Borzou Daragahi in Kabul
In the centre courtyard of a Soviet-built apartment
complex, a crowd of nearly 400 men help decide the future of
their nation. They are voting on candidates for the loya
jirga, the Afghan grand assembly that will chart the
strife-ridden country's direction.
But the Friday afternoon gathering is a poorly organised
event. The participants heard about it only by word of mouth.
And when it comes time to vote, the candidates are chosen by
popular acclaim rather than secret ballot. There is not even a
show of hands.
Despite official enthusiasm, Afghans across the political
and ethnic spectrum have been complaining that the loya jirga
is a shoddy process meant to give the stamp of approval to the
United States-backed regime of Hamid Karzai rather than offer
a political voice to the people.
'I was hopeful before,' said Fahim Dashty, editor-in-chief
of Kabul Weekly. 'Now, it seems that the whole thing has been
prearranged.' Loya jirga - Pashtun for 'grand assembly' - is a
300-year-old Afghan political meeting meant to create and
confer legitimacy upon a new government for Afghanistan, a
country divided by severe ethnic and geographic rifts.
The last such meeting was convened by the mujahedeen
following the collapse of the Soviet-backed government of
Mohammad Najibullah. That meeting ultimately led to intense
civil war among the various mujahedeen factions and to what is
largely considered to be the worst period in Afghanistan's 23
years of war.
This loya jirga - to take place from June 10 to 16 - will
follow the US-led destruction of the Taleban regime and amid
the presence of mostly Western peacekeepers in and around the
capital. The assembly's mandate is to decide upon an 18-month
temporary government: a president, an organisational
structure, key ministers and a 111-member parliament. After
the 18 months are up, new elections for a permanent government
will be held.
But no one in Afghanistan - from restaurant employees to
top government officials or even loya jirga officials - seems
quite clear how exactly the process is supposed to work. And
in the absence of solid information, many ordinary people - in
Kabul, the central Afghan city of Bamiyan and the fiercely
independent Panjshir Valley - expressed deep scepticism. 'This
is nothing but a way for the Americans to keep the Karzai
Government in power,' said Hamed, a 27-year-old Kabul
resident.
It doesn't help that during the war against the Taleban,
American bombs blew up Radio Afghanistan's 500kw transmitters,
disabling the station and preventing its use to inform the
country about the loya jirga. Broadcasting officials say they
will have a satellite hook-up to powerful transmitters in
Dubai and Norway up by June 10, in time to report to the world
about the loya jirga once it begins, but not in time to inform
ordinary Afghans beforehand. In the provinces, well beyond
radio broadcasts from Kabul, people have little or no
information.
Officials say there has been an attempt to encourage groups
such as women to participate in the political process. Of the
1,500 loya jirga slots, 160 are slated for women. 'We have to
have more rights,' says Soraya Pelika, a woman member of the
loya jirga commission. 'But it's a little too early to be
discussing exactly what rights women should have in the future
Afghanistan.'
The rights of minority groups may be the most important
issue facing Afghanistan today. Though both Mr Karzai and the
now-returned King Zaheer Shah are of Pashtun origin, many
Pashtuns, who make up 39 per cent of Afghanistan's demographic
mix, resent the fact that Panjshiris of Tajik origin dominate
both the military and the Government. Meanwhile, Tajiks, who
make up a quarter of Afghanistan - along with Hazaras (19 per
cent) and Uzbeks (six per cent) - believe they defeated the
Pashtun-dominated Taleban fair and square and deserve the
spoils of war. The volatile ethnic balancing act is becoming
an enormous headache for officials.
'Unfortunately in this country there are always people who
are trying to act in their own interests and sabotage the
electoral process,' said Abdul Aziz Ahmad, head of the loya
jirga commission.
The shakiness of the Government is made all the more dire
by the increasing power and influence of the warlords. The
Karzai Government has the backing of international forces in
and around Kabul. But the provinces are the domain of
warlords.
Top officials, who candidly acknowledge the loya jirga's
deficiencies and pitfalls, urge patience. One of the first
acts of the new government will be to convene a human rights
commission to investigate the crimes and abuses that took
place during the past 23 years, a UN official said.
'First, we strengthen the position of the central
government,' said Atta Mohammad Pouya, a top-level Karzai
adviser. 'Then we deal with issues such as the warlords.'
