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Posted on 06/10/2002 11:35:58 PM PDT by HAL9000
Role of the former king: threaten of withdrawal of deputy in Loya Jirga
Tuesday June 11, 2002 - 6h03 GMT
KABUL, June 11 (AFP) - a delegate in Loya Jirga affirmed that "many delegates" threatened to withdraw themselves some as of the opening of the assembly, Tuesday, to protest against the advertisement, according to them which had with American pressures, that former king Zaher Shah would not be candidate at the post of head of the State.
The decision of the former monarch announced Monday shocked many of its partisans, declared with the AFP Faizal Ahmad, delegated central province of Ghazni.
"After the opening speech of Zaher Shah, the delegates will ask him why he is not candidate, why he then returned from Rome. If the answer is not satisfactory, I think that many delegates will leave the assembly ", has it says.
Interrogations and criticisms emerged on the American attitude after the American emissary for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad had convened a press conference Monday in Kabul to affirm before the former monarch himself that Zaher Shah was not candidate.
The brother-in-law of the former king, Homayoun Assefy Shah, showed the United States to have made "strong pressures" on Zaher Shah so that it is withdrawn, in spite of the wish of many delegates of this Loya Jirga.
This large Afghan traditional assembly which must define the future government of the country, will begin Tuesday after a 24 hours carryforward due to the dissensions on the role from the former king, deposited in 1973.
The American State Department stated Monday not to have a position on the precise political role which the former king should play.
"We always said that it had a role to play" but "to know how will be defined this role during Loya Jirga is something which returns to the Afghans themselves", the spokesman of the American ministry of the Foreign Affairs declared, Richard Boucher.
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