Warlords with Weapons and Schism Make Afghan Power-Sharing Tough

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AFP via Middle East Times international edition - 21 Dec 2001

Warlords with weapons and schism make Afghan power-sharing tough

by Catherine Hours 

KABUL, DEC 21 (AFP)--Afghanistan's new power-sharing government that
takes office Saturday is an uneasy compromise between ethnic groups
that also share a strong mutual distrust.

With ethnic Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras and other minorities
jostling for position - and a lot of warlords and weapons between
them - Hamid Karzai's interim administration could easily unravel
during his six months in office.

Coming out of two decades of conflict in a country with little
respect for central power will only make the test more difficult for
Karzai.

For now at least, the 43-year-old Pashtun ally of former king
Mohammad Zahir Shah has the backing of the international community.

The first weeks of the 30-member administration will play a
determining role in the relations between the rival members.

The cabinet is made up of 11 Pashtuns, eight Tajiks, five Shia Muslim
Hazaras, three Uzbeks and three from other minorities.

Despite the numbers, the ethnic Tajiks - who dominate the Northern
Alliance that kicked the Taliban out of Kabul - also dominate the
cabinet.

The defence, interior and foreign ministers - Mohammad Qasim Fahim,
Yoonis Qanoonis and Abdullah Abdullah - are all Tajiks from the
Panjshir Valley in northern Afghanistan.

Since Afghanistan hit the headlines for harbouring the planners of
the September 11 plane attacks on New York and Washington, the
country has received a lot of international goodwill for its plans to
rise out of the ashes of its war devastation.

According to diplomats, other nations want to believe that the Tajiks
have learned the lesson of 1992-1996 when they fought each other for
control of Kabul, killed countless thousands and left the city in
tatters.

And the new leaders have sought to reassure them.

"No single ethnic group can control Afghanistan alone," Fahim, a
Northern Alliance general, said this week.

"The commanders and the party chiefs all admit that they cannot solve
their problems through war. They know that they face a political
problem which must be solved politically," said Faizullah Jalal, a
professor of political science at Kabul University.

But on top of personal rivalries, Karzai must try to lay the base for
a strong government in a country where, despite a strong national
identity, Kabul has never controlled the provinces and local warlords
are always forming local alliances against each other.

Ismael Khan in the western city of Herat, Karim Khalili in Hazarajat
in the north and Haji Abdul Qadir at Jalalabad in the east are all
fearsome figures.

And Abdul Rashid Dostam in Mazar-i-Sharif, one of the fiercest of
all, has already criticised the makeup of the new government.

There has already been fighting against the Northern Alliance by
troops of some of the warlords in parts of northern Afghanistan which
only makes the population more anxious to see an international
security force arrive.

Re-establishing law and order among the chieftains will be the top
priority of Karzai's government.

"These military groups must transform themselves into political
parties," said the Kabul University professor. "They must learn to
accept that Afghanistan is a country for everyone."

Jalal added: "They are not yet working together but the international
community and public opinion will not let them start new wars. I hope
it will work, otherwise the situation will be very serious."

The international community will also be carefully watching the
attitude of Pakistan and Iran, which have traditionally delved into
Afghan affairs, often for the worse.

Olivier Roy, a noted expert on Afghanistan, said other nations must
make sure that the Kabul government is the only point of contact.

"People must not be allowed to play local powers off against the
central government," said the French researcher, pointing to the
visit on Monday of the Turkish foreign minister to Dostam in
Mazar-i-Sharif.


 
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