Karzai Starts His Daunting Task [in Afghanistan]

Insight Magazine ^ | June 21, 2002 | Andrew Bushell

[xsysmgr]

KABUL, Afghanistan, June 20 (UPI) -- At his swearing in Afghanistan's transitional president Hamid Karzai said his task was to "win peace and stability" but his multi-ethnic cabinet includes some powerful figures noted for waging war and creating unrest.

Hours before his inauguration Karzai nominated three of Afghanistan's most potent warlords as deputy presidents. They are Mohammed Fahim, who is also the new defense minister, Haji Qadir, the governor of Nangahar province who has been described in various regional media as a drug baron, and Karim Khalili, a Hazara warlord.

Below that are the members of Karzai's cabinet, combining former ethnic rivals and technocrats, two of them until recently U.S. residents.

Observers believe that only time will tell whether Karzai has achieved the proper ethnic and political balance to break out of the regionalization of power which has turned Afghanistan into a fragmented nation wracked with regional and tribal rivalries.

Two of the three key ministries continue to be held by former high ranking Northern Alliance officials. Mohammed Fahim and Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah were both part of the Interim Authority set up by the U.N. following the Bonn conference for the express purpose of convening the loya jirga, or grand council. Younas Qanooni, the former head of the Interior Ministry, has been replaced by General Haji Taj Mohammed Wardak -- an American citizen and former resident of Los Angeles. Qanooni will now head the Ministry of Education.

Karzai is a tribal chief of the Pashtun majority group who occupy the southern part of Afghanistan. The Northern Alliance -- the main military opposition to the Taliban -- was a coalition of smaller ethnic groups, including the Uzbekis and the Tajikis.

Further emphasizing the new direction of his government, Karzai mentioned the Finance Ministry as a "key ministerial post." Ashraf Ghani, another American citizen and former professor at Johns Hopkins and World Bank official is the new Finance Minister.

According to a UN observer who declined to be named, "Numbering Finance among the key ministries was clearly an attempt to change the often brutal calculus of power politics which has marked the decade of civil war following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan."

There is a palpable change in the tone, if not yet the practice of Afghan politics -- President Karzai quoted General Abdurrashid Dostum, a warlord known for his often brutal tactics as saying, "I hope that people can forget warlordism and remember me as a champion of peace."

Less than a week ago Gen. Dostum's troops were involved in a pitched battle with forces under the control of Commander Ufta Ata, a rival for the control of the strategic city of Mazar-i-Sharif to the north.

In his pre-inaugural address, Karzai outlined the main goals of the new administration as development of Afghanistan's economy, and building the infrastructure and educational system. According to Karzai, "I don't want to see anyone reading books by candlelight. . . . I don't want Afghanistan to be a shameful country again."

The emergency loya jirga, an ancient tribal system left over from Genghis Khan for the resolution of national crises was called to select a transitional government for the next two years with the task of writing a new constitution for this landlocked nation and calling democratic elections.

Originally intended to run between 10 June and 16 June, the loya jirga has been extended amid reports that President Karzai was unable to reach consensus regarding the top four ministerial posts and the composition and form of a national assembly or shura.

Before being officially sworn into office by Chief Justice Shinwari, Karzai distributed medals to international dignitaries and elder delegates attending the loya jirga.

The assembly dissolved into chaos as delegates scrambled to the podium to receive the medals from Karzai. At one point the newly inaugurated president exclaimed, "Tomorrow I will stand here all day and give medals to all 1551 of you with my own hands, but today we will have to work."

"It is my responsibility to win peace and stability," Karzai says. At the moment balancing on a tightrope in a circus seems easier than accomplishing that daunting task.

[LibWhacker]

. . . but his multi-ethnic cabinet includes some powerful figures noted for waging war and creating unrest . . .

Oh, man! . . . Imagine Dubya saddled with a cabinet of machine-gun toting communists (aka, dems), anarchists, greenies, and islamists.

I wish Karzai luck, but think the chances of him making this work are about zilch. All it will take is one disgruntled faction pulling out and starting up the shelling again, and it's all over. The only hope is that they are all genuinely sick of war. OTOH, you can't teach an old dog new tricks.