04.01.2004 - Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

A variety of delegates of the Constitutional Loya Jirga and the editors of prominent newspapers reported threats and intimidation ("Delegates, Journalists Report Threats, Intimidation") [#18556],  [ID 1051]

"Threats and intimidation of delegates and journalists have blighted the Constitutional Loya Jirga and prevented some from participating freely.

A variety of delegates and the editors of two prominent newspapers confirmed to IWPR that they were threatened, either directly or indirectly.

As the assembly drew to a close, Amnesty International said in a statement that dominance of the proceedings by strong political and armed factional leaders and the absence of the rule of law in many parts of the country contributed to an atmosphere of insecurity for delegates who wished to act independently of powerful political groups.

The human-rights group said some delegates fear for the safety of their families and for their own lives, especially after they return home at the end of the proceedings.[...]"

Document(s): Open document

18.12.2003 - Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

The Loya Jirga marred by a number of minor incidents ("Gathering Marred by Incidents") [#18312],  [ID 1052]

Document(s): Open document

06.06.2002 - Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

IWPR: Delegates facing intimidation in Herat ("Loya Jirga Delegates Facing Intimidation") [#28930],  [ID 1053]

"Several local candidates have been arrested in Herat, including Mohammad Rafiq Shaeed, chair of Herat's business council, and Mullah Mohammad Malik Khan Alizai, a religious leader in the provincial border town of Toreghundai.

Challenged to justify the arrests, Ziauddin Mahmoodi, the province's security chief, rejected criticism as "rumours from our enemies and al-Qaida. They only want to disgrace us. We have jailed only those who create problems and help terrorism".

But the United Nations has condemned the intimidation that has resulted in at least six Herat delegates resigning their grand assembly places within days of their election. The Loya Jirga Commission, supervising the voting, has been forced to repeat, or invalidate, several first-stage elections in districts where vote-rigging or intimidation was suspected.

The region's ethnic Pashtun minority has accused the commission of bowing to Khan, by refusing to increase the number of jirga representatives in districts where their community is large enough to win seats that they could not hope to secure elsewhere in Herat. [...]

Pashtuns boycotted some phase-one elections after disputing the allocation of seats between the ethnic communities. In the district of Gulran, Pashtuns were allocated three of the 19 local seats for the second phase, though they say they make up 50 per cent of the area's population. [...]"

Document(s): Open document

06.06.2002 - Source: Human Rights Watch

HRW: Zabul province ("Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper: Afghanistan: Return of the Warlords") [#7373],  [ID 1054]

"According to independent observers covering the elections in Zabul, at least eight other independent candidates who had intended to nominate themselves were detained prior to the second loya jirga meeting and remained in custody while it was underway.20 Three other local citizens, ethnic Tajiks who tried to encourage people to participate in the process, were also taken into custody. A Qalat resident described the arrests of the three men, whom he identified as Shafiq Mohammad, Sharif, and the son of Alam Shah.

They went to the bazaar, and told people that the election commissioner had come, that the election was under way, and that they should participate. They said, "Tell them, `We are introducing our representatives to you.'" All three were arrested, and until the end of the election, kept in the custody of Abdul Jabbar, the head of security in Qalat. They were detained for about eight hours.(21)

The same resident said two or three vehicles were patrolling in the street with armed people, to intimidate them and deter them from participating. "They were directly warning people not to participate," he said.(22)

The provincial government's continued interference with the loya jirga process in Qalat, and its attempts to introduce essentially the same list of candidates as before, prompted the loya jirga commission to cancel the results of the May 19 meeting as well. As of May 29, the commission was poised to make a third attempt at holding elections in Qalat."

