Karzai under fire (No plans for the elections he promised in Bonn)

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.afgha.com/?af=article&sid=34946

Daily Times Pakistan
July 07, 2003

Tribal elders say Bonn promises not kept

* Agreement tasked Afghan govt with disarming ten of thousands
* Afghan president vowed transfer of authority if he could not fulfil the condition

KABUL: Afghan tribal elders have criticised President Hamid Karzai over a lack of progress on disarming militias and bringing peace and security to the war-ravaged country.

Hundreds of representatives of the loya jirga (tribal assembly) parliament commission, which has to approve the new draft constitution to pave the way for presidential polls due by June 2004, met in Kabul Thursday for the first time to discuss progress since they elected Karzai president last June.

Karzai had promised to call a loya jirga and hand over authority to it if he failed to meet the promises made at Bonn in late 2001 after the ousting of the Taliban regime, Sayeed Ibrahim Qaisari, director of the loya jirga parliament commission, told the gathering of around 1,000 tribal leaders and guests.

“But he didn’t do so even though he came short on gathering weapons, improving security and even on the fair distribution of government posts among Afghan society,” he said.

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[justicebuilder]

1. We only hold elections

If our guy is going to win. Someone forgot to tell the citizens of Afghanistan about American-style democracy. Can't have pesky free elections gumming up the works.

They should send Jeb and Katherine over there to clear up the process.

jb

[Fleshdancer]

2. Karzai

He has bothered me from day one...mainly because he looks so Hollywood. It's as if he looks too perfect for the part to me. Not exactly logical, just one of those things that make me wonder if the lines of perception and reality have been blurred for American consumption. Hopefully not, but damn he looks like an actor.

[Gloria]

3. Yeah, he reminds me of Ben Kingsley, who played Ghandi, no?

eom

[NNN0LHI]

4. Think Ming The Merciless from the old Flash Gordon shows. Yup n/t

[JoFerret]

5. Oil man through and through

Whatever else is happening in Afghanistan you can rest assured that the pipeline is going through.

[lkinsale]

7. Yeah, he's supposed to single-handedly disarm the warlords

We've given Karzai =zip= of all the help we so loudly claimed we'd give, and Bush has refused him when he's begged for military aid outside of Kabul, and said, "Go ask somebody else, we're busy in Iraq," and basically blown off the entire country. I'm not sure how Karzai is supposed to do much better than he's done, which is not bad considering all he has is his personal cache to keep the place out of anarchy. We haven't even been able to finish the highway between Kabul and the south because the situation is too insecure, the workers keep getting fired on.

Karzai is a bloody hero left hanging out to dry by Bush. He'll be extremely lucky if he's alive this time next year. And that's not his incompetence, it's the simple fact that he has no money and no way to pay anybody and no way to keep the peace but by personal relationships.

Have some pity for the guy. We shafted him. Afghanistan should make us weep.

We really have short memories.

[AnnabelLee]

6. Democracy is breaking out all over

Not.