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| Sunday, 16 June 2002 |
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Karzai wrangles with Afghan assembly over cabinet KABUL, June 15 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's grand assembly and Hamid Karzai, the man they elected president, wrangled on Saturday over the make-up of a government whose mission is to heal ethnic wounds and rebuild a war-shattered nation. Delegates to the Loya Jirga assembly insist they have the right to approve members of a broadbased government, but supporters of the 44-year-old, Western-educated Karzai say he must make the final decision. Karzai, elected in a secret ballot with 85 percent of the delegates' votes on Thursday, has been engaged in intense behind-the-scene bargaining with leaders of various ethnic groups to forge a multi-ethnic cabinet acceptable to all parties. The new government will run the country for 18 months before general elections are held. Officials and delegates say a deal among ethnic leaders over the cabinet will be finalised shortly. But it is still unclear whether or not it needs to be approved by the assembly. "They will definitely need to be approved by the Loya Jirga, every single portfolio, especially the key posts," said Mir-Hossein Mahdawi, a delegate from Kabul. But Karzai's ministers dispute that. "Mr Karzai has been elected with an overwhelming majority. It is up to him to choose members of his cabinet," Interim Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah told reporters. Confusion also prevails over the mandates of the emergency Loya Jirga, created under the U.N. accord, particularly and whether or not the assembly's rulings should have supremacy over the provisions of the Bonn accord. Karzai insists the Bonn accord must be observed to the letter, while some delegates want to exceed its mandate. The assembly is also divided on what to call the new government. Islamist Mujahideen who fought the Soviet occupation and the extremist Taliban want the government's title to include the word Islam. But more secular delegates and officials, disgusted by abuses in the past in the name of Islam, are opposed. Abdullah said a name had already been chosen for the new government -- the transitional government of Afghanistan --- under the Bonn accord. "A permanent name will be decided after the constitution is written. Then it will be put to debate," he said. The assembly, a colourful gathering of Afghans from all walks of life throughout the war-ravaged land, is due to end on Sunday. At a news conference on Friday, Karzai said the U.S.-led war on terrorism remains the top priority of his administration, along with national reconciliation and reconstruction. Some 13,000 coalition forces are in Afghanistan, scouring the mountainous southeastern regions for forces loyal to Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and his al Qaeda cohort Osama bin Laden -- the accused mastermind of the September 11 attacks. A Russian newspaper published on Wednesday an interview with Mullah Omar in which the Taliban leader said bin Laden was alive in Afghanistan and planning new attacks on Americans. A key task of the assembly is forming a government that pleases the Pashtun supporters of former King Mohammad Zahir Shah as well as the Uzbeks and Tajiks of the Northern Alliance who swept the Taliban from power with the help of U.S. air strikes and were the core of the interim government. "I tell you that the government will be representative," Karzai told the news conference. The son of an assassinated legislator, Karzai's ascendancy to the highest position in the land caps six months in which he rose from an obscure businessman to an internationally recognised ally of the United States in its war on terrorism. A Pashtun from the south, Karzai had the backing of the former king, the minority-dominated Northern Alliance, the United States and the United Nations. |
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