Senior members of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance faction have met to patch up differences and discuss forming a new party, a move seen as an attempt to prevent their possible marginalisation in the U.S.-backed government. The meeting held on Friday in Kabul was the largest gathering of alliance members since it captured Kabul from the former Taliban regime in late 2001. Mohammad Fahim Qasim, defence minister and military leader of the alliance, Vice President Abdul Karim Khalili, Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullah, Education Minister Yunis Qanouni and former Mujahideen leader Abdul Rabb Al-Rasoul Sayyaf all took part. Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former president and symbolic ex- political leader of the alliance, was not present, the official told Reuters. He said the meeting discussed plans to establish a new party ahead of elections due to be held in the middle of next year and to confront any move to restrict the influence of the alliance in favour of Western-educated Afghans.
| It'd make more sense to ally with them. There are enough nutbag Islamorrhoids running around trying to counterbalance them, and it's not like the Pashtun Talibs and Hek's boyz are going to accept them... |
The move coincides with efforts by President Hamid Karzai to introduce reforms expected to shake up the powerful Defence Ministry, an alliance bastion dominated by Fahim's supporters. Another alliance member said he believed the United States was pushing the reforms to reduce the power of the alliance and change public opinion in America about the weakness of Karzai's government.
| The NA is feeling screwed, since they did the fighting, and they were. Rabbani in charge would have produced a different Afghanistan — just as crummy as this one, but different... |
The Northern Alliance, a patchwork of former Mujahideen (holy warrior) factions, still forms the backbone of Karzai's government, but it has been weakened by disputes over power-sharing since the fall of the Taliban. Last week, Fahim, Qanouni, Sayyaf and Rabbani were all implicated in rights abuses in a Human Rights Watch report. "The meeting was held to unite and react to recent developments," a third alliance official said. "The rights report is seen as the start of a campaign to get rid of some personalities later and there are efforts at home and abroad to exclude the mujahideen one after another." |