[R-G] Afghan president Hamid Karzai picks ex-warlord as election running mate

[Sid Shniad]

WHY WE FIGHT : 



The Guardian                                                                                                  4 May 2009 





  

Afghan president Hamid Karzai picks ex-warlord 

as election running mate 





  

Appointment of ex-militia leader Mohammad Qasim Fahim is a 'terrible step 
backwards for Afghanistan', critics warn 





  

Jon Boone in Kabul 





  

Senior diplomats and human rights workers lashed out at Hamid Karzai's 
decision today to select a powerful warlord accused by western officials of 
involvement in criminal gangs and arms smuggling as a running mate in 
Afghanistan's presidential election. 





  

Karzai's decision to defy international pressure and appoint Mohammad Qasim 
Fahim as one of his two vice-presidential candidates for the 20 August poll 
showed the world and the Afghan people that the president was "moving the 
country backwards", said a western diplomat in Kabul, who is close to the UN 
chief in the country, Kai Eide. 





  

"I want to move to a situation where leaders and people who have a 
reputation for being involved in serious human rights violations disappear 
from the political landscape, and not the opposite," said the diplomat, who 
did not want to be named. 





  

Karzai made his announcement today when he went to the Independent Election 
Commission in person to register as a candidate in the election, hours 
before leaving for meetings in Washington with President Barack Obama. 





  

The former militia leader, who goes by the honorary title of Marshal Fahim, 
is disliked by many Afghans suspicious of the wealth he has acquired since 
2001 and disliked by the west for his opposition to the disbandment of the 
private armies of Afghanistan's warlords. An official with an international 
mission in Kabul said Mr Fahim had been linked to kidnap gangs operating in 
the capital. He is also accused of murdering prisoners of war during the 
mujahideen government in the 1990s. 





  

Western diplomats have spent the last few weeks trying to dissuade Karzai 
from picking Fahim but the senior diplomat said the president refused to 
budge, arguing that the former militia leader would win him votes. It will 
also help split a powerful opposition grouping, the United National Front, 
which Mr Fahim is a leading member of but which is not backing one of 
Karzai's rivals for the presidential election. 





  

Afghanistan's warlords, the regional barons who controlled the militias that 
fought the Soviets in the 1980s, have been a major obstacle in the country's 
post-2001 experiment with democracy. 





  

For many of his critics, Karzai's biggest mistake was to bring many of the 
warlords into government after the US-led toppling of the Taliban regime. 
However, his defenders say he had no other choice after the international 
community deprived him of the resources he needed in the years immediately 
after 2001. 





  

A separate western official said: "The question really is: if Karzai gets 
killed on August 21 [the day after the election date] who is the president? 
It's Marshal Fahim. If he is just put in the presidential palace and given a 
good car and nice life then fine. But if he gets involved in policy then 
it's goodbye to the future of Afghanistan." 





  

Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, added to the criticism of 
the president's selection. "To see Fahim in government would be a terrible 
step backwards for Afghanistan," he said. "He is one of the most notorious 
warlords in the country, with the blood of many Afghans on his hands from 
the civil war. He is widely believed by many Afghans to be still involved in 
many illegal activities, including running armed militias, as well as giving 
cover to criminal gangs and drug traffickers. The people of Afghanistan 
deserve better leadership. The president is insulting the country with this 
choice." 





  

Fahim is also regarded as a hate figure by the Taliban and could possibly 
hinder efforts to kickstart a peace process between the Afghan government 
and members of the hardline movement. 





  

In selecting Fahim the president made amends with a man who earned his spurs 
as a leader in the anti-Soviet jihad, serving the guerrilla commander Ahmed 
Shah Massoud. Fahim served as Karzai's vice president and defence minister 
in the transitional government after 2001. He was stopped from running as 
vice-president in Afghanistan's first democratic elections in 2004 by 
lobbying from the international community. 





  

Like the other candidates in the race, Karzai was expected to create an 
ethnically balanced team. The president is Pashtun, Afghanistan's largest 
ethnic group comprising an estimated 40% of the population. While 
conventional wisdom holds that Pashtuns, who dominate the restive southern 
provinces, would not tolerate a leader from another ethnic group, they are 
not numerous enough to elect a president without the help of other 
communities. 





  

It is hoped Marshal Fahim will help bring a substantial portion of northern 
ethnic groups, particularly from his Tajik community. Karim Khalili, the 
vice-president today announced as Karzai's other running mate, will be 
expected to deliver the Hazaras, a group of 4 million said to be descended 
from Genghis Khan. 





  

Refugee to chief 





  

General Mohammad Qasim Fahim is a member of the Tajik community, 
Afghanistan's second-largest ethnic group. Born in the Panjshir valley in 
1957, he became a refugee in Pakistan after the communist coup in 1978. He 
was a mujahideen fighter during the 1980s war, commanding troops in the 
central province of Parwan and Baghlan. He took over as military chief of 
the Northern Alliance two days before the World Trade Centre attacks, 
following the death of Ahmad Shah Massoud.