markedly more senior and experienced figure than any mediator
since Cordovez. Formerly Foreign Minister of Algeria, he had head-
ed UN peace missions in Haiti (after the US intervention) and
South Africa (in the run-up to the 1994 election), and was widely
regarded as one of the most skilled negotiators in the UN. His
appointment signalled a new seriousness on the UN’s part. On 20
October 1999, after over two years of intense involvement with the
Afghanistan issue, he announced his intention to ‘stand aside’, but
added ‘if things change next week I shall be happy to come back’.
The Secretary-General then appointed another senior UN official,
Francesc Vendrell of Spain, to head the Special Mission as his
Personal Representative, with the rank of Assistant Secretary-
General. During his sabbatical, Ambassador Brahimi went on to
chair a high-level panel which produced a major report on UN
peace operations, but it was clear that he had not given up working
on Afghanistan; rather, he was conserving his considerable personal
authority for the moment when the conflict might somehow ripen
for a settlement. As things turned out, he did not have long to wait.
Terrorism and sanctions
The catalyst for change in Afghanistan, and the fatal mistake of the
Taliban, was their decision to provide hospitality to the Saudi
extremist Osama Bin Laden. He abused their hospitality in a
shameless fashion, and they paid the ultimate price. His presence
in Afghanistan surfaced as a matter of concern for the USA short-
ly after the Taliban takeover of Kabul, when it became clear that
Bin Laden was still in Afghanistan under Taliban protection. But it
was in August 1998 that the problem became acute. On 7 August,
suicide car bombers blew up the US embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania (Bergen, 2001a: 105–26). The USA concluded that Bin
Laden was to blame, and on 29 May 2001, four associates of
Bin Laden were convicted by a US court of offences related to the
bombings (Bergen, 2001b). Almost two weeks after the attacks, on
20 August, President Clinton ordered that terrorist training camps
run by Bin Laden near Jalalabad be hit with ‘Tomahawk’ cruise
248 The Afghanistan Wars