<

Karzai 'Poised' to Fight Warlordism
Monday, June 24, 2002
DAWN: The Internet Edition

"To do the job of controlling the warlords may eventually require force, and at present that doesn't exist in the central government. These are the limitations he has to work with," said one Western diplomat.

KABUL, Afghanistan
The future of Afghanistan's newly-elected President Hamid Karzai and of this country itself hangs on a thin reed: words.

As a leader who won power without the backing of an army, Karzai is betting on his not inconsiderable ability to use moral persuasion to make Afghanistan into "a country of laws, of institution," he says.

His first effort to rely on such invisible force appears to have worked. A two-day protest by soldiers and police employees at the Interior Ministry over Karzai's appointment of a new minister from the Pakhtoon ethnic group rather than the Tajiks, ended peacefully on Saturday.

The strike stopped after Karzai said publicly that it was both unpatriotic and a firing offence to refuse to accept the newly appointed minister.

In an interview in the presidential palace the day before, as he was putting the final touches on his Cabinet, Karzai talked passionately about the difficult task ahead to end what is known in this region as warlordism, and about his desire to create a working central government. Wearing his trademark sheepskin cap and a simple grey shalwar kameez, he seemed completely engaged in his effort to rally all the forces in Afghanistan to forge the nation's future.

"I am planning to deliver to the Afghan people what they asked of me. And they have asked of me, clearly, security all over the country, an end to gun running and force against them, an end to separate stretches of power in Afghanistan," Karzai said.
(More: DAWN.com News Source)
2002 © The DAWN Group of Newspapers.

Dan