Politicians have their day in Afghanistan
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KABUL - Afghanistan's presidential and provincial elections opened on Thursday
to the sound of rockets and amid fears of violence and a low turnout from the
17 million eligible voters.
There were reports of Taliban rocket attacks early in the morning, including in
Kunduz in the north, Ghazni province southwest of the capital Kabul and in the
southern city of Kandahar, where the Taliban are particularly active. There
were also reports of a gun battle in Kabul in which two militants were shot
dead by police.
The Taliban have vowed to disrupt the polls, saying that anyone who votes will
be treated the same as the occupying troops. On the eve of the polls, the
Taliban distributed leaflets on the outskirts of Kabul in the Shah Shaheed
area, the biggest Pashtun
slum in the city, telling people to stay away from voting booths. In provinces
such as Ghazni and Logar, the Taliban have prevented droves of people from even
registering.
Thousands of security forces have been mobilized in Kabul and the city has a
ghostly air as people are staying at home, many of them clearly spooked by the
twin attacks on Wednesday. In one incident, three gunmen seized control of a
commercial bank and engaged in an extended firefight with police before they
were killed.
On Tuesday, the Taliban launched a brazen attack on a checkpoint in the Gumrak
area on the outskirts of the city. This is a particularly heavily guarded
district as it is a major entry point into Kabul. By striking here, and killing
seven people and injuring scores of others, the Taliban were sending a strong
message that they have the capacity to strike at will wherever they want. The
dead included coalition soldiers and Afghans working for the United Nations,
officials in Kabul said.
Karzai has his head in front
Going into Thursday's vote, President Hamid Karzai headed the opinion polls,
but it could be a close call as to whether or not he receives the 51% of the
total votes cast to avoid a runoff against the second-placed candidate.
Trailing Karzai are former foreign minister Dr Abdullah Abdullah, former
planning minister Ramzan Bashardost and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani
Ahmadzai, who hails from the largest Pashtun tribe (Ahmadzai) of Afghanistan.
Preliminary results are expected Saturday.
These leading contenders are generally viewed in the international community as
"respectable", as opposed to the many powerful warlords in the country.
However, Karzai does have the backing of ethnic Uzbek warlord General Abdul
Rashid Dostum.
Karzai also has the backing of the (political) Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan (HIA),
the largest party in Afghanistan; the Ittehad-e-Islami Afghanistan and its
leader Professor Abdul Rab Rasool Sayyaf (leader of the opposition in the
National Assembly); and Tajik Ismail Khan, a mujahideen hero from the western
city of Herat. Abdullah has the support of the Jamiat-e-Islami Afghanistan and
Ghani the backing of his tribe.
"We didn't have a choice. Hamid Karzai was the best of them all," Abdul Hadi
Argundawal, the president of the Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan, told Asia Times
Online at his office in Khushal Khan Mina in Kabul.
Hadi did not reveal that while the HIA is the largest political party, it lacks
resources and it has received funds from the president's office in return for
support of Karzai and its condemnation of the insurgency.
Initially, the HIA had decided to abstain as it was not too keen on Karzai.
This resulted in a massive crackdown throughout Afghanistan on the HIA, with
hundreds of its workers arrested for allegedly siding with the insurgency.
Afghan intelligence, deeply infested with former communists, took the
opportunity to settle old scores against the HIA, which had been at the
forefront of the fight against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the
1980s. In this situation, the HIA was forced to announce its support for
Karzai.
In a similar manner, former Taliban leaders have been courted by Karzai. Moulvi
Arsala Rehmani, who served as a minister during the Taliban's rule from
1996-2001, has a comfortable house in Kabul. The residence, guards and cars are
paid for by the government.
In return, his job in the coming days is to announce a possible truce between
elements of the Taliban and the government in an effort to build the trust of
Afghans in democracy.
"So far we have very basic contacts with the Taliban, but I assure you that
within a week the situation will take a turn," Rehmani, who is now a senator,
told Asia Times Online.
A dissenting voice
Not everyone thinks the elections are a good thing. Former interim Afghan prime
minister Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai, who ran against Karzai in the 2005 presidential
elections, is now dismissive of the process.
"Will this [election] change the situation on the ground, which is that this is
not a democratic election process but a pure occupation agenda? Will this
gimmick legitimize the occupation?" asked Ahmad Shah, considered one of the
richest people in Afghanistan.
Ahmad Shah told Asia Times Online his participation in 2005 had been a mistake.
"I will not repeat that mistake. I made it because I thought the foreigners
were here for the reconstruction of Afghanistan and to build democracy in the
country. But in the past seven to eight years they have only contributed to its
destruction.
"Recently, I was given an audience at a NATO [North Atlantic Treaty
Organization] conference in Kabul and I made it clear to General Stanley
McChrystal [the top US commander in Afghanistan] that the Afghan nation sees
them [foreign troops] as occupiers, not as friends," said Ahmad Shah.
An additional 30,000 US troops have been sent to Afghanistan this year, taking
the size of the coalition international force above 100,000 for the first time,
including 63,000 Americans.
"Even during the Soviet invasion, Soviet troops never knocked on the doors of
people after dusk, but these 'friends' of ours not only raid houses in the
night with sniffing dogs, they don"t even spare the women.
"They have established military jails where only Afghan Pashtuns are kept
without trail and their stooges like Dr Abdullah Abdullah are announcing in
their election campaigns that after the elections, they will legalize the whole
process.
"Instead of re-assembling the Afghan professional army [of 1992], they are
trying to recruit amateurs who are in their teens and 20s. Half the recruits
flee after training. Will this ever raise an independent Afghan national army?
You can judge for yourself whether this is reconstruction or the games the
occupying forces play," said Ahmad Shah, an American-educated engineer who was
a prominent leader in the Afghan national resistance against the Soviets and
who returned to Afghanistan from Britain in 2002.
"Although I am tribally very close to Dr Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and very
impressed by his qualifications and his character, I have made it clear [to
him] that I am unable to support him in these elections as they are being held
under occupation," said Ahmad Shah.
These are strong sentiments, and ones which, ironically, he shares with the
Taliban. The difference is, Ahmad Shah is not trying to enforce his views with
guns and suicide bombers.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can
be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
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