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Insurgent groups rouse fear before Afghan elections Attacks are making the process dangerous for candidates and voters alike


by David Nakamura in kabul


n a recent campaign swing through Kandahar, Afghan parliamentary candidate Kha- lid Pashtoon brought the es- sentials: posters, leaflets and 15 bodyguards armed with pistols and ri- fles. Pashtoon, who is up for reelection, fig-


O


ures he’s a marked man — a prime target for the Taliban insurgents, warlords and drug dealers aiming to create chaos dur- ing the Sept. 18 elections. Already, three parliamentary candidates have been as- sassinated, and on Saturday in Herat, in- surgents ambushed another candidate’s convoy, killing that man’s brother. It’s not just Pashtoon who is nervous, but also his constituents. The 500-per- son banquets he organized for voters five years ago have been reduced to meetings with the few dozen tribal el- ders brave enough to see him, he said. “I’m not afraid of a gunfight. We can


defend ourselves,” Pashtoon said in his home in relatively secure Kabul. “But the suicide attacks, that’s what I’m afraid of.”


Across Afghanistan, especially in the south and east, increasingly brazen at- tacks by anti-government groups have cowed many candidates for the 249 low- er house seats as well as voters. Afghan election officials announced last week that 938 of the country’s 6,835 polling centers will remain closed on election day because of security concerns, leav- ing 1.5million of the country’s 13 million registered voters unable to participate. Officials said this disenfranchisement is a side effect of a strategy to limit the rampant fraud that plagued last year’s presidential election, when Hamid Kar- zai was returned to office amid allega- tions of widespread ballot-stuffing and bribery. “The lesson learned from the last elec- tions is that where security does not ex- ist, it creates an opportunity for those who want to make fraudulent activities,” said Zekria Barakzai, deputy chief of the Independent Election Commission. Barakzai pledged that the elections, which were postponed from last spring, will go forward next month despite calls from some candidates to delay them again. The commission has improved ballot security, increased background checks for employees and compiled a blacklist of 6,000 people involved in fraud last year who will not be allowed to participate, Barakzai said. His goal is 40 percent voter turnout, with fraudu- lent ballots limited to 10 percent. International monitoring organiza-


TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2010


RAHMAT GUL/ASSOCIATED PRESS


Women walk past a poster in Jalalabad of Hajji Zahir Qadir, a candidate in Afghanistan’s upcoming parliamentary elections. nisms.”


tions praised the commission for pub- licizing the list of closed polling stations well before the elections. But they said the commission has not implemented other important safeguards, such as es- tablishing an international oversight board to investigate reports of irregular- ities.


Ahmad Nader Nadery, chairman of


the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan, said his organization has recorded a large increase in intimida- tion by the Taliban of voters and candi- dates, especially women, as well as threats from warlords who have propped up handpicked candidates against weaker rivals.


Compared with the presidential elec- tion last summer, Nadery said, “the com- ing elections will be much more chal- lenging in terms of security, in terms of conditions on a very local level. At- tempts to buy and persuade electoral employees favoring this and that candi- date will be much more, but there are not many more prevention mecha-


Candidates speak of the Taliban warn-


ing men at mosques to stay away from the polls; of corrupt local officials selling voter identification cards in bulk to the highest-paying candidates; and of vio- lent intimidation by insurgents. Daoud Sultanzoy, running for reelec- tion from the Ajristan area of the violent Ghazni province, said his cousin, who has six children, was dragged from his house and shot three times in the head because he was related to Sultanzoy. Sultanzoy has spent just two days in his home district in the past three years, and he is too scared to campaign there. “It is impossible. I’m sitting here,” he said in his rented home in Kabul. “I ha- ven’t even printed my posters yet. How can I go there to put them up?” In Ghazni, 107 of the 349 polling sta- tions will be closed, election officials said. Sayed Ismail Jahangir, a spokes- man for Musa Khan Akbarzada, the pro- vincial governor, said candidates could request security guards from the Afghan


police and army. On election day, he add- ed, Polish and American troops have promised to help secure the province. Told of Sultanzoy’s fear, Jahangir sug-


gested he avoid Ajristan (pop. 85,000) and campaign in safer areas. “We have 82 people running for office and 13 are women,” he said. “Their cam- paigns are going on every day in Ghazni province.”


