Afghanistan’s loya jirga convened to rubber-stamp an anti-democratic const [View All]

Afghanistan’s loya jirga convened to rubber-stamp an anti-democratic constitution
By Peter Symonds
18 December 2003

The loya jirga or grand tribal council currently underway in the Afghan capital of Kabul is a thoroughly cynical political exercise. For all the hype about consulting the Afghan people, a select group of 500 delegates has been convened to endorse an undemocratic constitution and to consolidate the position of Washington’s political puppet—President Hamid Karzai.

The gathering is taking place in a large tent in the grounds of Kabul Polytechnic Institute, heavily guarded by army units that have stationed tanks and set up machine gun posts near the perimeter. Soldiers from the 5,500-strong International Security Assistance Force based in the capital are patrolling nearby hills in order to prevent rocket attacks on the assembly.

The loya jirga opened on Sunday after being postponed for a day. According to Afghan and UN organisers, the delay was to allow time for delegates from outlying areas to arrive. Karzai and his backers, however, used the time to consolidate support for his choice of chairman— Segbatullah Mojaddedi—and for the proposed constitution that concentrates enormous power in the hands of the president.

Former president Burhanuddin Rabbini, a key Northern Alliance leader, has been one of the main figures criticising the proposed constitution. On Saturday after a flurry of high profile visitors, including Karzai, US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, Rabbani indicated that he would accept a presidential system “with certain checks”.

The behind-the-scenes deal making was evident on the first day when Mojaddedi was elected chairman, defeating Abdul Hafiz Mansoor, a newspaper editor and Karzai critic, 251 votes to 154. The decision is a pointer to the outcome of deliberations on the constitution itself.

Right from the outset, the entire process has been carried out behind the backs of the Afghan people. The framework was decided at a UN- sponsored conference in Bonn, Germany in December 2001, shortly after the collapse of the Taliban regime. While the UN organised the affair, it was the Bush administration that called the shots, insisting Karzai be installed as interim president.

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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/dec2003/afgh-d18.shtml