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Early success for Karzai in Afghan constitution meet

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, top right, and former King Mohammed Zahir Shah look on as schoolchildren dressed in traditional costume sing during the opening ceremony of the Afghan Loya Jirga in Kabul on Sunday. Many of the 500 delegates to the Loya Jirga were moved to tears as the children sang patriotic songs about the pain and loss suffered over the past decades and the fears and worries the future still holds. PHOTO: AFP

Delegates reassembled yesterday at a landmark convention to debate Afghanistan's first post-Taliban constitution after an early victory for its US-backed leader increased the chances they will put their fractious, war-scarred country under a strong presidency.

The 500 Afghans -- including 100 women -- attending the Loya Jirga, or grand council, are finalizing a new charter seen as a vital step in the UN-sponsored drive to stabilize the country two years after the fall of the Taliban's hardline regime.

Hundreds of soldiers are guarding the event, which began Sunday in a huge tent on a city college campus, after warnings from the US military that militants might try to attack it.

Helicopters whirred overhead yesterday morning as the delegates filed past sniffer dogs and metal detectors.

The council must decide vital issues such as just how Islamic Afghanistan should be and the role of its women. But it risks being overshadowed by a struggle over how to share power in a nation used to fighting for it.

President Hamid Karzai, whose power barely extends beyond the capital because of the continued sway of warlords in the provinces, pressed Sunday for a strong presidential system that officials hope will be able to stand up to the resurgent Taliban and make the country safe enough for aid workers and foreign investors.

The 160-article draft constitution put before the Loya Jirga foresees no post of prime minister in a highly centralized government and would allow the president to appoint top officials in the provinces too. Karzai this week said he would not stand in elections slated for June next year if a strong prime minister's post is created.

On Sunday, a leader of the 1980s resistance against the Soviet occupation viewed as a close Karzai ally was elected chairman of the council. Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, an Islamic moderate and former president, secured 252 votes.

Karzai supporters said Mujaddedi's appointment was a good omen.

"He is a real scholar and a longtime holy warrior. He's the right man for the job," Rohul Amin Basher, an ethnic Pashtun from Nangarhar province, said yesterday. "Of course it will also help Karzai."

Still, Mujaddedi's selection came only after a bruising debate that saw opponents line up to challenge Karzai's right to appoint 50 of the delegates and accuse him of imposing unfair procedures for the gathering.

Yesterday, delegates were preparing to elect Mujaddedi's two deputies. Children read out poems to keep them entertained during the long pauses in proceedings extended by delegates' appeals from the floor.

"For no longer can the gun rule this country," said Dawlat Mohammed from northeastern Badakhshan province. "We have passed through very hard times. Now we need a push for peace."

Karzai heads an interim government that includes several ministers from the Northern Alliance, an uneasy coalition dominated by ethnic Tajiks which helped the US drive the Taliban from power in late 2001.

The alliance's commander in chief, Mohammed Fahim, is Karzai's deputy and the country's defense minister. But analysts say alliance leaders are worried they could be marginalized by Karzai, a Pashtun from the south. Pashtuns make up the country's largest ethnic group.

Human rights groups warn that the draft constitution is too weakly worded to guarantee the rights of women or limit the power of Islamic hardliners in the judiciary, and that Karzai may offer too much to religious fundamentalists in order to secure their support.
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