Pashtoon Leader's Message

Delegations of four political Afghan groups to the UN conference on Afghanistan, which took place in Petersberg residence in the suburbs of Bonn, discussed the message of Said Hamid Karzai, a Pashtoon leader from the south of Afghanistan. Karzai spoke to the conferees on the phone. "The Afghans represented a poor but very strong nation united by common culture and belief in Islam, the religion of tolerance," said the Afghan leader. "It is time for the Afghans to take their fate in their own hands," he indicated. According to the press secretary of UN special representative in Afghanistan Ahmad Fauzi, the Afghan politicians who arrived in Bonn perceived this statement with approval. He stressed that all those taking part in the discussion confirmed their striving for peace, for values common to all mankind, for an intention to build a strong Afghan state. The conferees are expected to reconvene later at night to continue the discussion of the main agenda items, according to the organizers. The UN representative reckons that the Bonn conference will last for 3 to 5 days.