Posted on 06/12/2002 12:42:58 AM PDT by HAL9000
DOZENS OF AFGHAN LOYA JIRGA DELEGATES WALK OUT, SAY ANGRY AT LACK OF FREE VOTEMORE ...
Updates will be posted when available...
Angry Afghan Delegates Walk Out of Loya Jirga
June 12, 2002 03:07 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Dozens of Afghan delegates walked out of the Loya Jirga assembly on Wednesday, saying they were angry at the lack of a free vote to choose the next leader of their war-shattered country.
The Loya Jirga, a traditional Afghan parliament, was preparing to vote for a president with Hamid Karzai, interim leader and favorite of the United States, the sole candidate, which has prompted protests the process was undemocratic.
Former king Mohammad Zahir Shah announced at the opening of the meeting on Tuesday he did not want to restore the monarchy and threw his support behind Karzai.
Zahir Shah's words were greeted with a wave of applause and it appeared Karzai took that as a signal that he had been elected -- even though no vote had taken place -- and he mistakenly declared afterward he had been acclaimed leader.
Karzai's claim -- which he later acknowledged to have been an error -- added to the confusion and tension surrounding a much-heralded meeting that had already been delayed by a day due to factional bickering.
Peacekeepers, Afghan Forces Brawl Near Loya Jirga
June 12, 2002 02:34 AM ET
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - German peacekeepers, Afghan police and private bodyguards engaged in a brawl on Wednesday as delegates arrived for the second day of a Loya Jirga grand assembly called to elect a new government for Afghanistan.
Witnesses and police said the German troops, from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), first fought with the bodyguards of a prominent delegate to the assembly, Ahmad Wali Masood, after they refused to be disarmed.
Afghan police and security officials then stepped up, surrounding some German troops, pointing their guns at them and engaging in brief hand-to-hand fighting. No shots were fired but some of the bodyguards sustained minor injuries.
"The Germans have no translator but they said Masood's bodyguards pointed their guns at them and that is why they wanted to disarm them," one police official told Reuters.
Security was promptly strengthened at the site of the Loya Jirga, with the ISAF sending four armored vehicles to the area.
The clash appeared to reflect a deep-seated suspicion of foreign interference and military presence in a country that has a long history of struggle against foreign domination and which threw out the British in the 19th century and the Soviets in the 1980s.
"I think the ISAF has overstepped its limits somewhat," a senior defense official told Reuters.
"It must learn to keep within its boundary."
Masood is the brother of assassinated Northern Alliance hero Ahmad Shah Masood. No further details were immediately available but the ISAF was due to make a statement later in the day.
The Loya Jirga went behind closed doors on Wednesday after a dramatic opening day in which the interior minister resigned, the former king withdrew from any bid for power and the interim leader, the urbane Hamid Karzai, said he had been voted president and then that he had made a mistake.
Delegates were later shown on television engaged in lively debate on how many candidates were running for president, and procedures for voting for the head of the Loya Jirga Commission.
This does smell pretty bad. With all the factions and tribes in that country, you'd think there'd be no shortage of aspiring candidates. Why is Karzai the only one?
Could be a false impression but it looks like it's all coming apart at the seams...
Here's an idea...
Let's throw them all out of the place and make Afghanistan a new practice bombing range to replace the Puerto Rican range that everyone is griping about down there.
We might get lucky and hit an al queda member or two?
(grin)
Not unlike the Egyptian Sadat's final mission of peace with Israel It was a given the fundamentalists would get him before he died of natural causes.
The first leader of Afghanistan has an impossible job, and Iran will seek to remove him for certain because an Afghanistan friendly to the US is a threat to their fundamentalism and may incite revolution in their already seething state. And remnants of al-Qeada want to see him gone so they can use Afghanistan as a base, and any form of government there which is able to restore a semblance of order means a government under which they will have a hard time operating. And some Pakistani intelligence officers, because they do not like the idea of an Afghanistan friendly to India. And some wealthy scumbags in Saudi Arabia and Yemen want to take him out in order to prevent future competition, and because of their own attachment to the idea of an inslamic fundamentalist state. And all the terrorists need a new place for training camps now...they wouldlike to have an anarchic state around in which they can be free to do as they pleased to prepare their holy warriors. And perhaps China, which doesn't care for an American neighbor friendly to India or the US either.