Document(s): Open document
Open document

06.06.2002 - Source: Human Rights Watch

HRW: Suri province ("Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper: Afghanistan: Return of the Warlords") [#7373],  [ID 1055]

"Similar steps to control the loya jirga process and prevent individuals from presenting themselves as candidates were taken in Suri district, 23 kilometers to the south of Qalat. For instance, fifty-year-old Candidate B wanted to stand for election to the loya jirga. He told Human Rights Watch that prior to the selection, a clerical council in the district - whom he said had been appointed by an advisor to the provincial governor - met privately at the home of a local commander to select the district's representatives.(23) Upon learning of the meeting, Candidate B's supporters gathered at his home and affixed their thumbprints to a letter introducing him as their representative. He brought the letter to the provincial governor's office and received a registration number there.
A police officer then requested Candidate B to come to the police station, where he said he would receive an official card of introduction to the loya jirga commission in Kandahar. Upon arriving at the station, however, a police office confiscated his letter of introduction and held him in a police lockup overnight. He described his interrogation by the police:

They [the police] asked me, "Who are you? Why have you gone to the provincial authorities? We have selected the representatives-why are you disturbing the process?"

On the day of the loya jirga meeting in Suri, he said, about one hundred people were gathered at the meeting site - the large majority of whom supported the candidates nominated by the clerical council. According to Candidate B, the provincial police chief had warned local residents that only those who obtained official permission from them could attend the meeting.(24)"

Document(s): Open document
Open document

06.06.2002 - Source: Human Rights Watch

HRW: Kandahar province ("Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper: Afghanistan: Return of the Warlords") [#7373],  [ID 1056]

"In several districts in Kandahar province and in Kandahar city itself, Human Rights Watch received information about commanders who intimidated community members standing for election to the loya jirga. According to loya jirga commission members monitoring the first-stage election in Shorawak district of Kandahar province, a local commander directly threatened commission members and his political rivals in order to get his proxy representatives chosen.
[…]
The competition for power between various warlords was one of the most significant barriers to the fairness and independence of the loya jirga process. On May 28, 2002, Human Rights Watch visited Shah Wali Kot district in Kandahar province and spoke with several members of the community and with new security troops who had been sent there from another district a day before. Three distinct groups have influence in Shah Wali Kot district: one group centered around the power base of a commander, Amir Lali, who commands a main military base in Kandahar; another centered around the family of Wakil Lal Mohammad Khan, a former minister in the Afghan parliament, and a third power base is associated with a local commander named Shair Agha.(27)
[…]
Two days before the first attempt at an election in Shah Wali Kot, on around May 10, 2002, four people were killed on the road from Shah Wali Kot to Kandahar. According to local villagers, the car had been carrying members of the loya jirga commission who had been sent to Shah Wali Kot to disseminate information about the loya jirga process. At some point on the road back to Kandahar, the commission staff had gotten out of the vehicle and proceeded on to Kandahar by other means. Three other passengers had continued in the vehicle with the driver, who himself was said to be working for the commission. (One resident in Shah Wali Kot said that his cousin, one of the passengers, had been "working with the loya jirga commission," possibly as a temporary guide.) Some time later the car was found on fire. The three passengers were found nearby. They had been shot, and one had his throat slit.
Residents interviewed in Shah Wali Kot indicated that this incident - occurring just before the elections - frightened people. Three residents told Human Rights Watch that recurrent violence in the area, linked to troops of the local commanders noted above, had created a general atmosphere of fear in the community.(30)"

Document(s): Open document
Open document

06.06.2002 - Source: Human Rights Watch

HRW: Kandahar city ("Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper: Afghanistan: Return of the Warlords") [#7373],  [ID 1057]

"Human Rights Watch found that the election in Kandahar had far fewer problems than in surrounding rural areas, and that general security was far better inside the city than in other locations in the south of Afghanistan.(33) Because of the centralized security apparatus under Governor Gul Agha, and possibly because of the close presence of international troops, there were no reported incidents of commanders or troops showing up at first stage election sites and intimidating potential representatives.
However, Human Rights Watch did receive isolated reports of threats against the loya jirga participants during the first stage of the process. One loya jirga candidate, Candidate K, reported having been intimidated from participating in the process. His testimony, corroborated by neighbors and other witnesses with whom Human Rights Watch spoke, demonstrated the tactics used to pressure independent candidates against taking part in the consultative process. Human Rights Watch spoke with him on two occasions during one week, over the course of which he was forced to withdraw from the elections as a result of threats by gunmen associated with local commanders."

