Delegates from all over #Afghanistan converged on Kabul for a #LoyaJirga (grand assembly) to discuss outstanding points of difference in the #BSA and #SOFA agreements with the #US, including the vexed question of whether American soldiers staying behind after 2014 can be prosecuted by the Afghan puppet judiciary. Critics of the gathering dismiss the entire process as a waste of time and money. Hence this Loya Jirga meeting has sparked heated reactions from various players in the country in favor as well as opposed to the meeting and the consent to whatever deal it approves with the US. The dispute exists over the jirgas legal authority to pass international treaties and also the question of whether it is an independent, genuine representative of the will of the Afghan people or just a powerless farcical rubberstamp. Thats why accusations are flying around of #HamidKarzai and his regime shifting the burden of responsibility for a treaty widely seen as a colossal crime against Afghanistan on to an unelected and technically unqualified council, on top of the fact that the text of the agreement hasnt been disclosed to the public and some doubt whether the jirga will also really see it or be able to deliberate on it in depth. Abdullah Abdullah, Gulbuddin Hekmetyar and the Afghan #Taliban have boycotted the jirga, the latter having warned that all delegates that approve the treaty will be marked for death as traitors. Public opinion among ordinary Afghans is very evenly divided even as the people of Kabul groan under the virtual lockdown of their city due to the intense security arrangements made for the jirga. Interestingly, the final argument for many of them is the jirga should agree to the security pact with the US as long as they dont sell out the countrys national interests. We want to have good relations with the US, and we need pacts like this in order to rid ourselves of troublemaking by our cowardly [Iranian and Pakistani] neighbors. That would have been true if the treaty were a mutual defense pact, which the Americans have made very clear it is not; and no such pact is going to rid the Afghans of the so-called troublemaking by their neighbors if they themselves keep insisting on constantly waging aggressive war on them. If Pakistan or Iran decide theyve had enough of Afghanistans bullying and go to war, that pact wont bind the US to come to its aid. iwpr.net/report-news/us-immunity-top-bill-afghan-assembly
Posted on: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 08:36:46 +0000
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