CONCERN THAT JIHAD CHIEFTAINS WILL SET POLITICAL AGENDA
By Rahimullah Samander and Rahim Gul Sarwan in Kabul

December 18, 2003 – (IWPR'S AFGHAN RECOVERY REPORT, No. 88) Former mujahedin leaders are set to heavily influence Afghanistan's future constitution after they were chosen to head five out of the ten working groups at the Loya Jirga that will now debate the constitution in detail.

The dominant role given to the faction leaders has provoked fierce opposition from some delegates.

The five are Burhanuddin Rabbani, the head of the powerful Jamiat-Islami party and former Afghan president; Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, the leader of Ittihad-e-Islami; Ahmad Nabi Mohammadi, a leading figure in Harakat-e-Inqilab-Islami; Ustad Farid, a former commander in Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar's Hizb-e-Islami; and lastly Mohammad Asef Muhsini, leader of Harakat-e-Islami - unlike the others a Shia group.

Three of the five - Muhsini, Mohammadi and Farid - were among the 52 delegates selected by President Hamed Karzai, as opposed to the other 450 who were locally elected.

Malalai Joya, a female delegate from Farah province, provoked uproar on Wednesday when she said that many of the former mujahedin were war criminals who should face trial.

She specifically objected to the wartime leaders being spread out across many of the Loya Jirga working groups, saying "all these criminals" should all have been put in one group so as to limit their influence.

Given the way the process is unfolding, the group leaders could exert powerful influence on the new constitution. The delegates have been divided into 10 groups of 50 or 51, each of which then chose a head. Each group will debate clauses of the constitution, and their conclusions will go to a separate committee made up of the 10 group leaders, who will collate their findings and formulate a final draft of the articles to be put to the full Loya Jirga. The assembly can then accept or refuse - but not amend - the draft presented by the group leaders.

Some delegates fear that the system will allow the faction leaders to hijack the agenda. "I am opposed to these committees and groups,
because all the jihadis [mujahedin leaders] stand at the top of the groups," Mohammad Ashraf, a delegate elected from Mazar-e-Sharif, told IWPR. "And they want to impose their beliefs on others."

As with 2002's Emergency Loya Jirga which confirmed Karzai as president, the predominance of Afghanistan's wartime leaders is proving very controversial.

When Joya spoke out on Wednesday she was fiercely criticised. Some delegates called her a communist and an atheist - serious accusations in conservative Muslim Afghanistan - and the Loya Jirga chairman Sibghatullah Mujaddidi tried to have her removed.

Delegates who had talked freely before the argument later declined to speak to reporters.

Critics say the mujahedin leaders are still so powerful that many delegates will be afraid to disagree with them in committee.

Dr Farooq Wardak, head of the Constitutional Commission's secretariat, said his organisation had originally wanted to divide the 502 delegates into 10 groups in a random way. But Abdul Rasul Sayyaf had objected, saying delegates should be split in a planned way so as to achieve an equal distribution of professional expertise, provincial origin, gender and other criteria.

"Those who know the constitution, the ulama [Islamic scholars], and the lawyers should be split into different groups so that the results of the discussion and debate will be positive, and closer to each other," said Sayyaf.

As well as an elected head, each of the 10 groups has two secretaries, one chosen from among the 50 members of the group and another second from the Constitutional Commission. Another three commission members are assigned to each group to explain the legal and technical details of the draft document to the delegates.

Wardak said the groups, which began work on Wednesday, would examine one chapter of the constitution every day. There are 12 chapters to the constitution.

Rahimullah Samander and Rahim Gul Sarwan are participating in IWPR's Loya Jirga reporting project.