Afghan intrigue: The Case of the Sidelined King

The day before the loya jirga began here, President Bush's energetic special representative to Afghanistan dashed about town – trying to reassure Afghans that the US government was firmly behind their fledgling democratic efforts.

Zalmay Khalilzad, a longtime US State Department official, addressed some of the 1,501 delegates. He told them that the US would support their efforts to establish a government of their own.

But even as Mr. Khalilzad spoke, a list of candidates conceived by the current interim government was circulating in the audience, fueling Afghan suspicions of US intentions. The slate would largely preserve the current balance of power, which many Pashtuns see as unfairly skewed toward the Tajik-led northerners, who occupy the key ministries of defense, interior, and foreign affairs. Pashtuns – Afghanistan's largest ethnic group – say they are outraged by what they see as US pressure to conform to the basic outlines of the document. But backroom dealing including withdrawals of Tajik candidacies and pledges of political support have left the outcome of the loya jirga – and the ethnic balance of the new Afghan government – far from clear.

The view that the US may be key to shaping the loya jirga's outcome to the detriment of Pashtun interests does not bode well for US peacemaking efforts here, say observers. Eight months after the US military launched its massive air assault to wipe out Al Qaeda and its sponsor, the Taliban regime, perceptions of the US government are shifting.

Instead of viewing the United States as an impartial broker, many Afghans view it as a heavyweight political player with overriding interests in creating a new Afghanistan of its own liking.

"The loya jirga is a kind of watershed for the US role in Afghanistan," says Anthony Davis, an Afghanistan analyst for Jane's Defence Weekly who has reported on developments in the country for the past 22 years. "The danger for the US is that the Afghans will begin to see US political interests in everything that is being done. This, in turn, could jeopardize the US military presence here, particularly if the US is seen to be favoring one ethnic group over the other."

Observers here say US actions support the status quo of the current interim government. The administration consists of Hamid Karzai, the Western-oriented head of state, braced by an array of powerful Tajik ministers representing the Northern Alliance.

On the loya jirga's first day, Karzai told Reuters that the assembly had confirmed him as leader, despite the lack of any kind of floor vote.

US support for the Northern Alliance has chafed many Pashtuns, who say their ethnic group will be unfairly denied access to leadership positions in a post-loya jirga government.

In one case, Pashtuns openly expressed their anger with the US envoy; as Khalilzad concluded a talk with a group of Afghans on Monday, a group of Pashtuns in the back of the tent began chanting, "Out with the dog! Out with the dog!," according to several tribal leaders at the loya jirga.

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