After wrangling, Afghans approve new constitution

Rival Afghan factions agreed to a new national constitution yesterday, clearing the way for the country's first free elections after nearly a quarter of a century of war and fundamentalist rule by the Taliban.

After weeks of bitter squabbling over sweeping powers proposed for the president, delegates to the Loya Jirga - or Grand Assembly - overwhelming rose to their feet to endorse the charter.

"There is no winner or loser," President Hamid Karzai told delegates gathered in a white tent on a Kabul college campus. "Everybody has won, it is everybody's, it belongs to every Afghan."

Last-ditch diplomacy by the United Nations and United States helped to avert failure.

"We came close to a major problem, but it was resolved by the people of Afghanistan," assembly chairman Sibghatullah Mojaddidi told delegates. "We are hoping to be able to unite together as one nation and to be able to overcome challenges of the future."

The agreement ended three weeks of debate that laid bare ethnic divisions and resulted in some compromise on the US-inspired vision of a strong presidency. The role of Islam, women's rights and the political system in post-Taliban Afghanistan were also hotly disputed.

Afghanistan's last constitution was drawn up in 1964. Since then the country has lived through Soviet occupation, civil war and five years of fundamentalist Taliban rule.

US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad praised Afghans for adopting "one of the most enlightened constitutions in the Islamic world".

UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi took the floor and called it "a time of great emotion for all of us".

The assembly ran for 22 days instead of the 10 envisaged by Karzai, and was marred by the threat of violence against a woman delegate and accusations of meddling by ministers.

Its low point came on Thursday, when nearly half the 502 delegates boycotted the first and only ballot, complaining that their proposed amendments had been dropped by the pro-presidential bloc.

Mr Karzai, a Pashtun who like his backers in Washington argued for sweeping powers to steer his war-weary country to stability, will get his wish but the president will be "responsible before the nation and the parliament".

Opposition to Mr Karzai at the Loya Jirga was orchestrated by members of the mainly Tajik North Alliance faction that helped the US military topple the Taliban in late 2001 and which remains the backbone of his government.

But Washington's allegiance is now firmly behind Mr Karzai, a Western-leaning moderate expected to contest and win the presidential elections supposed to be held in June.

In the revised constitution, women are set to win extra parliamentary seats and there is no mention of Sharia, the strict Islamic law enforced by Taliban before its ouster two years ago, although Afghanistan remains a deeply conservative Muslim state.

The most divisive issue was ethnicity, fought through a row over languages, and Western diplomats warned that it could take time to heal rifts that have been exposed during the assembly.

"Even if the Uzbeks and Tajiks are happy now, the wounds will remain and will take time to heal," said a European diplomat.

In the constitution, Pashto spoken by the largest Pashtun clan and Dari spoken by Tajiks, are set to be official languages.

Other languages will be officially recognised in areas where they are spoken by the majority.

Pashtun delegates vented frustration at what they saw as a concession to minorities, while Pashto has not been named as the national language in the charter as they had wished.

"We are very very upset, to the extent that we think it is impossible to enforce," said Abdul Rahman, a turbaned and bearded delegate from the eastern province of Paktia.

Pashtuns, traditionally the power brokers in Afghanistan, warned that concessions to minorities could cause alienation.

Another diplomat warned that this could add to the crippling insecurity in Pashtun-dominated areas in the south and east where the US-led war on terror is fiercest and vital aid work has virtually been halted due to Taliban guerrilla activity.

"If you don't let them participate, then you will get a lot of trouble, and what is happening in the south is a reflection of that. It does not make sense to estrange the Pashtuns," he said.