Feudal lords key to Afghan peace

Ahmedullah Alizai and members of his tribe have had a good day, disarming the Taliban. With 30 trucks full of confiscated rifles, rocket-launchers, and ammunition, the Alizai have reasserted control over a district of Kandahar Province that had been ruled by the strict Islamist militia for nearly seven years.

"During the Taliban era, it was like a prison, no one had a right to express himself," says Mr. Alizai, propping himself against a cushion on the floor of a village guesthouse lit by kerosene lamps. "The general public was powerless. They didn't have a voice, and they didn't have guns. Because of that, the Taliban could impose their will."

Alizai is a one-man metaphor for the contradictions of Afghanistan. Like his father and grandfather before him, he is a tribal elder - though only in his late 20s - a 21st century feudal lord, the king of this district. Yet he wears a democratic hat as well, as one of a few dozen ministers in the interim government that will take power in Kabul tomorrow.

British marines, who will form the backbone of an international security force in the capital, began arriving early this morning. Meanwhile, the US - with help from Afghan forces - is continuing its operations. Special forces teams are searching the mountainous terrain for both Osama bin Laden and the Taliban's top leadership, including supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. Pakistani intelligence agents reportedly detained a senior Taliban security official, Aminullah Amin, yesterday, as Pakistani forces fought to recapture dozens of escaped Al Qaeda prisoners near the border.

Here in Maruf, and in many other rural villages where nearly 80 percent of the 26 million Afghans live, tribal government is reasserting itself. Men are digging up the guns they buried to avoid Taliban disarmament. Big decisions, such as the selection of a government, are made once again through gatherings of village elders, or shura, and not by Taliban-appointed mullahs or for that matter, via the democratic concept of one person, one vote.

Some experts say this return to feudalism, where warlords gain power by exercising power - relying on weapons and pragmatism rather than ideologies or written laws - could endanger the fledgling government. But others argue that, at least at first, Afghanistan's best opportunity for peace is to tap into a traditional infrastructure that may be unstable - even brutal - but works.

During two decades of war, in the absence of a functioning central government, its duties fell to ethnic or tribal leaders. Rural Afghans have long looked to such leaders to settle land disputes, punish crimes, and get their voices heard.

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