Jean MacKenzie: Abdullah vs. Karzai
[Jean MacKenzie is the director of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in Afghanistan and reports for GlobalPost News.]
Kabul, Afghanistan
The spectacle of Afghanistan’s presidential elections seems to be finally entering its final act. Pulling out of the runoff race at the last minute, Abdullah Abdullah has cleared the way for Hamed Karzai to be the winner by default.
Both men appear to have achieved many, if not all, of their original goals. Karzai, of course, has retained his seat for another five years. Abdullah, the underdog, has denied Karzai the much-needed legitimacy that a second round of voting was supposed to confer. Now the Afghan president will be serving under the cloud created by the massive fraud that characterized the first round of voting in August.
Is Abdullah’s latest ploy just a shrewd way to undermine Karzai--and force the president to offer him a post as way to establish the new government’s credibility? While there are still rumors that the two may join in some sort of power-sharing arrangement, neither man seems disposed to discuss the possibility for cooperation. Their present face-off is just the latest chapter in a long and twisted saga of alliance and betrayal between the two, spanning nearly 30 years.
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The beginning of Afghanistan’s modern history can arguably be pegged to the Soviet invasion in 1979, when Moscow tried to restore order to the factionalized country. The Soviet offensive sparked the mujaheddin movement--bands of “holy warriors” dedicated to expelling the infidel occupiers from Afghan soil. During that period, Abdullah was the right-hand man of legendary commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, military leader of one of the seven mujaheddin parties, Jamiat-e-Islami. Massoud’s men were based in the Panjshir Valley, from which they conducted operations against the Soviets and defended the all-important Salang Pass, which connects northern Afghanistan to Kabul and which was the Soviets’ main supply route.
Karzai was the charming, Westernized face of one the less militant parties, headed by Sibghatullah Mojadeddi, who spent more time in diplomatic circles than on the front lines. Karzai was involved in cultivating international contacts, raising money, and forging friendships. He was perceived as a “lightweight” by the more militant groups, which included Jamiat-e-Islami, according to Pakistani writer Ahmad Rashid. When today’s mujaheddin talk proudly of their role in saving the motherland, it is Abdullah who stands a bit straighter, not Karzai.
After the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 and the eventual collapse of the communist government in 1992, the situation rapidly deteriorated. Karzai joined the mujaheddin government, which was dominated by Jamiat-e-Islami, but he was not trusted by the battle-tested warriors. In 1994, he was arrested and interrogated by security chief Mohammad Qasim Fahim on suspicion of being a spy for Pakistani intelligence. He barely escaped with his life, and did so only because a rocket tore the building apart as he was being beaten. (This is the same Fahim who is now Karzai’s first vice-president; politics in Afghanistan does indeed make strange bedfellows.)...
Read entire article at The New Republic
Kabul, Afghanistan
The spectacle of Afghanistan’s presidential elections seems to be finally entering its final act. Pulling out of the runoff race at the last minute, Abdullah Abdullah has cleared the way for Hamed Karzai to be the winner by default.
Both men appear to have achieved many, if not all, of their original goals. Karzai, of course, has retained his seat for another five years. Abdullah, the underdog, has denied Karzai the much-needed legitimacy that a second round of voting was supposed to confer. Now the Afghan president will be serving under the cloud created by the massive fraud that characterized the first round of voting in August.
Is Abdullah’s latest ploy just a shrewd way to undermine Karzai--and force the president to offer him a post as way to establish the new government’s credibility? While there are still rumors that the two may join in some sort of power-sharing arrangement, neither man seems disposed to discuss the possibility for cooperation. Their present face-off is just the latest chapter in a long and twisted saga of alliance and betrayal between the two, spanning nearly 30 years.
***
The beginning of Afghanistan’s modern history can arguably be pegged to the Soviet invasion in 1979, when Moscow tried to restore order to the factionalized country. The Soviet offensive sparked the mujaheddin movement--bands of “holy warriors” dedicated to expelling the infidel occupiers from Afghan soil. During that period, Abdullah was the right-hand man of legendary commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, military leader of one of the seven mujaheddin parties, Jamiat-e-Islami. Massoud’s men were based in the Panjshir Valley, from which they conducted operations against the Soviets and defended the all-important Salang Pass, which connects northern Afghanistan to Kabul and which was the Soviets’ main supply route.
Karzai was the charming, Westernized face of one the less militant parties, headed by Sibghatullah Mojadeddi, who spent more time in diplomatic circles than on the front lines. Karzai was involved in cultivating international contacts, raising money, and forging friendships. He was perceived as a “lightweight” by the more militant groups, which included Jamiat-e-Islami, according to Pakistani writer Ahmad Rashid. When today’s mujaheddin talk proudly of their role in saving the motherland, it is Abdullah who stands a bit straighter, not Karzai.
After the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 and the eventual collapse of the communist government in 1992, the situation rapidly deteriorated. Karzai joined the mujaheddin government, which was dominated by Jamiat-e-Islami, but he was not trusted by the battle-tested warriors. In 1994, he was arrested and interrogated by security chief Mohammad Qasim Fahim on suspicion of being a spy for Pakistani intelligence. He barely escaped with his life, and did so only because a rocket tore the building apart as he was being beaten. (This is the same Fahim who is now Karzai’s first vice-president; politics in Afghanistan does indeed make strange bedfellows.)...