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| Afghanistan |
| Karzai asserting authority in Pashtun areas |
| 2002-11-07 |
| In a bold and risky move that could stoke ethnic conflict in his divided country and weaken his already shaky administration, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is attempting to assert his authority in Afghanistan’s Pashtun areas where Taliban and al Qaida fugitives still run freely. At the weekend, he sacked at least 20 provincial officials - many of them warlords or militia commanders - in the Pashtun-dominated provinces of Kandahar, Logar, Nangarhar, Paktia and Paktika. Changes were also made in Nimroz, a province bordering Iran where ethnic Baloch chieftains have their own tribal militias. Although ethnically different, the Baloch often side with the majority Pashtuns in ethnic conflicts. Good move. It's also a move he couldn't have thought about making six months ago. Hope things keep coming together like this... Apparently to dispel the impression that he was only acting against Pashtuns, Karzai also fired some security officials in Mazar-i-Sharif, a city dominated by Tajik, Hazara and Uzbek ethnic groups. Fair's fair... But this move may not be enough to head off perceptions that Karzai - initially chosen to head the interim government precisely because of his appeal to his fellow Pashtuns - has now turned against his ethnic kin. That's because Pashtuns, as a group, think it's fine and dandy to crack down on other ethnic groups, but doing the same thing to Pashtuns is unacceptable. The inflated sense of self-worth appears to be a tribal trait... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 Termination of the Northern Alliance war, by armistice, in Pashto areas is the cause of the lack of federal authority in this region. Pashtos have leverage in Pakistan, after the successes of the terrorist MMA in the recent elections. The MMA appears to want to restore the "Pakistan-in-Depth" strategy of the old PML government in Pak. That would put them on a collision course with the USA. Wouldn't it? |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2002-11-08 02:48:42 |
| #1 Essentially, He's telling them that the country's got to get their sh*t together... (P.S. I used to post as "G" (I hail from South Georgia, US of A), but decided today to come "out of the closet") |
| Posted by: Ptah 2002-11-07 15:06:45 |