Afghan Rebel and U.N. Envoy Meet : Asia: Moderate guerrilla leader urges hard-liners to drop plans to attack the capital.

CHARIKAR, Afghanistan —  In a race between compromise and chaos, the U.N. envoy in Afghanistan met here for the first time Wednesday with Muslim rebel commander Ahmed Shah Masoud, who appealed to hard-line moujahedeen factions to drop their plans to attack Kabul and join a coalition Islamic government that could bring order to a crumbling nation.

Seated in a simple, two-story concrete home beside the U.N.’s Benon Sevan in his coalition stronghold about 35 miles north of Kabul, Masoud warned fundamentalist rebel leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar that he risks missing “the peace train” if he persists in an ultimatum that the fraying regime surrender before Sunday or face an all-out guerrilla assault.

“The issue is this,” Masoud, dressed in U.S. Army battle fatigues, said to a small group of journalists moments before he met Sevan. “In this sensitive situation, we expect the (moujahedeen) leaders--even if it is only this once--to rally around each other and create a united moujahedeen government.”

Masoud, who is emerging as a potential new leader for a moderate Islamic Afghanistan, added that he is in direct contact with every rebel faction leader except Hekmatyar.

Later in the day, after Sevan had returned to Kabul by army helicopter, he told The Times he was “very satisfied” with the meeting, adding an appeal to all other rebel commanders to follow Masoud’s example “and stay in place, shelve their guns and work together.”

Asked if he plans to meet Hekmatyar, Sevan said, “I look forward to seeing him as soon as possible and practicable, because the state of Afghanistan is at stake.”

This strategic, “liberated” coalition-led town north of Kabul was a peaceful place Wednesday, with regime soldiers and rebel commanders hugging, walking hand in hand and sharing rides on the hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles rumbling around town. But there were signs that Kabul, the capital, was growing more nervous, and the lawless Afghan countryside--already lost to the regime--was becoming more dangerous.

An Icelandic male nurse from the International Red Cross was shot to death at one of the hundreds of highway checkpoints that have carved up the nation into a checkerboard of rebel rule. He was shot by an armed sentry from Hekmatyar’s Hezb-i-Islami Party who, according to a witness, first leaned into his officially marked vehicle in the “liberated” town of Maidan Shah and said, “I don’t want infidels in Afghanistan.”

The road between the capital and Masoud’s stronghold in Charikar passes a patchwork of heavily armed bands, each controlling a mile or so of highway and each supporting different rebel parties. Through a landscape of fallow fields and villages long since bombed and rocketed into ruins, there are now dozens of checkpoints where armed men threaten, cajole and often demand rides at gunpoint.

Although factions loyal to Masoud’s Jamaat-i-Islami Party control the outer ring around the city, the rest of the highway up to the city limits of Charikar is controlled by Hekmatyar’s men--a logistic nightmare if the two factions should begin fighting.

Regime army officials who still control the Pol-i-Charki Prison outside Kabul, the dumping ground for thousands of political prisoners during the 13-year guerrilla war, said that most of the 97 military officers who were jailed after a bloody attempted coup in 1990 against the now-deposed strongman Najibullah were released along with 1,700 moujahedeen leaders and other dissidents as part of a general amnesty.

All are loyal to Hekmatyar, said a respected European analyst in Kabul. “They’re talking to people in all the military services, in the army, the secret police, the Interior Ministry and even the regime’s ruling party. It is potentially a built-in terrorist network if Hekmatyar decides to attempt to take the capital by force.”

To the south, senior military commanders said Hekmatyar’s forces have approached to within 16 miles of downtown Kabul. Masoud confirmed to the journalists that his forces helped stop the fundamentalists in their march toward the capital earlier this week.

Afghanistan’s crisis was touched off last week when, after the guerrillas began chalking up strategic victories in the countryside, a loose coalition led by Masoud, dozens of army generals and regime militia commanders--along with social democrats within the ruling party--joined to topple Najibullah.

On Tuesday, when it became clear that the guerrillas hold the future of the country, the interim regime that replaced Najibullah agreed to give up all powers to a moujahedeen government that represents all rebel factions.

A boastful Abdul Wakil, the foreign minister who joined in turning on Najibullah, asserted Wednesday that the army is still strong enough to hold the capital.

The besieged city, where few can afford even enough tea and bread and where most have taken to walking because fuel is so scarce, is “under the full control of the government and the armed forces,” said Wakil, who is acting as spokesman for the crumbling regime. It will remain so, he said, until the formation of an interim moujahedeen government.

But a top adviser to Masoud said that regime military units loyal to Hekmatyar and largely opposed to the emerging new coalition are already laying plans to stage terrorist attacks within the capital.

“We are very concerned,” said Abdul Rahman, Masoud’s political officer, outside the house where the commander was meeting with Sevan. “We are interested in the security of the people of Kabul.”

Hekmatyar received most of the U.S.-financed arms funneled by the CIA through Pakistan during the years Washington backed the moujahedeen’s struggle against 115,000 Soviet army invaders. But in assessing Hekmatyar’s military strength, Masoud concluded that it is far overrated.

“He doesn’t have a lot of power,” said the charismatic, 39-year-old commander, whose party split with Hekmatyar about the time the guerrillas began fighting the Afghan army and its Soviet supporters in 1979. “He doesn’t have as great a power as is believed. They are just small, scattered groups.

“If he had a lot of strength, he would already have entered Kabul.”

On the fate of Najibullah, who remains holed up in one of the many U.N. compounds in Kabul, Masoud hardened his stance. Three days ago, the commander told reporters that the fallen dictator should be allowed to leave. But Masoud’s coalition partner, the powerful Uzbek militia commander Gen. Abdul Rashi Dostam, has flatly refused U.N. envoy Sevan’s request for safe passage. Masoud took a similar stance Wednesday.

“My opinion is that it is better if Mr. Najibullah stays in Afghanistan,” Masoud said. “And whether he is released or he isn’t released is up to the Afghan nation.”

Masoud was reportedly hurt by Sevan’s failure to meet with him through months of negotiations over an impartial interim ruling council before Najibullah was overthrown. But on Wednesday he praised the U.N. effort.

Masoud told reporters that he endorsed the role of Sevan and the United Nations in helping form a moujahedeen ruling council, adding, “I believe and I am hopeful that a consensus can be reached with Mr. Hekmatyar.”