Afghan leader threatens to join Taliban: Lawmakers

[DesiGuy]

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai threatened over the weekend to quit the political process and join the Taliban if he continued to come under outside pressure to reform, several members of parliament said Monday.

Karzai made the unusual statement at a closed-door meeting Saturday with selected lawmakers, just days after kicking up a diplomatic controversy with remarks alleging foreigners were behind fraud in last year's disputed elections.

Lawmakers dismissed the latest comment as hyperbole, but it will add to the impression the president, who relies on tens of thousands of US and Nato forces to fight the insurgency and prop up his government , is growing increasingly erratic and unable to exert authority without attacking his foreign backers.

''He said that 'if I come under foreign pressure, I might join the Taliban','' said Farooq Marenai, who represents the eastern province of Nangarhar.

''He said rebelling would change to resistance,'' Marenai said, apparently suggesting that the militant movement would then be redefined as one of resistance against a foreign occupation rather than a rebellion against an elected government.

Marenai said Karzai appeared nervous and repeatedly demanded to know why parliament last week had rejected legal reforms that would have strengthened the president's authority over the country's electoral institutions.

Two other lawmakers said Karzai twice raised the threat to join the insurgency.

The lawmakers, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of political repercussions, said Karzai also dismissed concerns over possible damage his comments had caused to relations with the United States.

He told them he had already explained himself in a telephone conversation Saturday with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that came after the White House described his comments last week as troubling.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said reports Karzai threatened to abandon the political process and join the Taliban insurgency if he continued to receive pressure from Western backers to reform his government are troubling.

''On behalf of the American people, we're frustrated with the remarks,'' Gibbs told reporters.

The lawmakers said they felt Karzai was pandering to hard-line or pro-Taliban members of parliament and had no real intention of joining the insurgency.

Nor does the Afghan leader appear concerned that the US might abandon him, having said numerous times that the US would not leave Afghanistan because it perceives a presence here to be in its national interest.

Karzai spokesman Waheed Omar's phone was turned off and another number for him rang unanswered Monday. Deputy spokesman Hamed Elmi's phone rang unanswered.

The comments come against the background of continuing insurgent violence as the US moves to boost troop levels in a push against Taliban strongholds in the south. -AP


DAWN.COM | World | Afghan leader threatens to join Taliban: Lawmakers

 

[SHAMK9]

what a hell is wrong with these retarded people

 

[Spitfighter]

There's no way Karzai is that stupid. He knows who's keeping him in power, the Taliban would love to make an example out of him and put a man of their own in charge.

 

[TaimiKhan]

What has this news anything to do with Pakistan Political Issues ???

Paste in correct sections.

 

[Creder]

He's just yankin their chain, i think the states did this one thing wrong they publicised their plans for a possible reconciliation with taliban.. Now people like Karzai are gonna think that they can intimidate uncle sam..or maybe uncle sam wanted karzai to act like this, they need a pro-US Afghan president, Karzai has increasingly become a nuisance for them

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

Bowing to Pressure, Karzai Fires Election Officials
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Under enormous pressure from Western governments, President Hamid Karzai ousted Afghanistan’s top two elections officials, who were seen as sanctioning the widespread fraud that favored him during last year’s presidential race.

But Western diplomats said the significance of the move would not be known until replacements are named and can show whether they are less willing to condone fraud.

“This is something everyone has been hoping for,” one diplomat said. “But it will only have an impact if they are replaced by people who are better.”

Some officials have already expressed deep concern over one possible replacement, Abdul Karim Khuram, who until a few months ago was minister of information and culture. Mr. Khuram, a strong Karzai partisan, was criticized last year for pressing broadcasters, including state-run television, to favor Mr. Karzai’s re-election campaign.

His appointment “would be a slap in the face of the international community,” one Western diplomat said, adding that the independence of the election process “would be under question again.”

While firing the two Karzai loyalists was a major demand of Western officials who must decide whether to finance parliamentary elections scheduled for September, it is not the only one. They are also furious about Mr. Karzai’s efforts to emasculate the Electoral Complaints Commission, the country’s only independent election monitor. They are pressing him to back down, but the outcome of that dispute also remains uncertain.

Mr. Karzai foreshadowed the dismissals of the election officials last week during the first in a series of tirades in which he accused American and European officials of committing widespread electoral fraud, and at one private meeting even threatened to join the Taliban himself.

If he had not ousted the two officials — the chairman of the Independent Election Commission, Azizullah Ludin, and Daoud Ali Najafi, the chief electoral officer — even Mr. Karzai had appeared to acknowledge that he risked losing hundreds of millions of dollars from Western donors for the September elections.

During the crisis that followed the Aug. 20 presidential election, the two officials served as a rubber stamp for Mr. Karzai, many American and European officials in Kabul said. It fell to the Electoral Complaints Commission — three of whose five members are appointed by the United Nations — to reject one-third of his votes as fraudulent.

The ouster of Mr. Ludin and Najafi, announced at a news conference Wednesday, suggests that despite his recent outbursts Mr. Karzai recognizes at least at some level the enormous dependence he and his government still have on Western money and military forces. But the real test remains, Western officials said.

The firings “play well for the international audience, who get what they want and have been asking for,” one diplomat in Kabul said. “But we need to see who the replacements are. It can’t be just cosmetic and symbolic.”

“It may gall Karzai to swallow this,” the diplomat said, “but it had to happen.”

Mr. Karzai made the extent of that irritation clear one week ago, when he complained that “foreigners” had demanded electoral reform.

“When I asked what reform means, it means to sack Mr. Ludin and Mr. Najafi,” he said then, lionizing both men. He also predicted he might be forced to comply but promised that both officials “will go to other major national posts.”

A spokeswoman for the United States embassy in Kabul, Caitlin Hayden, said: “We look forward to the Afghan government appointing replacements with the qualifications and integrity needed to support transparent, credible and fair elections.”

Still unresolved as well is Mr. Karzai’s attempt to hijack control of the Electoral Complaints Commission, which forced a presidential runoff election last fall by discarding one million of Mr. Karzai’s votes. The runoff was averted when Mr. Karzai’s most popular rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, withdrew his candidacy.

The commission’s statutory power and independence deeply irked Mr. Karzai, who issued a decree in February giving himself the ability to appoint all five members.

But last week the Lower House of Parliament dealt Mr. Karzai a rare rebuke by voting almost unanimously to reject the decree. The Upper House declined to vote on the issue, though, and Mr. Karzai’s aides asserted that the decree now stands as law.

Western diplomats, however, say it is not clear whether the decree can be legally enforced. Moreover, they say that if Western donor countries are not satisfied with conditions for the parliamentary ballot, they will not give Afghanistan money for the election.

“If it’s not clear what law we are operating under, it’s going to affect whether donors are willing to step forward,” one Western official said. “We want to know what we are funding.”

Bowing to Pressure, Karzai Fires Election Officials - NYTimes.com