Council Clashes Over Afghan Future

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday faced an open rebellion among powerful faction leaders against his drive for a strongly centralized presidency at a historic constitutional council taking place in the capital.

Some 500 delegates to the grand council, or loya jirga, have spent 11 days debating a draft put forward by Karzai's government. It foresees a tolerant Islamic state under a strong presidency, and is supposed to pave the way for landmark elections next summer.

"The presidential form of government is known all over the world. The powers are known, the limitations are known," Karzai told reporters on the steps of his Kabul palace. "We should be making a constitution that reflects that system, not a confusion of it."

But Burhanuddin Rabbani, a leader of the Northern Alliance faction who was president during Afghanistan's ruinous 1992-96 civil war, said some delegates feared the charter would produce a dictatorship.

"In third-world countries, presidents have passed power to their son and the result has been bloodshed and coups," he told reporters in the huge tent where the jirga is being held. "If the presidential system is accepted, the delegates will ask for a strong parliament."

Afghan and U.S. officials have said they are confident a majority of the council wants a presidential system, which Karzai argues is critical to law and order in a country made a haven for Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda under the ousted Taliban regime.

But while Karzai appears to have rallied fellow Pashtuns — the country's largest ethnic group and from which the Taliban drew their main support — delegates from smaller groups are calling openly for power to be spread more widely.

Another top Northern Alliance figure, Uzbek strongman Abdul Rashid Dostum, came out in favor of a parliamentary system on Monday while pleading for minority languages to be given official status.

Mohammed Asif Muhseni, a Hazara leader of the Shia Muslim Harakat faction, also lined up against Karzai's plans.

"We want a strong parliament," Muhseni said. "The majority wants this."

On Wednesday, council chairman Sibghatullah Mujaddedi said the body would soon present the results of days of secretive haggling over amendments, but gave no indication of what they might be.

Human rights groups worry that Karzai may sacrifice protections for women and minorities to powerbrokers like Rabbani and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, another deeply conservative Islamist prominent at the jirga, to shore up support for the presidency.

Western officials speaking on condition of anonymity predicted a flurry of motions at the jirga calling for Islam to be given a stronger role.

Still, some delegates said religion should take a backseat, given the destruction when the factions clashed in civil war after fighting Soviet occupation under the banner of Islam.

"Kabul has been destroyed in the name of Islam," said Mohammad Mahdawi, a delegate from the capital. "People want more than just an Islamic title, they want social justice, economic development and security."

Afghan officials have pledged to seek consensus, but Karzai insists that a simple majority would suffice to pass controversial articles as well as ratify a final draft.

While Karzai denies meddling in the workings of the council, observers say there has been intense lobbying and Rabbani even claimed some rebellious delegates had been threatened.

"I believe there was some interference," he said. "If this loya jirga is left free to decide, it will solve the problem. If not it will just create problems."