Afghan campaign trail barely trod by Karzai

The most serious threat to Karzai's hold on power came last month with a series of meetings between top mujahideen, the Islamic resisters of Soviet rule. In the meetings held in the homes of commander Abdul Rasool Sayaaf, Defense Minister Mohammed Qasim Fahim, and former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, the commanders shared their concerns over the growing American influence over the Karzai government, and the coming policy of disarmament that would disband the several hundred thousand militia soldiers under their private control.

At the final meeting, Marshal Fahim and his Northern Alliance commanders nominated Mr. Rabbani to be the mujahideen's presidential candidate, but other commanders reportedly withheld support.

The fact that the meeting took place during Karzai's September trip to the United Nations General Assembly meeting, gave rise to rumors of a possible coup d'état. While Fahim later denied any plans for a coup, peacekeepers of the International Security and Assistance Force rolled out in tanks to protect the presidential palace, nonetheless.

On his return, Karzai passed a new law that banned any acting military commander from participating in the coming elections.

"The commanders want to ensure that the next government of Afghanistan should be based on Islam," one participating commander told the Monitor privately. "They don't want this country to be turned into a colony of the US."

As yet, there is no announced date for the coming national elections, where the UN hopes to register some 10.5 million voters, most of them casting votes for the first time ever. US and UN officials insist that elections will be held next year, as required by the 2001 Bonn conference. But some political observers speculate that the country may end up holding only presidential elections next year, postponing the selection of parliament to 2005.

In the meantime, other observers say Karzai desperately needs to turn to the business of setting up a party and spelling out his plans for the country.

"He needs to come up with a platform and then make the Afghan people feel that this is their platform," says Luis Sobalvarro, area officer for the International Republican Institute, a branch of the US Republican Party that funds democracy projects. "If he doesn't reach out to the Afghans, then somebody else will."

"In some parts of the country, the Taliban are making inroads because they're in regions where there is no governmental presence," says Mr. Sobalvarro. "This lack of a government presence may have to do with security problems, but the Afghan villagers understand it as neglect."

For his part, the royalist politician Assefy says the problem lies in the fact that the Karzai government doesn't have the legitimacy to pull the country back from the brink of ruin. The only man who can do that, Assefy says, is the elderly king.

"In Afghanistan, legitimacy is more important than legality," Assefy says. "If you don't have legitimacy, you won't have the cooperation of the people."

Page: 1 | 2