[A-List] Afghanistan: the blowback continues

["Keaney Michael" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

Chaos delays launch of loya jirga
IAN BRUCE
The Herald, 11 June 2002

THE opening session of Afghanistan's first grand electoral council
meeting for 23 years was postponed amid growing confusion over the
status of the former king and the chaotic accreditation of delegates.

Afghan officials said the 24-hour delay was owing to "logistical and
preparatory problems". Diplomatic sources said it was caused by a bitter
row between Pashtun representatives keen to restore the monarchy and
powerful Uzbek and Tajik warlords opposed to King Mohammed Zaher Shah,
also a Pashtun, playing any role in the new state.

Lieutenant-Colonel Helen Wildman, spokeswoman for the international
peacekeeping troops in Kabul, said she understood the confusion was down
to procedure and not security concerns.

More than 2000 delegates turned up demanding entry to the giant German
beer-tent set up as the venue for the traditional loya jirga,
overwhelming arrangements for the 1500 tribal elders and locally-elected
councillors expected by UN and interim government officials.

Dozens of men claiming to represent the country's four million refugees
and displaced villagers accosted harassed civil servants, waving
petitions and insisting on a vote and a voice.

A UN spokesman said: "The loya jirga's composition was carefully worked
out so that all sections of society would be represented and have a hand
in selecting a new administration and drawing up a blueprint for a new
constitution.

"At least 500 more delegates than we expected have arrived. There is no
way to check the legitimacy of most. No-one knows how many Afghans there
are in the country, far less where many of them are. Refugees are
scattered from Iran to Pakistan. It is chaos on a grand scale."

Abdul Salam Rahimi, a spokesman for the organisers, said: "We are
drawing up a final list of delegates who can vote."

In an effort to resolve the constitutional question, Mohammed Zaher
Shah, who only recently returned after decades of exile in Italy,
declared he had no intention of restoring the monarchy and endorsed the
candidacy of Hamid Karzai, the current interim president, as head of
state.

However, the warlords, whose Northern Alliance soldiers helped defeat
the Taliban last year, suspect a Pashtun plot to dominate a future
government.

Afghanistan's history is scarred by persecution of ethnic groups by
whoever is in power. The majority Pashtuns supported the Taliban and
killed Uzbeks, Tajiks, and Hazzaras. The Tajiks took revenge on the
Pashtun, and allied with the others to fight them in a five-year civil
war.

Negotiations were understood to be going on to award the plum interior
and foreign ministries to Pashtun candidates if the Tajiks retained
defence and the king was out of the equation.