Afghan convention hits difficulties as draft charter causes discord
Men and women from across the country lined up to vote inside an immense tent on a Kabul college campus on proposed amendments to the 160-article draft document, including one giving women more seats in parliament.
The draft outlines a strong presidential system with a limited role for parliament. It would also makes Islam the official religion but without Islamic sharia law.
Interim leader Hamid Karzai has endorsed the draft, as have his supporters in the US, who want to see him run for president in elections scheduled for next June.
Mr Karzai has argued a strong presidency is needed to rebuild the country after two decades of civil strife. But his opponents at the constitutional Loya Jirga, or Grand Assembly, have criticised the process, saying it threatens to create an autocratic political system that sidelines minority groups such as the Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras.
Mr Karzai is from the largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, and the constitution could return the group to its traditional position at the centre of Afghan power at the expense of minorities.
"This Loya Jirga is not a step toward stability," said delegate Wali Masood, brother of legendary Tajik commander Ahmad Shah Masood, assassinated by al-Qaida over two years ago.
Opposition to Karzai at the assembly has been led by former President Burhanuddin Rabanni, Uzbek strongman Abdul Rashid Dostum and Islamic conservative Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf. All are linked to the Northern Alliance, a faction of mainly Tajiks that helped the US topple the hard-line Islamic Taliban regime in late 2001. None of the three leaders was seen voting Thursday.
Delegates were voting on amendments governing the powers of the presidency, whether minority languages would be given national status and if seats in parliament should be reserved for women and nomads.
They were also deciding whether to give provincial assemblies not the president the power to propose candidates for governor.
The Loya Jirga had been scheduled to last for 10 days, but behind-the-scenes wrangling and protests during sessions inside the giant white tent have dragged the assembly into its 18th day.
A sizeable boycott will damage Mr Karzai's credibility within his country, although Western observers believe he has enough support to win the simple majority needed to pass the document.
Mr Karzai and the US hoped for a swift adoption of a constitution little changed from the draft, but the assembly has underlined tensions in Afghan society over issues ranging from the role of Islam to the rights of ethnic minorities and women.
Potentially controversial amendments, including the language of the national anthem, were dropped just before voting began, suggesting that further clashes lie ahead.
Earlier, US troops and helicopters killed 14 insurgents in clashes in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, the military said yesterday. Three US soldiers were wounded in the battle 12 miles northeast of Shkin, a town in Paktika province near the Pakistan border.
The first three militants were killed in a gun battle after a small group of insurgents fired on a US patrol, spokesman Lt Col Bryan Hilferty said.
The same patrol later found the insurgents, and AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters flying in support inflicted several more casualties, Lt Col Hilferty said. One of the wounded US soldiers was evacuated and is in a stable condition, he said. The other two immediately returned to duty.
Suspected Taliban and al-Qaida militants regularly attack US and allied Afghan forces as well as government and aid workers in a broad swathe of southern and eastern Afghanistan along the rugged Pakistani frontier.
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