Karzai acts to take the gun out of politics

Afghans and international aid workers have cautiously welcomed President Hamid Karzai’s executive order, issued on Monday, prohibiting political leaders from participating in military pursuits.

"It is a welcome development, but its real test will be implementation on the ground," the Afghan intellectual and commentator, Rostar Tarakai, told IRIN from the French city of Lyon on Tuesday. "Other such declarations were not put into action because they lacked the backing of an organised state force."

A year after Karzai assumed power following the demise of the hardline Taliban, powerful regional warlords still control large armies and in essence govern parts of the country - assuming both the civil and military leadership. Many Afghans believe that unless such strongmen are restrained, peace, security and reconstruction will remain distant dreams.

Explaining the background to the move, Babrak Shinwari, an exiled Afghan political activist in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, told IRIN that civil and military affairs in Afghanistan became deeply intertwined after the communist coup in 1978, when the military dominated successive Soviet-backed regimes. This same pattern cntinues today, with factional leaders such as Ismail Khan in the west, Rashid Dostum in the north and Gul Agha in the south backing civilian administration with large well-armed militias.

"Who will bell the cat?" he asked, referring to the difficult task of enforcing the new law. "On a symbolic level, the move enables people to distinguish between right and wrong," Shinwari said, adding that Afghans would strongly resent any violation of this decree. "In future, politics should remain an exclusive domain of civilians," he added.

Shinwari suggested that none of the security organs of the state, including the defence and interior ministries, along with intelligence agencies, should participate in politics. The judiciary and foreign service must also become depoliticised. "We expect that the move will lay grounds for democracy to flourish," he said.

Working in difficult security conditions and often threatened by armed followers of warlords, humanitarian workers in Afghanistan have also welcomed the announcement. "It is a courageous step on behalf of President Karzai," Paul Barker, the director of the international NGO CARE, told IRIN from the Afghan capital, Kabul. "It is a step in the right direction."

Barker said sporadic factional fighting between competing warlords sometimes endangered humanitarian assistance and the lives of aid workers in Afghanistan. "Warlordism is a major concern in this country, and any steps to counter it are welcome," he observed. CARE operates in some of the most volatile regions in the north and southeast of the country.