INSIDE AFGHANISTAN

October 2001
		Afghanistan after the Taliban: Two experts responded to your questions.

Forum introduction Would a Western-style democracy be best for Afghanistan? How do we prevent a repetition of the power vacuum after the Soviets left? Would a new Afghan government commit to freedom of religion? What is happening to commerce in Afghanistan? What do we know about the Northern Alliance? How can we endure the voices of women will be heard? Is there a feasible solution for a multi-ethnic Afghan state?     Online Special: The Response Online Special: Afghanistan Sept. 28, 2001: Two experts discuss the battle between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. Sept. 20, 2001: A look at Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

Len French of Winnipeg, MB Canada asks: Does Afghanistan have any experience with democracy? If the Taliban are removed from power, is a western style democracy necessarily the best form of government to replace it? Patricia Gossman responds: Until 1973, Afghanistan was a monarchy under the king, Muhammad Zahir Shah. His attempts to move toward a constitutional monarchy were fairly limited before he was ousted by his cousin, Daoud Khan (Zahir Shah has lived in exile in Rome ever since). Daoud Khan, who declared himself the President of the new Republic of Afghanistan, ruled until he was killed in the communist coup of 1978. The Soviet occupation and civil war followed. Thus Afghanistan has never had elections or other democratic institutions. The Loya Jirga, or Grand Council, is a state-constructed tradition by which the king would convene an assembly of tribal leaders to legitimate a new regime. Such an idea has been proposed as a possible way to construct an Afghan process for assuring broad representation in a new government. Zahir Shah has recently forged an agreement with the Northern Alliance/United Front on a Loya Jirga in which his representatives would have 60 of the proposed seats, the Northern Alliance/UF 40 seats, leaving 10 seats for "other Afghan groups." This is not acceptable to many Afghans, and so discussions continue.   Thomas Gouttierre responds: Afghanistan has two different kinds of experience with democracy. First of all, there is a traditional, proportional democratic element in Afghan society called the Loya Jirga process, in which people are represented by various tribal and village leaders and grand national assemblies. Those Afghans gather together during crises and they map out a course to address and get around that crisis. In addition to that, in 1963, when the last of these grand national assemblies was convened, it started moving Afghanistan on a process from absolute monarchy to a parliamentary constitutional monarchy and, in fact, had several elections beginning in 1964 under that system. So there is some experience, and interestingly enough, it was the king [Muhammad Zahir Shah] that everybody is talking about now who called the Loya Jirga in 1963 to get that process going. It'd be great if he could be doing that again for Afghanistan's near future.