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CATCHING AFGANISTAN'S KARZAI IN CALMER TIMES
A EurasiaNet Photo Essay by Ed Grazda: 7/19/02
It has been a month since the conclusion of Loya Jirga, or
tribal council, which tapped Hamid Karzai to guide Afghanistan
through its transitional period. Since then, Karzai has not
enjoyed a political honeymoon. The list of challenges for
Karzai's government seems to keep growing. Already struggling
to overcome a lack of security and of international assistance
in its efforts to force a stable and unified nation, Karzai's
team now must contend with the emergence of partisan politics.
Yunus Qanooni, the disgruntled former interior minister who
now holds the education portfolio, has decided to press ahead
with plans to forge a political party that would challenge
Karzai for power, the Associated Press reported July 19. Qanooni's
nascent National Party is casting itself as the political
successor of Ahmad Shah Masood, the charismatic Tajik field
commander who battled both the Soviets and the Taliban, and
who was assassinated just days before the September 11 terrorist
attacks. Qanooni and his supporters hope the party will be
in position to challenge Karzai in presidential elections
scheduled for 2004.
Qanooni's action could complicate Karzai's task of expanding
the central government's authority. Karzai has moved vigorously
in recent weeks to reduce the power of Afghanistan's troublesome
warlords, who control large portions of the country. These
efforts, along with measures to restore the country's devastated
infrastructure and provide relief to impoverished Afghans,
has been undermined by a lack of international support, Afghan
government officials and UN representatives assert. [For
background see the Eurasia Insight archives].
On July 18, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan repeated his
calls for the expansion of the International Security Assistance
Force (ISAF) to areas outside the capital, Kabul. The UN Security
Council has so far refused to expand the 4,500-strong force.
Photographer Edward Grazda recently spent several weeks in
Afghanistan on assignment for EurasiaNet. During his visit,
he had a unique opportunity to document the give-and-take
among delegates to the Loya Jirga. A selection of his images
comprises this EurasiaNet photo essay.
Editor's Note: Photographer Edward Grazda has made
repeated visits to Afghanistan over the years. He documented
the dramatic changes that decades of warfare have wrought
in Afghanistan in his book "Afghanistan Diary: 1992-2000."
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Posted July 16, 2002 © Eurasianet
http://www.eurasianet.org
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