Jihadi Presence Questioned
By Mohmmad Monir Mehraban in Kabul
(ARR No. 90, 22-Dec-03)
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
President Hamed Karzai's list of 54 selected delegates to the Loya
Jirga is raising some eyebrows among their 450 elected counterparts
and outside observers of the process.
The selected delegate list includes many of the jihadi leaders who
fought first the Soviets and then each other in Afghanistan's 23
years of war.
"Hamed Karzai with this action ignored a chapter of democracy," said
Dr Ghulam Habib Panjshiri, a social science professor at Kabul
University.
Ustad Massoud, an official at the Independent Commission for Human
Rights, said he believed Karzai had been heavily influenced by
questions of politics.
"Hamed Karzai has made an investment in the jihadi leaders for the
elections in Afghanistan in 2004," he told IWPR.
Top of the list of 54, which was expanded by two when Karzai
appointed two disabled people at the last minute, was Sibghatullah
Mujaddidi, who was briefly president of Afghanistan in 1992 when
Karzai served under him as deputy foreign minister.
Mujaddidi was elected chair of the Loya Jirga last Monday, and has
made his presence felt since. He ordered a woman delegate Malalai
Joya to be removed after she publicly protested at the dominance of
Afghanistan's wartime leaders at the gathering, only relenting when
other delegates supported her.
Other jihadi leaders include Pir Ahmed Gailani, Ayatollah Mohammad
Asef Muhseni, Ahmad Nabi Mohammadi, Mohammad Akbari, Abdul Rashid
Dostum and Ustad Farid. Other leaders from the jihad period like
Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and Burhanuddin Rabbani got to the assembly as
elected members, but many delegates feel the dominance of these
groups has been greatly increased by Karzai's list of selectees.
The country's largest circulation weekly Kilid magazine put a cartoon
on its cover last week showing a jihadi leader standing in the middle
of one of the committees at the Loya Jirga. A group of male and
female delegates are sitting round looking nervous with their hands
tied behind the backs. The jihadi leader says, "I think no one
disagrees with me, do they?"
In the absence of democratic political structures, many jihadi
figures still wield enormous influence in Afghanistan's political
life. Many retain their own private forces around the country.
Observers say Karzai has used the list to increase participation of
groups that had relatively weak representation in the body of elected
delegates. Some 26 of the 54 selected representatives are women -
only five of them were directly elected.
The list also includes other personalities from Afghan public life,
such as Kabul University president Akbar Popal, the deceased Northern
Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud's brother Wali Massoud, a head of
the small but influential Ismaili community Sayed Shah Naser Naderi
and Sardar Abdul Wali, the son-in-law of ex-king Zahir Shah.
Karzai's spokesman Jawed Ludin said the list had been selected to
increase the diversity of opinion in the jirga, but not with any
specific idea of accommodating jihadi factions.
"We can see that these members are visibly opposed to the draft
constitution," he said.
Mujaddidi said the selections proved this gathering was in keeping
with social justice.
"According to Islamic Law, and also the 1964 constitution, the head
of government has the right to introduce more than fifty people to
the Loya Jirga as selected members," he said.
Masouda Jalal, an elected delegate from Kabul, said the selected
delegates were all working for Karzai inside the tent.
"I see that even these people promise some privileges for the elected
members, to work for Karzai," she said.
Some delegates raised the fact that the list of representatives did
not cite these women's profession, unlike most of the other delegates.
Ludin said this was because some of them had no profession and were
wives and mothers, "We have given the right to house wives to attend
this Loya Jirga."
Mohmmad Monir Mehraban is participating in the IWPR Loya Jirga
reporting project.