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Ghali's concern over situationNajib ousted militarycouncil takes overKABUL, April 16: TheAfghan governmentannounced on Thursdaythat President Najibullahhad been overthrown andhad tried to flee, but it stillheld out hopes that a politi-cal settlement of the coun-try's civil war was close.

F o r e i g n M i n i s t e r A b d u lW a k i l s a i d p o w e r h a d b e e nt r a n s fe r r ed to fo u r y ice^p res i -d e n t s a n d the e x e c u t i v e c o m -m i t t e e o f t h e r u l i n g W a t a nP a r t y . Peace will come soon. Eventsare evolving towards the restora-tion of peace in Afghanistan after along and dangerous war, he told anews conference.Wakil confirmed that Najibrema ined in Kabul but, calling it asensitive matter, refused to saywhere.

Najib, installed by the Soviets 'six years ago, lost power on Thurs-day to a coalition of Gene rals and akey Mujahideen commander asguerillas closed in on the capital,Afghan government official said.Foreign Minister Abdul Wakilconfirmed reports that the formerPres iden t was forced to give uphis authority when he triedto fleethe country. No organisation, no individual,could have threaten ed Najibullah'ssecurity. But Najib, because of thethreat of the restoration of peaceand the fear that he would have toanswer for some of his past deeds,tried to flee , he told reporters.Najibullah, he said, was stoppedat the airport by rebel militia.The Russian Itar-Tass newsagency said Afghan PresidentNaJliullW ibad^be en arrested.- >One report said that Najib hadtaken refuge in UN mission inKabul.Latest reports from Kabul said

that following the resignation ofthe President, powers had beenhand ed over to a group of four com-manders. They are: MohammadNabi Azami, Commander KabulDivision; Asif Dilawar, Chief ofArmyStaff Abdul M ohmin, a T ajiknational who turned out to be ahero following his disobedience ofPresident's orders; and Baba Jan,commander of Parwan provincewho helped Mujahideen captureBagram province.A senior General and InteriorMinister in Najib 's government,Ghulam Farooq Yakubi, shot him-self to dea th on Wednesday nigh t, asource close to him said.Yakubi rose to th e Interior M inis-try position after serving as Najib'sdeputy in the dreaded secret sec-urity organisation Khad.Wakil, once a close confidant ofNajibullah, said the former presi-dent and chief of Afghanistan'sKhad secret police was a hatedman.

I think after Najibullah it is notnecessary to talk about him. AsMujahideen brothers hated him,the Watan Party also hated him,Kabul Radio quoted Wakil as say-ing.The foreign minister, who heldtalks through the day with UN spe-cial envoy Benon Sevan, said heand the Watan leadership wereready to hand over power to a trans-itional council. We told Mr Sevan, according tothe previous agreement, we couldafter tomorrow, the day aftertomorrow , one week after this, givepower to the 15-man neutral coun-cil.

A top-ranking source told AFP inKabul that Mujahideen and rebelgovernment ttpops had announceda halt to tne'ir- advance on the dsjpi-tal 's northern approaches.However, Jamiat-i-Islami milit-ary committee chief MohammedAyoub said in Peshawar that forces

KABUL: Afghan PresidentNajibullah reported to have fledfrom his embattled capital is stillin Kabul ruling party sources saidon Thursday. R euter wirephotoAfghani s tan: ke y fac t s

Page 12under Ahmad Shah Massoud, whois affiliated with Jam iat, were stilladvancing on Kabul from the south.They were apparently in contactwith the Generals inside the city,Ayoub said. Military sources saidan expected announcement thatthe Generals were in control wasnot broadcast beca use it might givethe wrong impression in Kabul.Afghan governm ent sources saidUN Representative Benon Sevanhad just concluded a meeting withmembers of Najib's former polit-buro, but the details wereunknown.A senior Asian deplomat said aloose council of Generals and the m en around the airport were try-ing tofbbble togethjer.a*,able rul-ing council, but tha t at the moment it is very tenous, very fragile.The men around the a irport 'were combat troops flown into the

capital on Wednesday by breaka-way militia General Abdul RashidDostam, who left Najib last monthto form a coalition with Mujahi-deen groups in the north.A spokesman for Dostam saidcoalition fighters had halted theiradvance .on the northernapproaches to Kabul. There is no threa t from thenorth. The advance from the northhas stopp ed. We cannot afford loot-ing and chaos in Kabul for the U.N.peace process to succeed, ColonelOmar Khan Agha said.Agha did not say how far the jointforces had come down the no rthernapproache s to the capital, but somereports reaching Kabul put theadvance troops at Mir Bachakot,about 30 kilometres (18.6 miles)north of the city.The important southernAfghanistan city of Ghazni and twowestern districts were captured onThursday by Afghan Mujahideen ,the Afghan Islamic Press said.

MOSCOW:Senior Rus sian minis-ters met in emergency session onThursday to discuss the crisis inAfghanistan and the fate of over100 former Soviet citizens still inthe country, once a close Moscowally.Television news said PresidentBoris Yeltsin ordered the meetingof his top defence, security andforeign affairs aides to discussways to ease th e crisis and pro tectcitizens of Russia and other Com-monwealth countries.The ministers decided to dis-patch a special envoy to the Afghancapital Kabul to explore mediationin the conflict and to seek therelease of prisoners of war from 10years of Soviet military interven-tion that end ed in 1989.Iranian Radio, monitored byBBC,' sJjtu ' a ' mi lita ry coun cil,headed by Bani Azmi, First DeputyDefence Minister of the Kabul

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regime, had assumed power.UN CHIEF: U.N. Secretary-Gen-eral Boutros Boutros-Ghali said onThursday he was disturbed by thefighting in Afghanistan and urgedall parties to pursue the politicalsolution envisaged by the UnitedNations.

The Secretary-General, in a pre-pared statem ent, and >his spokes-man gave no information aboutPresident Najibullah, who theAfghan government said had beenforced out of office.Spokesman Francois Giulianisaid reports had been coming toU.N. headquarters from specialenvoy Benon Sevan who is in theAfghanistan capital of Kabul. ButGiuliani could not confirm thatNajibullah had taken refuge in theU.N. compound in Kabul as newsreports indicated.Boutros-Ghali, who is visitingBeijing, said in his statement, hewas deep ly distu rbed by thenews from Sevan about develop-ments in Kabul and he expectedthe safety and freedom of move-m ent of U.N. staff to be resp ected . It is the view of the Secretary-General that the situation which isprevailing at this moment in Kabulrequires that the political solutionenvisaged by the United Nations benow pursued in earnest by all con-cerned.

The United Nations had envis-aged an orderly transfer of powerto a neutral council in Kabul. Dip-lomats fear that government com-manders defending Kabul mightnow be tempted to cut their owndeals with the reb els .Boutros Boutros-Ghali last Fri-day announced in Geneva thatagreement had been reached to setup a pre -transitional council torun the country until an interimgovernment could be appointed.Sevan was attempting to help setup th is council and had hoped for atarget of April 28 for Najibullah toleave office peacefully. This was not what he had inm ind , rem ark ed one U.S. envoy.Agencies/Radio rep orts.