Despite security concerns, there is no


shortage of candidates. All told, 2,556 people are running for the 249 lower house seats, including 406 female candi- dates competing for 68 seats reserved for women, according to the election commission. In Kabul alone, the ballot will span eight pages, officials said. Some observers have complained that many candidates are warlords, drug traf- fickers and other criminals. Fereshta Afghan decided to run for of-


fice this year in Kandahar after being threatened three times by the Taliban to quit her job working for a Japanese de- velopment agency. She resigned and


moved to Kabul but is working to win support from Kandahar’s women, youth and disabled.


She said another candidate gave her some advice: “He said if I can’t get a loan, I should sell all my jewelry and hire a security guard.” As for Pashtoon, he is resigned to lim- ited voter participation in his power base. “People ask themselves, ‘Why should I


kill myself just to put Khalid Pashtoon in office?’ ” he said. “I wouldn’t do it.” nakamurad@washpost.com


Special correspondent Quadratullah Andar contributed to this report.


on washingtonpost.com Afghanistan in pictures


For a photo gallery of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, go to


washingtonpost.com/world. Afghan officials challenge U.S. on corruption within aid contracts by David Nakamura


kabul — A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai challenged the United States on Monday to clean up fraud and corruption within the hun- dreds of millions of dollars of aid con- tracts it distributes to Afghan companies each year, saying that abuse is far worse than any irregularities in the Karzai ad- ministration. Waheed Omer used his weekly news conference to take the offensive in the ongoing political battle between the Kar- zai government and U.S. officials over the mismanagement of international money. Of every $100 million of aid coming into the country, Omer said, 80 percent is controlled by the United States and


NATO. Therefore, he said, it is up to international officials to enact safe- guards and root out illegal practices. “Corruption is widely affecting the multimillion-dollar contracts going to Afghans, who are becoming terribly rich out of those contracts,” Omer said. “We want the international community to work with the government of Afghani- stan to eliminate these sources of corrup- tion and target the roots and sources of corruption. A major part are these inter- national contracts.” Omer’s remarks came just days after Karzai finished a series of meetings with Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who had flown to Kabul to push Karzai to crack down on corruption within his adminis- tration. Questions sent to Kerry through aides were not immediately answered.


Last month, Mohammad Zia Salehi, a


high-level Karzai aide, was arrested by Afghanistan’s Major Crimes Task Force after allegedly being overheard in a wire- tap soliciting a bribe of an automobile worth $10,000. Salehi was released from jail within hours after Karzai personally intervened, according to Afghan officials familiar with the case. Karzai has said he acted because Salehi’s human rights were violated and the wire-tap was against Afghan rules. The Washington Post reported last week that Salehi was also being investi- gated for doling out luxury automobiles and cash to Karzai allies and talking reg- ularly with Taliban insurgents. Asked to respond to those new allega- tions, Omer said: “In terms of the official information this office has received, this


DIGEST PAKISTAN


U.S. drone attack kills 13 militants, 7 civilians Missiles fired from a U.S. drone air-


craft killed 13 militants and seven civil- ians in Pakistan’s North Waziristan re- gion Monday, Pakistani intelligence offi- cials said. They said the missiles were fired at a militant hideout. Most of the militants killed were members of the Afghan Tali- ban, the officials said, but four women and three children were also among the dead. “The missiles hit a militant compound and a house adjacent to it. We have con- firmed reports of 20 dead,” said one of the intelligence officials. Another official said members of the


al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network — one of the most effective militant forces fight- ing Western troops in Afghanistan — had been using the compound. The United States has been pressing


ally Pakistan to crack down hard on Af- ghan Taliban militants who cross the bor- der to Afghanistan to attack U.S.-led NATO forces. U.S. officials say the pilotless aircraft are a highly effective weapon against mil- itant groups. But civilian casualties in the strikes have angered Pakistanis.


