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Hizb-i Jami'at-i Islami-yi Afghanistan [ID 685]

Hizb-i Jami'at-i Islami-yi Afghanistan or also Jamiat-e-Islami (Party of Islamic association/ Society Afghanistan) Founded 1968 resp. 1972/73 at the Kabul University Chairman: Burhanuddin Rabbani (Tajik) Deputy: Abd ar-Rabb ar-Rasul Sayyaf (Pashtun) Party members: Sunnites (primarily Tajiks, but also Dari/Persian-speaking Pashtuns in north-eastern and western provinces of Afghanistan, Uzbeks, Farsiwan)

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29.09.2004 - Source: Human Rights Watch

Jamiat-e Islami-yi Afghanistan (hereafter “Jamiat”), Shura-e Nazar and Nehzat-e Melli ("The Rule of the Gun. Human Rights Abuses and Political Repression in the Run-up to Afghanistan’s Presidential Election") [#25888],  [ID 696]

"Jamiat is a predominately Tajik Islamist political party founded in the 1970s by Burhanuddin Rabbani, the President of Afghanistan from 1992-1996. Jamiat became a military faction during the Soviet occupation and later comprised the bulk of the military forces of the Rabbani government in the early 1990s. Although Rabbani was Jamiat’s original official leader, Ahmad Shah Massoud, as the leader of Jamiat’s military wing, was its most powerful figure. Massoud founded and led Shura-e Nazar, a military federation including other mujahidin military forces. After Massoud was assassinated, on September 9, 2001, Jamiat and Shura-e Nazar forces came under the control of his senior commanders and advisors, including Mohammad Qasim Fahim (now the Minister of Defense), Yunis Qanooni (now a presidential candidate and a member of President Karzai’s cabinet until July 2004), and Dr. Abdullah (the Foreign Minister). Regional Jamiat commanders include Mohammad Atta in Mazar-e Sharif (now the Governor of Balkh) and Mohammad Daoud from Kunduz (now a senior official in the Interior Ministry). Jamiat members, some of whom have reorganized under a political title of Nehzat-e Melli, hold numerous governmental posts. Today, most Jamiat and Shura-e Nazar commanders remain allied, although there are often tensions between them."

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24.09.2002 - Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Dschamiat-i-Islami ("Aktualisierte Darstellung der Situation in Afghanistan und Überlegungen zum Internationalen Schutz für Afghanen (Stand 10. Juli 2002)") [#8770],  [ID 697]

"Unter der Führung von Burhanuddin Rabbani. Überwiegend Tadschiken und beherrscht von Dari (Persisch) sprechenden Menschen. Gegründet 1973. Ein wichtiger Akteur war Ahmed Schah Massud, der eine bedeutende Gruppe und Partei, die „Schura-e-Nasar“, führte. Ein anderer zentraler Akteur ist Ismail Khan, der bereits vor den Taliban Gouverneur von Herat war und diese Position bis heute halten konnte. Diese Gruppe wird in der Islamischen Übergangsregierung von Afghanistan (Islamic Transitional Authority of Afghanistan – ITAA) von Marschall M.Q. Fahim, Vizepräsident und Verteidigungsminister, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Außenminister, Junus Kanuni, Berater des Präsidenten für innere Sicherheit und Bildungsminister, und Enajatullah Nasari, Minister für die Rückkehr der Flüchtlinge, vertreten. Mirwais Sadeq, der Minister für Luftverkehr und Tourismus, vertritt nicht nur die Dschamiat-e-Islami, sondern ist auch Vertreter seines Vaters Ismail Khan."

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hcr-afg-poslong0702de.pdf

09.07.2002 - Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

IWPR: Future of Jamiat-e-Islami in doubt ("Jamiat Faces Break-up") [#28932],  [ID 686]

"Members of the Northern Alliance’s largest group Jamiat-e-Islami are attempting to form a new political movement because they fear the party’s days are numbered.
A number of its younger leaders believe such a transformation would be in keeping with Afghanistan’s fledgling democracy.
“After the fall of the Taleban and the beginning of the transitional administration, a number of Jamiat-e-Islami members believe that neither the party’s leader nor its constitution can fulfil the needs of our people,” said Abdel-Hafiz Mansoor, former president of the party’s cultural committee.
A second faction within the party recognises a need for change but wishes to reform Jamiat-e-Islami from within.
Both groups will face resistance from its leader, former president Burhannudeen Rabanni, who opposes such reforms.
The party has played a pivotal role in Afghan politics since the 1979 Soviet invasion and still wields enormous influence. Two of its leaders, Mohammad Fahim and Younis Qanuni, hold key posts in the new transitional administration as ministers for defence and education, respectively.
Most importantly, it still controls the country’s largest and best-equipped military force, an estimated at 50,000 men and dozens of tanks. In a land without a national army, this could be enough to take the capital by force. [...]
Jamiat-e-Islami has long been criticised for being run by a clique from the relatively small area of Panjshir valley. In particular, many Pashtuns - Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group - feel the party enjoys a disproportionate influence that has continued beyond the Loya Jirga into the new transitional government.
Their supporters insist that the Jamiat-e-Islami and the Northern Alliance stepped into a void created by the collapse of the Taleban last year, and have used their power responsibly since that time.
“Panjshiri people invited ex-king Zahir Shah to the Loya Jirga, and offered a lot of assistance and security during the assembly,” said Mansoor.
The party dates back to the time of Shah’s rule. It was formed as part of a nascent Islamic opposition to leftist and nationalist political groups that emerged from Kabul university and the king’s liberalisation policies. Rabbani was selected to lead it in 1971, but fled the country in 1974.
The party shot to prominence in the Eighties when it became one of seven Peshawar-based political groups to channel aid and arms across the border to the mujahedin. Although it has always been predominantly Tajik, it has also attracted some Pashtun members.
It is not clear what impact the seeming fragmentation of the party is having on the various forces in the north of Afghanistan who are aligned to it. Jamiat-e-Islami has traditionally had great influence in the north-eastern provinces of Badakhshan, Takhar and Kunduz and those just north of Kabul, Parwan and Kapeesa. But local military leaders exercise great autonomy and could take their men into one faction or another, or stay out altogether.
Insiders believe one reason for the push towards a new movement is that, with the Taleban gone, the Northern Alliance has begun to lose its cohesion."

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09.07.2002 - Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

IWPR: National Movement of Afghanistan - Nuzhat Melli ("Jamiat Faces Break-up") [#28932],  [ID 699]

"Jamiat-e-Islami official Mahuddeen Mehdi told IWPR that a group of party members have been working for six months to form a new organisation called Nuhzat Melli - the National Movement of Afghanistan. “This party will begin its activities when we open its first congress. We cannot name its leadership but three people are being considered - Qanuni, Fahim and Wali Masood,” he said. Wali Masood, brother of assassinated military commander Ahmed Shah Masood, epitomises this faction’s efforts to project a new image. While his brother was a renowned warrior hero in the traditional style, Wali Massoud cut a stylish figure during the Loya Jirga - always impeccably groomed and clad in a designer suit. He has also put much effort into cultivating student groups at Kabul university."

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