A Brewing Constitutional Crisis
Afghan Delegate Meetings Foreshadow Difficult Battles
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, December 4, 2003; Page A01
GARDEZ, Afghanistan -- More than 650 turbaned elders milled outside a U.N. voting tent Tuesday, clutching copies of a formal white document. Some fumbled with rarely worn spectacles as they peered at the tiny print; others frowned and jotted careful notes next to certain items.
There was no time for tea and gossip. The nation was preparing to debate and adopt a new constitution after 25 years of war and lawlessness, and the elders, gathered in a schoolyard to elect candidates for the upcoming constitutional assembly, already knew what they wanted from the charter.
"We want democracy, but only if it is according to Islamic law," asserted Nasrullah, 55, a farmer from Ghazni province, as a dozen men around him nodded vigorously. "In this document it is written that killing criminals is not allowed, but we need qisas to stop crime," he said, referring to the Islamic doctrine of eye-for-an-eye vengeance. "This is not the law of the Taliban. It is the law of God."
The gathered elders agreed, in principle, that women should be able to participate in the assembly, provided they wear proper Islamic head coverings. But the lone woman candidate was nowhere to be seen. She spent the day segregated in a classroom, cut off from all the discussion, and she said no one had given her a copy of the proposed constitution.
As more than 19,000 delegates gathered in eight cities this week to choose 500 members of the constitutional assembly, or loya jirga, the impassioned and often contradictory views of delegates foreshadowed a long, heated battle at the meeting, due to open Wednesday, and reflected the deep strains in a society pulled both toward a rural, religious past and a future as a modern nation.
The Afghan government, headed by President Hamid Karzai, presented a draft constitution to the public one month ago. Under the U.N.-mandated political process, it must be ratified by the loya jirga before presidential elections can be held next year, to be followed by parliamentary voting.
Officials said they tried to strike a balance between the demands of various political and religious groups, but the document drew criticism from conservative and progressive forces. Human rights groups said it failed to adequately protect women's rights, judicial independence and religious minorities, while student groups protested that it did not guarantee the right to free higher education.
Among the delegates and candidates from Ghazni and Parwan provinces, however, there was near-universal concern that the proposed constitution was too secular and modern, giving insufficient power to Islamic law and custom. Their comments suggested that the assembly could split deeply over the balance of political power and competing visions of modern and traditional Islam. In Kabul Stadium, where more than 500, mostly ethnic Tajik delegates from Parwan gathered inside a giant tent Monday, the mood was serious and attentive. Many delegates were veterans of guerrilla struggles against both communist and Taliban forces, and they appeared keenly appreciative of the historic chance to build a peaceful, politically modern nation.
And yet the dominant sentiment in the tent was one of belligerent opposition to the proposed system of a strong executive and weaker parliament, which delegates said failed to ensure the rights of ethnic minorities and northern Afghan "freedom fighters" like themselves. The original constitution proposed by a commission included a prime minister, but Karzai had the position removed.
"Our country's future is at stake here, and we do not want the blood of the martyrs to be wasted," said Mahmad Yacoub, 47. "We need a parliamentary system with a strong prime minister so the rights of the poor and the freedom fighters will not be abused. Just as we struggled against Russia, so we will struggle in the loya jirga."
The depth of ethnic feeling was also reflected in criticisms of other provisions -- that the national anthem be sung in Pashto, the Pashtun dialect, instead of Dari, the Tajik dialect, and that Mohammed Zahir Shah, 88, the former Afghan monarch, be named "father of the nation."
Delegates from less secure neighboring provinces are traveling to Gardez, a well-protected provincial capital 65 miles south of Kabul, all week to vote. On Tuesday delegates from Ghazni, a conservative ethnic Pashtun region, joked and posed excitedly for photographs, but they also expressed suspicion that the proposed constitution might erode their religious laws, ethnic rights and cultural traditions.
Mahmad Samander, a candidate and teacher from Ghazni, said he had read all 161 articles in the draft "very carefully" and had taken notes on dozens of items that he found contradictory to Islam. Like other delegates, he expressed concern at the references to international treaties, women's rights and permission for minority Shiite Muslims to be judged according to Shiite legal precepts.
"We want Islamic law, not international law. It is what so many of us fought and died for," he said, referring specifically to the Sunni strain of Islam, which is followed by 80 percent of Afghans. "If I am elected to the loya jirga, I will employ all my boldness as a former freedom fighter to eliminate or amend every un-Islamic item."
Yet despite professing such conservative views, Samander and other delegates from Ghazni and Parwan argued strongly for the right of all Afghans to attend state universities at no cost, saying otherwise only the "children of the rich" would learn. The current draft does not guarantee free higher education.
Afghan officials said the current draft reflects a moderate vision of Islam that is shared by most Afghans and will help the country's emergence into the modern world, but that some interest groups are trying to fuel Muslim concerns for their own political gain.
"The constitution says this is an Islamic country, but we must make sure we are talking about a modern Islam, one that is consistent with progress, with science, and with economic development," said Vice President Hedayat Amin Arsala in an interview in Kabul. "Some people want to use religion for political purposes, but constitutions cannot be made for groups or individuals. They are made for the entire nation."
Officials from the United Nations, which is supervising the loya jirga, said this week that the selection of voters and candidates has gone smoothly, despite fears of intimidation or abuse by ethnic militias or other groups. This week, delegates from all 32 provinces are selecting candidates by secret ballot. Separate special elections are being held for women, nomads, refugees and other minority groups, with a limited number of seats reserved for each.
In some rural provinces, though, few women have come forward as candidates and some have complained that officials discouraged them from participating. In Ghazni, the women's election had to be held twice, U.N. officials said, and in Paktika, a province with high poverty and illiteracy rates, only one woman candidate registered, so officials selected a second to fill the provincial quota.
On Tuesday, the sole female candidate to reach Gardez was Gulsum, 28, a health worker. She waited all day in the chilly classroom with her husband -- all women attending election events and the loya jirga itself must be escorted by a male relative, according to Afghan custom -- while the 600-plus male delegates mingled, chatted and ate lunch outside.
"In my district, none of the women knew anything about the loya jirga, including me, and none of us was given a chance to read the constitution," Gulsum said, huddled beneath a blanket but smiling gamely as she waited for the outcome of her district. "I want to serve my people and help other Afghan women participate in public life, because they have never had the chance before." |
