Afghanistan's constitutional convention agreed on a historic new charter yesterday, its chairman said, overcoming weeks of division and mistrust to hammer out a compromise meant to bind together the war-ravaged nation's mosaic of ethnic groups.
Just a day after warning that the meeting, or Loya Jirga, was heading toward a humiliating failure, chairman Sibghatullah Mujaddedi told the 502 delegates gathered under a giant tent in the Afghan capital that last-ditch diplomacy had secured a comprehensive deal.
"We are very happy that all the members of the Loya Jirga have reached a successful agreement," Mujaddedi said.
He gave no details of how an impasse over whether to grant official status to minority languages, an issue which brought the meeting close to collapse, had been solved.
But he said a new draft of the document would be distributed to the delegates shortly and that President Hamid Karzai would join the gathering later yesterday to oversee the charter's official ratification.
The accord is expected to give the US-backed Karzai the strong presidential system he had insisted on.
Karzai has argued strongly for a dominant chief executive to hold the country together as it rebuilds and reconciles after more than two decades of war, and said he wouldn't run again if he didn't get his way.
It was also a triumph for the US and UN, whose officials worked tirelessly to broker a backroom agreement to bolster a peace process begun after the ouster of the Taliban two years ago.
In three weeks of often rancorous debate, religious conservatives forced through amendments to make the constitution more Islamic -- possibly with a ban on alcohol.
On the other hand, wording was changed to spell out that men and women should be treated equally -- a key demand of human rights groups.
In the most bruising tussle, minorities such as the Uzbeks and Turkmen from the north won official status for their languages in the areas where they are strongest, with grudging acceptance from the more numerous Pashtuns.
Rivals of Karzai, mainly from the Northern Alliance faction which helped US forces drive out the Taliban for harboring Osama bin Laden, strengthened parliament with amendments giving it veto power over more key appointments.
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