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Books on Afghanistan
REPUBLICAN REFERENCE
Area (sq.km)
647,500
Population
26,813,057
Capital
Kabul
Currency
afghani (AFA)
President
Hamid Karzai
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Update No: 055 - (19/06/06)
A turning point?
The June riots in Kabul are seen by some observers as a turning point in
Afghanistan, leading the expatriate community to begin wondering whether they
are still welcome in the country. The expanding military presence in the country
certainly shows signs of irritating an ever larger section of Afghan society,
but cultural friction is more likely to be the cause of the declining popularity
of foreigners in the country. In the short term, the most immediate worry became
the gross inefficiency of the police, which was unable to contain a rioting
crowd as little as a few hundreds strong. The riots, however, can also be seen
as a warning sign that the build up in tension with some groups which have
increasingly being excluded from the ruling coalition might be starting to push
them towards more radical opposition. In general, the circles gathered around
Jamiat-i Islami had been already manifesting growing opposition to President
Karzai since the parliamentary elections of 2005, but keeping it within the
boundaries of the law. However, at the grassroots level demand for action seems
to be putting the leadership under pressure. In a matter of days after the
riots, attention was already re-focusing on the bloodiest fighting since the
fall of the Taleban regime, with hundreds killed throughout the south and
south-east. Coalition sources claim to be pounding the Taleban insurgents very
hard, but reports from Pakistan suggest that there is no shortage of fresh
volunteers to join the jihad. The growing number of civilian casualties is
increasingly becoming a political problem and is forcing President Karzai to
distance himself from the Americans. His recent proposal of creating
counter-insurgent militias in the south stirred a debate in Kabul, raising the
prospect of the complete collapse of the efforts to disarm illegal armed groups.
Not a rubber stamp parliament
In the meanwhile, the new parliament has been giving a hard time to
President Karzai and the government. The most resounding defeat of the Karzai
camp was the rejection of his candidate to the position of President of the
Supreme Court. Karzai wanted to reconfirm Fazel Haq Shinwari, who was voted down
despite his ultra-conservative Islamic background, which should have endeared
him to the majority of the parliamentarians. This rejection, officially
motivated with Shinwari's lack of proper qualifications, might be a sign that
opposition to Karzai is beginning to override ideological sympathies, although a
cynical reading of the rejection might also be that Karzai wanted to get rid of
the embarrassing Shinwari but did not dare to do it himself, opting instead to
leave the job to the Parliament.
The Parliament, however, dealt another blow to the Karzai camp by rejecting the
proposed annual budget, on the ground that their request for an increase in
salary for government employees had not been accepted. The Finance Minister's
argument that donors were refusing to pay for the increase was overwhelmingly
rejected and only 6 MPs voted in favour of the proposed budget, that is not even
the members of the finance Minister's own party.
Reining in the traders
The financial institutions of Afghanistan are having a hard time trying to
establish a degree of control over the country's economy. Despite repeated
warnings and threats of fines, the National Bank has not been able yet to
convince traders to give up using foreign currencies. While the US dollar is
widely used everywhere, the Pakistani Rupee is commonly used in southern parts
of the country. Traders are responding to rising government pressure by becoming
increasingly vociferous about the extent of administrative corruption in the
country. A survey published by the Afghan International Chambers of Commerce
showed that businessmen consider corruption the greatest challenge they face. It
is estimated that corruption accounts for 8% of production costs.
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