Afghan power brokers
After 23 years of war, key players gather to choose a government
(Editor's note: On Monday, the opening session of the
loya jirga was postponed one day because of "logistical and preparatory" problems, according to Afghan officials.)
For centuries, Pashtun elders have ruled this way: Circles of turbaned, robed men sat on dusty carpets, making their decisions under the wide bowl of the Afghan sky.
Today, dressed much the same way, and divided by many of the same regional, ethnic, and ideological differences of their ancestors, 1,500 Afghan leaders are gathering in Kabul for their most important
loya jirga – or supreme council – in living memory.
All week, Pashtuns and Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks, and a myriad of other ethnic groups little known to the world before Sept. 11 will haggle over their country's future. Who among them will be chosen to lead the way? Can they turn a nation sundered by tribalism, Islamic extremism, resurgent warlords, poverty, and vicious discrimination against women into a stable, modern political entity?
Some of the delegates are women, some are refugees. Some have US college degrees, others are illiterate. All will be players in what promises to be the most diverse and closely observed election process in Afghan history.
Which ethnic groups and leaders will come out on top, as Afghanistan embarks on this experiment in representative democracy? Following are portraits of five of the potential key players who have their hands on the levers of power – from guns, to money, religion, tribalism, and politics. Any one of them – from the urbane, fluent English-speaking Hamid Karzai, to the powerful warlord of the southeast, Badsha Khan Zadran – could help or hinder the
loya jirga process, thus supporting or undermining the effort to remove Afghanistan from the list of places where terrorists find a home.
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