Some Say U.S. Rigged Loya Jirga
By KATHY GANNON
Associated Press Writer
June 12, 2002, 3:50 PM EDT
KABUL, Afghanistan -- When Hamid Karzai's opponents quit the race for Afghan head of state at this week's loya jirga, many Afghans saw it as a sign of heavy-handed U.S. interference in what was supposed to be an all-Afghan selection process.
"Everything seems to have been decided. But, we don't need anyone to decide for us," delegate Asella Wardak complained Wednesday. "We have had enough of foreign interference in our country."
Secretary of State Colin Powell has denied the United States is manipulating the loya jirga -- the grand council convened to establish a new transitional government. Powell said in Washington on Tuesday that the American role was limited to creating the conditions under which the 1,550 Afghan delegates could "find their way into the future in accordance with their traditions and their processes."
However, Sam Zarifi, of the New York-based Human Rights Watch, accused the Bush administration of "brazen" interference in the loya jirga, which had been promoted as the birth of Afghan democracy.
The controversy over the American role at the loya jirga erupted Monday because of U.S. efforts to resolve a power struggle between ethnic Tajiks from the former northern alliance and Pashtun followers of the former monarch, Mohammad Zaher Shah.
Although the ex-king had indicated for months he did not want to restore the monarchy, support for him was growing among delegates who saw Zaher Shah as the only figure capable of unifying this factious country after 23 years of war.
However, an ethnic Tajik clique from the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul had long opposed any role for the aged former monarch. The Panjshiris, who led the northern alliance and maintain a powerful position in the interim government, had long suspected that Zaher Shah's close aides would try to install him as head of state.
Those fears were heightened when Saddar Wali, the former king's son-in-law, said in a statement last weekend that Zaher Shah would play whatever role the loya jirga requested of him.
According to a European official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim, an ethnic Tajik, warned Karzai late Sunday that his faction's delegates would withdraw from the loya jirga unless the former king guaranteed he would seek no political post. He also threatened to place his troops on alert.
With a major crisis developing, the opening session of the loya jirga was postponed by a day as meetings were held to resolve the conflict. On Monday afternoon, the special U.S. envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, told a news conference the former monarch wanted no role in the new government and would say so in a statement.
Hours later, Khalilzad sat with Zaher Shah, Karzai and Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah while an aide to the former monarch read a statement disavowing any role in the new government. The following day, the head of the northern alliance, Burnahuddin Rabbani, also bowed out of the race for head of state, leaving Karzai as the sole major candidate.
The United States has long supported Karzai, an urbane Pashtun fluent in English whose siblings live in the Washington area. Before Rabbani dropped out, Khalilzad appeared at the loya jirga site Monday night where, according to international officials, he lobbied delegates to support Karzai.
Khalilzad acknowledged visiting the site but said he was mobbed by delegates seeking his opinion. He also denied applying pressure on Zaher Shah to make his statement.
Other Western officials in Kabul say the United States has a special interest in seeing that the loya jirga approves a government to its liking because of the search for Taliban and al-Qaida fugitives.
The United States was strongly criticized for supporting Muslim fighters in their war against the Soviets in the 1980s, then losing interest in the country after Moscow withdrew its troops in 1989. Many of those same men are currently participating in the loya jirga.
Afghans have a long history of rejecting anything that smacks of foreign domination. A government seen to be dictated by the United States could have trouble winning broad acceptance.
"Our American friends and allies have two agendas at the same time," said Klaus-Peter Klaiber, the European Union representative. "And that is very difficult to do."
Finance Minister Amin Arsala told The Associated Press he feared backroom deals had denied delegates a chance to make their own choices for the transitional government. Seema Samar, the minister of women's affairs, called the loya jirga a "rubber stamp," saying all the decisions had been made in advance.
"But the Americans are not so well acquainted with Afghan society," said Aqmal, whose daughter is a loya jirga delegate. "They are backing the groups with the weapons, but it could be a problem for them later."
On the streets of Kabul, however, some people felt international pressure was not an altogether bad thing, given the country's recent history.
"Sometimes our leaders left to themselves will fight and nothing will get done," said Yar Mohammed. "This will bring them together. America is good."
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