Bamiyan,
a predominantly Shi'ite Hazara town, reached after
an excruciating eight-hour, 180-kilometer ride west from
Kabul through dramatic mountain passes, is a success
story in Afghanistan. Probably the safest place for
internationals to work in the country, it slumbers under
the shadows of mountain ranges pocketed with caves, some
still inhabited. A French humanitarian organization
tried to resettle the
cave dwellers into homes, but the project failed when
they refused to abandon their way of life.
At
night, hundreds of lights from their caves glow like
stars in a black sky. The tall niches - the highest at
53 meters - carved into the mountain where immense 4th
century AD Buddha statues stood until the Taliban
destroyed them stare at the town like empty eye sockets.
The Japanese government is funding the stabilization of
the niches and the restoration of an extensive network
of caves carved into the cliff face, some of which still
hold intricate grotto murals of sacred Buddhist
iconography.
The
Hazaras, descendants of Genghis Khan, were singled out
by the radical Sunni Taliban for oppression, and when
the Taliban
destroyed the buddhas,
which they called the "Hazara gods", they slaughtered
dozens of local cows, a loss Hazaras still complain
about.
United
Nations officials in Bamiyan live a relaxed life, free from
the ubiquitous security concerns that govern the lives of
their counterparts elsewhere in the country. Their security
reports grant Bamiyan only "NTR", or nothing to
report. They enjoy weekends at Band-i-Amir lakes, a UNESCO (UN
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World
Heritage Site of renowned natural splendor further on in
the Bamiyan Valley,. An old travel book describes the
area: "Band-i-Amir is above matters of taste, it is
beauty itself ... to describe the scene more fully would
be to rob the uninitiated of the wonder and amazement it
produces on all who gaze upon it - be it for the first
time, or for the 10th time." Driving for two hours in
the
desert, past minefields and cultivated villages,
one discovers a series of pure lakes separated by
natural dams and visited by the rare tourist and
shepherd.
UN representatives organizing the
October presidential elections in Bamiyan have half a
million registered voters in their purview, 107% of the
expected amount, 54% percent of whom are women. Within
their region, however, are two Pashtun districts, one of
which had zero women registered and one of which had 14
women registered, though more than 5,000 men signed on.
A hundred gray Russian jeeps sit outside the UN
headquarters in Bamiyan, waiting to be dispatched on
election day.
According to a UN
official, "Hazaras really feel great that they have some kind
of representation for the first time." The US
mistake, he said, "was to give warlords their old
positions and strengthen them". His concern is that
US-backed President Hamid Karzai might not receive more
than 50% of the vote. This would require a second round
of voting, theoretically two weeks after the official
results of the first round were received. It is a
nightmare scenario for those involved in the elections.
When asked if there might be a second round, the
official responded, "I hope not, man. We have no plan
for it and we would only have a few weeks to set it up.
And then there is the weather." It would take a few
weeks for the results from the entire country to be
counted, and rain has already started to fall in parts
of the country, by the time of a second round, many
roads would be impassible and villages cut off from one
another.
French non-government organization
workers in Bamiyan defend the need for elections,
despite concerns over their fairness. "If you wait for
10 years they won't be fair either. Can the Western idea
of democracy fit in this society?" They pointed to an
alleged democratic precursor in Afghan society, the
traditional shura, or assembly, and explained that
it is dominated by the biggest landowners. "It's a mix
of paternalism and feudalism. Fair for us is not same
thing as fair for them. The shura is not fair in
our conception, to them it is the most fair
organization."
They explained that Afghanistan is
still a very traditional society where 80% of the
population are farmers. "There is no tradition of
elections, only negotiations and appointments. A leader
is not elected. He is recognized for being able to
provide resources and it's totally normal." They added,
"Karzai is trying to buy off the competition," but one
quipped, "He is not buying, only renting."
Most
of the international community in Afghanistan do not
expect the elections to adhere to standards of fairness
that would be acceptable in their home countries.
According to one UN security official, "These elections
are not about freedom or fairness. They will be bought,
communities will vote according to their chieftain."
Another high-level UN official
involved in organizing the elections complained, "We have
been trying to uphold the free and fair requirement
of the elections, but the Afghan concept is
different." He brought up the example of Faruk Wardak, the
ethnically Pashtun head of the JEMB (Joint Election Management
Body), the organization holding the elections. "He is
supposed to be neutral," he said of Wardak, "but the
northeast co-regional coordinator is a friend of
Wardak's and has been pushing to get his friends hired.
Wardak has placed a lot of friends in the co-regional
director position, and they are incompetent and that has
been very hard to deal with. I am very disappointed and
ready to leave. There was supposed to be a list of the
electorate in the country provided at the local level so
people could verify if voters really existed and if
somebody had stolen their identity. But this was only
done at the regional level and nobody is going to go all
the way to the regional capital to check his name. When
they ram down your throat that it's free, fair and
transparent, that's when I throw the towel in."
