At all levels, Afghans debate future

"Who was mujahideen [a resistance fighter], and who was Taliban?" asks another commander, Izatollah Kouchai, addressing the craggy-faced men with the poise of an ancient Greek orator. "None were foreign - they were our brothers," he says, pointing out that few are free of blame for the country's problems.

"In every society, there are thieves and rapists," Commander Kouchai says, to catcalls from the circle of men. "Anyone who says the Taliban are pagan is not a Muslim himself."

Few predicted the swiftness of the Taliban retreat. US marines reinforced their presence yesterday near the southern Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, the radical Islamic militia's last bastion. The Northern Alliance also claimed to have quelled a three-day revolt by fighters loyal to Mr. bin Laden, at a fortress-prison near the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif.

The Pashtuns of Mohamed Agha say the collapse of the Taliban is permitting a return to a more democratic, traditional rule - one that has been stifled, even for the Taliban's ethnic Pashtun brethren, during five years of Taliban rule.

Known as the "granary of Kabul," Logar Province has long been an important battleground. Mujahideen factions fighting in the early 1990s shelled the capital from this valley.

Northern Alliance tanks on hills at the north end of the valley point directly at Mohamed Agha, 25 miles south of Kabul, in case there is any doubt about who now rules now.

But local leaders say that, so far, they are being given a free hand to choose their own governor and security chiefs. They welcome the change.

"We don't want a government to impose its rules and laws against us," says Kouchai, after the jirga. "Now we are free to say what we want.

"The way has been paved for democracy," says Massoud, who directed the jirga. "When the government has been appointed by the power of the gun, no one can speak or do anything. A few days ago, we could not talk or give our ideas. Now we can speak, even against the government."

That laissez faire attitude was unexpected, they say, when Kabul changed hands two weeks ago. The village braced for attack amid rumors that Mohamed Agha was overrun with Taliban fighters and their hated Arab, Chechen, and Pakistani militant allies. To avoid bloodshed, and as a signal of neutrality, officials raised a UN flag.

"The Northern Alliance wanted to attack our province, because of reports of 'Arabs' here. We asked them to come peacefully," says Gholamghaus Nasseri, the district commander who raised the flag. "The alliance was worried about Chechens, Arabs, and [Pakistanis] here - and they were right, there were many of them." Since then, Commander Nasseri says, the villagers have been treated well by Kabul's de facto rulers.

"There has been no discrimination. The Northern Alliance, if they want to rule this area, they can't govern all the area. That can only be done by local people."

Material from the wire services was used for this report.

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