Document(s): Open document
Open document

06.06.2002 - Source: Human Rights Watch

HRW: Helmand province ("Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper: Afghanistan: Return of the Warlords") [#7373],  [ID 1058]

"Human Rights Watch also traveled to Helmand province on May 28, 2002 to observe a first-round election with a U.N. observation team. Reports of insecurity and difficulties during the elections in both areas were numerous.(38)
International observers faulted the election process throughout Helmand province.

We had major problems in almost all places [in Helmand]. At most election sites, there were armed men, military people, with guns, rocket launchers, and so on. They were inside the polling place, and guarding outside. We told them to have the election sites outside the mosques [in the garden or courtyards outside] and no armed men. But they were all inside, and with armed men everywhere. In north of Helmand it was especially bad. A general [there] came to me and he said that there were many problems, but he said "I cannot talk to you. There are people around who are fundamentalist." By this he meant Hizb-i Islami. He was afraid of them.(39)

A loya jirga commission member provided one example of the kind of political pressure used in Helmand to subvert the loya jirga.

When we went to Lashkar Gah [district of Helmand province], the people had complaints about the warlords, that they were intimidating them. They said to us: "Do not give our complaints to the commanders." Because all the population were living in a panic. They said to us: "Every four hours someone is killed by these commanders. Insecurity is everywhere in Helmand. These commanders are misusing their power."(40)"

Document(s): Open document
Open document

06.06.2002 - Source: Human Rights Watch

HRW: Nimroz province ("Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper: Afghanistan: Return of the Warlords") [#7373],  [ID 1059]

"Farther west, the first stage election in Khash Rud district of Nimroz province was cancelled because of intimidation by warlords. Several observers reportedly saw commanders and troops intimidating local people who had shown up to take part in the process. A loya jirga commission team member described the situation in Khash Rud on the day of the first election attempt.

"The elections were not done properly. In Khash Rud, they [the commanders] gave all the names of the representatives [i.e., they supplied a list of representatives before the election started] and they threatened people not to make trouble for them."

Document(s): Open document
Open document

06.06.2002 - Source: Human Rights Watch

HRW: Uruzgan ("Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper: Afghanistan: Return of the Warlords") [#7373],  [ID 1060]

"In Chora district of Oruzgan, a loya jirga commission observer described a particularly difficult commander who had clearly intimidated residents before the elections had begun:
"In Chora district, in Urozgan, the people came to us, and they said that they are afraid of the commander there, Akhtar Mohammad. A group of them said to us: "He has killed 70 of us. If we oppose him, then he will have no mercy. We know our situation, and we have to do what is right for us."

An international observer said that the first stage election in Chora in the end had to be cancelled, but was being rescheduled as of June 1. It proved impossible to negotiate with the local commander:

"We told him [Akhtar Mohammad] that the process did not allow commanders, or local authorities, to be candidates. And he agreed not to take part. But then he showed up, with his troops, and clearly was intimidating the population. He was clearly the local strongman. The local people did manage to speak with us, and confirmed that this commander and his troops were terrorizing the area. There were rumors that he had had a lot of people killed: one case of three people killed, another of thirteen killed, and yet another of six people being "carried off.""

Document(s): Open document
Open document

29.05.2002 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

IRIN: Eight candidates for Loya Jirga murdered ("Afghanistan: Violence raises concern about the Loya Jirga") [#7263],  [ID 1061]

"The recent murders of Loya Jirga, or Grand Council, delegates, along with complaints about improper representation of various ethnic groups and a terrorist threat has raised concerns about the key event set to determine Afghanistan's political future in less than two weeks. Eight candidates have been murdered, four in the southern province of Kandahar, one in the capital Kabul and three in the central province of Ghor. (…) With eight people murdered in different parts of the country, in incidents described by Almeida e Silva as "related to the current political process", the arrests of Loya Jirga delegates Muhammad Rafiq Sahir, Abdul Latif and Ghulam Faruq and a number of incidents of intimidation in Herat have raised concerns about attempts by regional warlords to derail the process."

Document(s): Open document