The UN elections official was departing the
country pessimistically, explaining, "I have a fear that
corruption, greed, mullahs and armed forces are too
powerful." Another UN official involved in organizing
the logistical aspect of the polls complained, "Afghans
are a lot less cynical than Westerners about the
elections." He recounted the story of a female in
Jalalabad who had been wounded registering people to
vote, but went right back to work after being released
from hospital. "The important thing," he said, "is that
elections will be held, not if they will be fair."
According to Owen Kirby of the
International Republican Institute (IRI), a US organization
promoting democracy, "The international community can't
judge it by their standards, let Afghans judge it by
their standards." In a recent publication titled
"Free, Fair or Flawed: Challenges for Legitimate
Elections in Afghanistan", the Afghan Research and
Evaluation Unit (AREU), a think-tank that provides
policy advice to the Afghan government and international
community, lamented this prevailing attitude. According
to a recent report by AREU, "While the international
community may be willing to accept a deeply flawed
election given current conditions in Afghanistan, the
Afghan public may not."
An American with decades
of experience organizing elections in emerging
democracies, who described himself as an "elections
junky", said he is not concerned with the fairness of the
process. So what if under-age voters might have
registered, he said, they are citizens at least and will
vote, but he was worried that even the technical aspects
of the elections have not yet been addressed. The
ballots have not been delivered to all the 25,000 voting
locations in the country and not all of the over 100,000
polling staff have been hired or trained.
Another issue of concern to him is that although
every voting location only receives 600 ballots, Afghans
are allowed to vote anywhere, so 1,000 voters could show
up at one location and be turned away. Like Bosnia in
1996 and the upcoming Iraq elections, he points to
Afghanistan as a classic example of the "mistake of
having elections too soon in post-conflict societies.
Politicians dictate it instead of putting food in
people's mouths and roofs over their heads and then they
send in us election cowboys to put it together for
them." He is also concerned about the roll of US
ambassador Zalmay Khalizad, complaining that "Khalizad
is so over the line. It's obvious he's Karzai's campaign
manager. He meets Karzai every day. He doesn't realize
you are supposed to keep your distance."
Hussein
Ramoz is the program manager for governance and
political parties for the National Democratic Institute,
a sister organization of Kirby's IRI. An Afghan doctor
who speaks like a political scientist, Ramoz described
the problems his organization has had in its attempts to
support the development of political parties in the
country. "People have a bad impression of political
parties," he said, "after years of parties involved in
fighting." When they first approached parties to offer
them assistance, they found that "the parties wanted
money, not training and technical support". Ramoz
acknowledged that some people claim traditional Afghan
institutions can be seen as mildly democratic,
explaining that "Afghans have been solving problems
through councils, but it was mostly patriarchal, with
the elders making decisions". Ramoz' main concern is
"election and registration fraud, which are very serious
issues". He has seen many cases of multiple
registration. "In parts of the country more cards have
been distributed than the size of the population," he
said, adding that he has friends who have shown him
dozens of registration cards. "If principles are
compromised, the election will cause instability," he
warned.
One UN worker familiar with the
election process in much of the country admits that they
are expecting between 10% and 20% duplicate registration, but
he does not attribute it all to corruption. "People are
afraid they will lose their registration cards so they
get two or three just in case," he said. According to a
UN report though, "On August 16, a man carrying
Pakistani rupees equivalent to $12,000 was detained by
the coalition forces in Tirin Kot. He stated that he got
the money from selling voter registration cards and that
the money was supposed to be handed over to governor Jan
Mohammad."
An Afghan who worked for
non-governmental organizations under the Taliban, then
helped set up the loya jirga (grand council) that
paved the way for the installation of the present
interim government, and who is now involved in
organizing the elections, is especially cynical.
"Everybody knows it's a waste of money, but it's a
lesson, to get ready for the next elections in four
years," he said, viewing corruption as a way of life in
Afghanistan.
"When money passes through 10 hands
here it is not the same amount of money in the end." He
expects a very low turnout, not higher than
three-and-a-half million voters. "Even people who
registered once won't come to vote," he said. "People
thought they would receive something for voting. There
is an Afghan expression, 'having is useful', having
something is good, just in case. If you're walking down
the street and you see a nail, pick it up and put it in
your pocket, just in case you might need it later."
This Afghan official recounted that he persuaded
his brothers to register by telling them, "If a car hits
you, at least you'll have an ID card in your pocket so
people will know who you are."
TOMORROW:
Part 4 - Ominous signs
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PART 1:
tried to resettle the
cave dwellers into homes, but the project failed when
they refused to abandon their way of life. 
destroyed the buddhas,
which they called the "Hazara gods", they slaughtered
dozens of local cows, a loss Hazaras still complain
about. 
desert, past minefields and cultivated villages,
one discovers a series of pure lakes separated by
natural dams and visited by the rare tourist and
shepherd. 
