Kabul Faces Provincial Problem

The interior ministry’s efforts to address security problems caused by regional warlords and feuding clans are being undermined by the government’s lack of influence outside Kabul.

Warlords command private armies and use gangs to control areas where they extort money and traffic drugs – a pattern that has continued since the Soviet occupation and the subsequent years of civil war.

And many areas of the country are still ruled by clans who have a long tradition of blood feuds and revenge killings.

The Taleban regime was initially popular because it restored law and order to the provinces, but the old ways soon returned and President Hamid Karzai has yet to take control of these regions.

The difficulty of enforcing the rule of law outside of major cities is illustrated by several recent cases in the provinces of Kabul and Logar.

Two weeks ago, police colonel Fazli Zamarai was killed along with his bodyguard and driver while patrolling a southwest district of Kabul province.

The interior ministry’s police general director Mohammad Haroon Asifi told IWPR that Zamari had been following a gang of thieves when a shootout occurred. Mohammad Ghani, the leader of the criminals, was also killed.

In a village close to Kabul city, police say they were threatened last week by a former Rabbani-era minister, when they arrested his bodyguard on suspicion of murder.

Jamiat-e-Islami member Mohammad Sadiq Chakari, an ex-information and culture minister, had returned to his village after living abroad for several years.

At a reception at the central mosque in his district, and later at a lunch at his home, he spoke of peace and reconstruction and unity, “I want to serve and rebuild my region. We will make a commission of elders for peace, to solve all the problems.”

However, a local police commander attending the event, Mohammed Ismail, recognised a man he believed was Chakari's bodyguard as wanted for questioning in connection with a murder in a land dispute, and arrested him.

The former minister demanded his bodyguard’s release, and allegedly told Ismail that he would have him sacked.

The policeman told IWPR that he was just doing his job, saying, “I arrested the suspect on the information of intelligence and security workers and at the command of the district head, and I did everything according my responsibility.

“Several times, Chakari ordered me to release the man and return his weapon, but I did not comply until ordered to do so by my district head.”

When questioned by IWPR, Chakari denied that the detained man was his bodyguard. He said he was angry with the police because they could have caused more bloodshed by arresting the man in public. ”It is not Europe, where you can arrest anyone anywhere,” he said.

Chakari claimed the police themselves have been involved in various clan disputes over the years.

The former minister added that the government could strengthen its authority in two ways. He suggested that the interior ministry assign police officers to districts that are not populated with their relatives, and that a commission of elders should work at a local level to mediate long-term disputes.

The problem of feuding clans is also rife in Logar province. Here, the police and governor have been mediating in a decades-long dispute between two groups, which has claimed a number of innocent victims.

One of the latest casualties was a 12-year-old boy, who was suffocated to death last month. Official believe that his murder was revenge killing for the deaths of two teenagers the previous December.

In an attempt to stop the warring factions, local police chief Lieutenant General Noor Mohammad arrested 27 men from both clans and held them for a month, while Logar governor Abdul Malik Hamkar convened talks to bring the two sides together.

He told each side to raise a million afghanis (around 20,000 US dollars) as compensation for the families of the victims. Four men from each side were then released from prison – the remainder are to be freed when the clans raise the money.

Only days later, however, another young man was killed to avenge the death of the second teenager.

Public opinion is divided over the feuding. Some Logar residents have complained that Kabul should intervene in such cases, while others are happy to leave it to the local authorities, as they have extensive knowledge of clan history and tradition.

Danish Karokhel is an IWPR editor/reporter in Kabul. Mohammad Zahir Sidiqi and Mohammad Fahim - journalists in Logar who recently completed IWPR training - contributed to this report.