[Peace-discuss] Loya Jirga's Silent Majority--Washington Post

[David Green]

Article from Washington Post:

By Omar Zakhilwal
Sunday, June 16, 2002; Page B07 


KABUL -- I am a member of the loya jirga's silent
majority -- or rather, silenced majority -- who came
here to Afghanistan's capital expecting to shape our
nation's future but instead find ourselves being
dragged back into the past.

We came from all parts of the country to claim our
freedom and democracy. Instead, we are being met with
systematic threats and intimidation aimed at
undermining our free choice. We came strengthened by
international declarations on human rights, but now
are facing international complicity in the denial of
our rights. We came to represent the diverse interests
of the entire Afghan nation, 1,500 delegates for 25
million people, but are being pressured to support the
narrow agenda of warlords and their foreign sponsors.
We came to inaugurate an inclusive and professional
transitional government, but instead are being
compelled to rubber-stamp the Bonn Agreement's unjust
power-sharing arrangements.

The fundamental question we face is this: Will the new
government be dominated by the same warlords and
factional politics responsible for two decades of
violence and impunity, or can we break with this
legacy and begin to establish a system of law and
professional governance?

The Afghan people have spoken clearly on this issue. I
recently participated in a U.N.-commissioned
assessment mission by the Center for Economic and
Social Rights. Our report documents widespread
agreement among all Afghans, from urban professionals
to landless farmers, that there should be no role for
warlords in the country's future, and that
international aid will be wasted unless the underlying
conditions of peace and security are first
established.

The same consensus holds in the loya jirga. I estimate
that at least 80 percent of delegates favor excluding
all warlords from the government. The 200 women
delegates are especially outspoken on this issue. In a
spontaneous display of democracy, they publicly
rebuked two powerful symbols of Afghanistan's violent
past -- Burhanuddin Rabbani, president of the
mujaheddin government from 1992 to '96, and Gen.
Mohammed Fahim, former intelligence chief and
currently defense minister in the interim government.

But because of behind-the-scenes pressure, our voices
are being silenced and the warlords empowered. Let me
give some concrete examples.

When the loya jirga opened, support for the former
king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, was extremely strong.
Rather than address the issue democratically, almost
two days of the six-day loya jirga were wasted while a
parade of high-level officials from the interim
government, the United Nations and the United States
visited Zahir Shah and eventually "persuaded" him to
publicly renounce his political ambitions.

When the loya jirga recommenced, the delegates were
surprised to be greeted by Afghanistan's 30 provincial
governors, none of whom was elected to the grand
assembly. It soon became apparent that their purpose
was to serve as arm-twisters for the interim
government, which is dominated by warlords from the
Northern Alliance. These men controlled less than 10
percent of the country before the fall of the Taliban
and therefore have little direct influence over most
loya jirga members.

But the governors are able to leverage their local
military and financial power to pressure delegates
from their provinces to support hand-picked candidates
allied to the Northern Alliance. At a gathering I
attended, one governor made his threat explicit: "You
are all with me. You will do what I tell you to do. If
you dare disobey, we all go back to our province after
this, don't we?" Such threats are enhanced by scores
of Interior Ministry agents circulating throughout the
loya jirga compound and openly intimidating outspoken
delegates.

Equally discouraging is the role played by
international organizations, especially considering
our high expectations for their support on human
rights issues. When I complained about our restricted
role, a top U.N. political adviser told me in no
uncertain terms that the loya jirga was not intended
to bring about fundamental political change, such as
ridding the government of warlords. Meanwhile, Zalmay
Khalilzad, U.S. special envoy on Afghanistan, has
caused disappointment in the loya jirga through
pressure tactics to undermine popular support for
Zahir Shah.

In reality, the loya jirga is being treated as a
ratification tool for backroom political deals. As one
example, the media have reported on the "voluntary"
decision of Interior Minister Yonus Qanooni to drop
his candidacy. But it is not being reported that he
may become prime minister in the new government, or
that his intended replacement is himself a member of
Qanooni's Northern Alliance faction.

I asked a taxi driver what he thought of the loya
jirga. The man shrugged his shoulders and pointed out
the window at Kabul's ruined landscape: "The same
people who destroyed these buildings are sitting in
the front row of the loya jirga."

On the first day of the loya jirga, we were filled
with hope and enthusiasm. Most of us stayed up past
midnight in spirited debates about the country's
future. By the third day, a palpable demoralization
had set in. Our time is being wasted on trivial
procedural matters. We feel manipulated and harassed.
Our historic responsibility to the Afghan nation is
becoming a charade.

We are in Kabul because we believe that participation
and democracy are more than words on paper. We are not
asking for much, after all: simply the right to
determine our own government and future in accordance
with the human rights ideals so loudly trumpeted by
the international community -- the same rights as all
other people.

The writer, a professor of economics in Ottawa,
Canada, co-authored a new human rights report on
Afghanistan for the Center for Economic and Social
Rights, a human rights group based in New York. 


© 2002 The Washington Post Company


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