—Reuters AFGHANISTAN U.S. troops among 5 killed


Attacks by insurgents killed five for- eign troops in Afghanistan on Monday, including two Americans, two French marines and a Hungarian soldier. The attacks came in the north, south and east of the war-torn country, the military alliance said. France’s Defense Ministry said a lieu- tenant and corporal from the 21st Marine Infantry Regiment were killed in a gun battle in the Bedraou Valley in the east- ern province of Kapisa. Three other French troops were wounded, it said. Monday’s deaths bring the number of


French troops killed in the Afghan war to 47. The French contingent to the NATO- led international force numbers about 4,000. No additional information was given about the American casualties. —Associated Press


PHILIPPINES 8 dead in hostage drama


A 12-hour hostage drama aboard a Philippine bus ended in bloodshed Mon- day, with at least seven Chinese tourists dead along with the disgruntled ex-po- liceman who hijacked the vehicle and de- manded his job back, officials said. At least six captives survived, four of


whom were seen crawling out the back door of the bus after Philippine police stormed it Monday evening when the hostage-taker started shooting at the 15


TED ALJIBE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES


Police officers in Manila try to enter a bus that was hijacked by a fired policeman. He fatally shot at least seven Chinese tourists before a police sniper killed him.


Chinese tourists inside, said police Sen- ior Superintendent Nelson Yabut. He said the hostage-taker was killed with a sniper shot to the head after he


wounded a police sharpshooter. Officials have yet to disclose the fate of the remaining two hostages. The crisis began when the dismissed policeman, Rolando Mendoza, 55, armed with an M16 rifle, seized the busload of Hong Kong tourists to demand his rein- statement in the force. According to newspaper reports from 2008, he was among five officers who had been charged with robbery, extortion and grave threats after a Manila hotel chef filed a complaint alleging the policemen falsely accused him of using drugs to ex- tort money.


—Associated Press


Trapped miners get more help: Chile’s government reinforced a lifeline Monday to 33 miners trapped deep inside a gold and copper mine, preparing to keep them supplied with food, water, medicine and communications during the four months it may take to carve a tunnel wide enough to pull them out. Doctors and psychiatric experts also arrived at the site.


Gang rapes alleged in Congo: Rwandan and Congolese rebels gang-raped nearly 200 women and some baby boys over four days within miles of a U.N. peace- keepers’ base in an eastern Congo mining district, an American aid worker and a Congolese doctor said Monday. —From news services


arrest was specifically for an alleged case of soliciting a bribe purported to be in the shape of a car. . . . All details of those other allegations are not part of this case as described to the government of Af- ghanistan.”


Karzai has been particularly critical of the private security forces, which num- ber more than 30,000 armed guards working primarily with western organi- zations, including the U.S. military. “We will take steps to stop corruption,


whether it be in customs or in services. But the government wants also to look into the wide-ranging corruption in the international forces contracts. One area is the private security companies, which are making billions of dollars and threat- en the security,” Omer said. The International Security Assistance


Force (ISAF), NATO’s force in Afghani- stan, has already established two task forces to examine corruption — one on international contracts and another on private security firms. “ISAF will soon issue comprehensive


contracting guidance that will ensure our contracting dollars best serve the Af- ghan people as well as ISAF’s mission,” said a spokesman, Maj. Joel Harper. Meanwhile, the federal Commission


on Wartime Contracting announced Monday that it will undertake a week- long examination of U.S. construction contracts in Afghanistan. Co-Chairman Michael Thibault said in a statement that $4 billion was wasted on construction in Iraq, and similar problems could be found in Afghanistan. nakamurad@washpost.com


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