Mixed Feelings Over Ex-Monarch's Homecoming

Few Afghan refugees think Zaher Shah alone can bring peace to their war-torn land, but they see their ex-king's return as a sign that normal life is returning at last.

Tens of thousands of Afghans at the refugee camp of Muzafar Koat last week celebrated the return of their former king, Mohammad Zaher Shah, to the country from which he was ousted almost 30 years ago.

Refugees at the camp, several hours' drive from Peshawar, seemed united in the belief that the ex-monarch's homecoming will pave the way for their own return from uncomfortable exile.

But while the homecoming of the 87-year-old former ruler has raised hopes, many doubt that his presence can really guarantee peace and stability in the ethnically-divided country.

"We welcome Zaher Shah because we are tired of war," said Mujeeb-ur-Rehman, a lab technician. "We need a person who can unite all the people and he is the person who can do that."

But Rehman doubted the former king could deliver the peace that existed in Afghanistan before his dethronement in a 1973 coup. "Zahir Shah does not have political power and does not have armed people," he said.

After decades of quiet retirement in Rome, the ex-king says he has no ambition to restore the monarchy and only intends to play a symbolic role. He is an ethnic Pashtun, the largest group in Afghanistan, while the current interim government is dominated by the Northern Alliance, which mainly represents the country's Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara minorities.

His principal task is to convene a Loya Jirga, a traditional assembly, which will select a new government in June to rule for a further two years.

While few dispute his good will, some refugees complain that he may be out of touch. He lived comfortably in Italy, they say, while their country was torn apart in a series of wars.

The refugee camps, which grew up in the aftermath of the turmoil generated by the Soviet invasion of 1979, were a hotbed of Mujahedin fighters, many of whom were hostile to the monarchy.

"How can this man bring peace when he has lived apart from Afghan society for so long and does not know the problems its people face?"

asked a teacher at the Kacha Garrai refugee camp, on the outskirts of Peshawar.

Voicing the republican sentiments of many, another refugee, Fazal Qadir Andiwal, added, "He and his family should not try to reclaim their kingdom because the Afghan nation will not accept it."

Alongside serious misgivings about the monarchy, many refugees remain deeply suspicious of foreign influence over their government, especially from the United States.

"If Zaher Shah has come as an elder of the nation with a message of democracy and republicanism we will welcome him," said Haji Ibrahim an engineer. "But if he has come as a representative of foreigners he will not be accepted by Afghans."

Still, most people in the camps appeared buoyed by the former king's homecoming. They are realistic about his limited powers to establish peace by himself but see his presence as a sign of a return to the sort of normality that disappeared over a quarter of a century ago.

At the Muzafar Koat camp, one 10-year-old boy asked an old man in the bazaar if peopel would return to their homes now. "If Zaher Shah is back in the country, then the time has surely come for all of us to go back," he said.

Fazal Malik, Nasreen Sadat and Ali Ahmed Ali Sabah are attending the IWPR journalists training programme in Peshawar.